might, was highly indecorous, and I persuaded the
grand vizier to place an officer of the police as sentry at the doctor's
door to prevent the women entering. This very soon stopped his practice,
and he was in despair.

'But why should you grieve?' said I to him. 'You get nothing for your
trouble, and the people are not obliged to you.'

'Oh,' said he (for he and his countrymen had learnt our language),
'you know not what you say. This blessing must be spread throughout the
world; and if your government stops it here, it will be guilty of the
blood of all those lives which might have been saved.'

'What is that to us?' answered I: 'let them die--we get nothing by their
being alive.'

'If it be profit that you require,' exclaimed the doctor, 'I will
willingly pay any sum you may demand, rather than lose my vaccinating
matter, which must dry up and be lost if my practice ceases.'

Here we entered into a negotiation, and after much difficulty and
show of apprehension concerning the risk I ran of incurring the grand
vizier's displeasure, it was agreed that for certain advantages which I
should enjoy, the restriction should be taken from the doctor's house;
and I leave those who know me to guess the numbers of children who now
flocked to the man of medicine. His gate was thronged, and nothing more
was said respecting the impropriety of the women's attendance.

Another of his manias was a desire to cut up dead bodies. He did so
languish after every corpse that was carried by his house for burial,
that I was surprised the people did not set upon him for his impure
propensities.

'But what possible good will accrue to mankind in general,' said I to
him, 'if you dissect a dead Mussulman?'

'It is impossible to say what good may be lost by my not dissecting
him,' said he; 'besides, if I do not keep my hand in practice, I shall
lose my former skill.'

He then of his own accord proposed to give a large sum for a corpse, and
avowed that he was not particular about its quality, for that of a Jew,
Christian, or a true believer, would be equally acceptable.

I kept this in remembrance; and indeed I had so many opportunities
afforded me of advancing the designs of the infidels, and of filling my
own pockets at the same time, that I felt myself gradually growing into
wealth.

The ambassador himself was not without his desires of improving (as he
called it) our state; and I cannot resist relating a circumstance which
took p