0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

176 THE MIDDLE AGES.
with his own hands and compelled the passers-by to drag
stones or to perform other services. He met, also, with A
remarkable good fortune in the work: in excavating the
ground a workman discovered a box filled with gold and ",ij
precious stones the value of which was sufficient to cover
the whole cost of building. Four large wards enclosed the
court, in each of which was a fountain, fed by a reservoir
situated in the middle of the court. At the completion of J
the building the Sultan said : " I have founded this place' 1
for those of my own station and for those of lower rank.
I have intended it as an establishment for kings and for
./servants, for soldiers and emirs, for the great and the little,
i for freemen and for slaves, for men and for women." He '\
provided medicines, doctors, and everything else that anyone
could require in any sickness whatsoever. The Sultan
appointed male and female ward attendants for the service
of the patients and furnished them with wages. He had
beds constructed for the sick and provided them with every |
kind of covering which was required in different kinds of i
sickness. Each class of patients had a separate room.
He designed the four wards of the hospital for those suffer- |
ing from fevers or similar diseases, he appointed one court I
for those suffering from diseases of the eyes, one for those J
with wounds, one for those afflicted with diarrhoea, and one
for women. A room for convalescents he divided into two
compartments, one for men and the other for women.
Water was laid on in all these places. A special room was
appointed for cooking food and preparing drugs and syrups, J
another for mixing confections, balsams, and ointments for |
the eyes, and the like. The provisions were preserved in
distinct places; the syrups and drugs in a room by themselves.
The principal doctor had a room for himself where 1
he could give lectures. The number of patients was not ;|
limited, but every one in distress and poverty who came
there found acceptance; nor was any limit fixed to the j
time a patient might be kept there, and anything required!
by those who lay sick at their own homes was sent to them