Evidences on Medicine and Hygiene in Iran by Physician Antoine-Marie Salvatori (1807-1808)

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th century in order to include Persia in the plan of the Indian expedition Napoleon
instructed members of the missions sent there in 1805-1809 to find detailed information about that country.
In this article, we focused on the information by Antoine-Marie Salvatori, – a doctor-surgeon in the mission of General Gardan, plenipotentiary and extraordinary minister of France in Iran in 1807-1809, – on the medical
situation in Iran and his recommendations for European troops taking part in the projected expedition to India. The article is based on Salvatori’s essays, and on his report kept in the archives of French Ministry of Foreign Avairs.
In his Mémoire the doctor Salvatori, criticized Persian doctors – Jarrah as surgeon and Hakim as physician.
All of Salvatori's efforts to establish contact with Persian doctors were in vain. According to him, they masked their ignorance with pride and arrogance, many pretended to be doctors, but did not even have elementary knowledge of medicine. Though the  Persians had some books about issues of anatomy, religion created a very great obstacle to surgery and its progress there was impossible. Some Persian physicians more believed in prayers, and talismans. In the context of the supposed expedition to India as the first necessary element for the existence of an army Salvatori analyzed water quality of Asia Minor and Persia rivers, examining Persian cuisine and composed everyday useful menu for the European troops. He paid attention to the spread of an eye inflammation – ophthalmia in Persia. On the basis of this information, he formulated recommendations for European soldiers.
Also, Salvatori was the first to pay attention to the Russian population's craving for alcohol, studied it and called this disease furor bibendi - the madness of drunkenness.
It is clear from Salvatore's writings that, unlike his subjects, Fath-Ali Shah showed a very progressive attitude towards European medicine. Antoine Salvatori was the first European doctor, trying to make the first vaccination in Persia, and was the first one whom Fath-Ali Shah let even to treat the habitants of his harem.