Chapter XXI: He describes the Manner in Which the Shah of Persia Takes Medicine
It seems that the king gave him the history of his complaints -- and of his debility, of his old asthma, and his imperfect digestion, but talked in raptures of the wretch's sagacity and penetration: for merely looking at the tongue and feeling the pulse before the infidel was told what was the state of the case, he asked whether his majesty did not us the hot-baths very frequently; whether, when he smoked, he did not immediately bring on a fit of coughing; and whether, in his food, he was not particularly addicted to pickles, sweatmeats, and rice swimming in butter?