William Wittman, a British surgeon, accompanied a group of British and Turkish soldiers in a military expedition through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Executing his duties as a doctor, Wittman’s particular insight comes from the treatment of patients during this courageous journey from Constantinople to Cairo. A fascinating window into nineteenth century life in the Middle East, this is an absorbing story of a doctor’s struggle to help people that do not speak his language, in lands containing infectious diseases Europeans had never before encountered.
The boldness and enterprise of medical men, is quite as striking as the courage displayed in battle, and evinces how much the power of encountering danger depends upon habit. It is an excellent lounging book, full of pleasant details, never wearying by prolixity, or offending by presumption, and is apparently the production of a respectable, worthy man.
—Edinburgh Review