…my head is so stuf’’d with Anatomy … that I
might as well attempt to dance a fandango as write an amusing letter.
At the
beginning of 1962 my mother took me to our doctor’s surgery to be vaccinated
against smallpox; I was fourteen. I stood in a long line, everyone with a
sleeve rolled up, and waited my turn. There was an ongoing outbreak of this
highly infectious and deadly disease, one of the last in Britain. My mother was
alert to the danger simply because her family had always lived in that
Thameside part of Kent where isolation hospitals received London smallpox
victims, transported downriver by barge to recover or die; the mortality rate
was high. But by 1980 the World Health Organisation which had promoted
vaccination could declare smallpox eradicated and vaccination has been
abandoned.
Edward
Jenner (1749-1823) was not the first to realise that exposure to cowpox gave
immunity to smallpox, nor to use vaccination methods. But he was able to
demonstrate that his method was safe and successful; by the early 1800s there
were few sceptics though it was not until 1840 that the British government
banned the earlier, less reliable, method of variolation and at the same time
offered smallpox vaccination free of charge, a major public health measure. An
initiative supported by Albert, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, secured a
place in Trafalgar Square for a statue of Jenner despite furious military
objections: he was a civilian and, even worse, seated
in a chair when everyone knows that you should be standing up or seated
on a horse. After Albert’s death the offensive statue was removed and Trafalgar
Square is now graced with two immoveable upright soldiers, their names known only to
pub quiz enthusiasts, and George the Fourth on a horse which he would not have
been able to mount unaided.
Between
1808 and 1813 three British doctors – as it happens, an Englishman, an Irishman
and a Scotsman – accompanying diplomatic missions introduced smallpox
vaccination to Persia with sufficient success that, after early resistance,
local doctors incorporated vaccination and other European novelties into their
own medical practice. The three doctors were Dr Andrew Jukes (England), Dr John
Cormick (Ireland), and Dr James Drummond Campbell (Scotland), author of the
letter transcribed below. James Morier in his Second Journey through Persia
…. between the Years 1810 and 1816 writes that the “surgeons of the embassy
… having procured the cow-pock matter from Constantinople, commenced their
operations in Teheran with so much success, that in the course of one month
they had vaccinated 300 children…. Almost all the children vaccinated by our
surgeons belonged to the poor”. Dr Campbell was probably the most important
figure not because he may have got there first - I have been unable to
establish priority - but because of the closeness he established with the heir
to the Persian throne, Abbas Mirza, who consented to the vaccination of his
household. As early as 1811, at the instigation of Abbas Mirza, two
Persian students were sent to study medicine in Britain, travelling with the
returning mission of Sir Harford Jones-Brydges. One student soon died, but the
other is in the history books: Mirza Baba Ashfar studied medicine in Edinburgh
and London (St George’s Hospital) and stayed for seven years before returning
to Persia and becoming a Court Physician.
But how
did James Drummond Campbell get to find himself in Persia and at the court of
the heir to the throne?
He was
the son of a Perth vintner born in 1787 who despite his father’s bankruptcy was
able to enrol for medical studies in Edinburgh in the academic years 18o5/06
and 1806/07. Edinburgh was the foremost centre for medical education in Britain
and it is from there that Campbell in 1806 writes this Christmas Eve letter
addressed to a friend of his own age, Miss Betsy Stormonth, a minister’s
daughter.
In 1807
Campbell applied to the East India Company for an appointment and in April 1808
was assigned to the East India Company’s Bombay Medical Service as an Assistant
Surgeon. His older brother, Alexander, was already in Bombay as a soldier with
the Company. James’s family may not have
been able to offer him much financial support. He judges, in response to a
question from Miss Betsy (which he delays answering until the end of his
letter), that his sister Bell is dying. He has several motives for going out
East but probably does not anticipate the destination.
Instead
of settling into a Company role in Bombay, he is immediately deployed to a
diplomatic mission heading to Persia, led by the Persian-speaking Sir Harford
Jones (later Jones-Brydges), and all over the history books. At this period,
the Company was still doing duty for the British government. Leaving Bombay in
September 1808, the Mission sailed to Bushire arriving in October and then
travelled overland and directly north to Tehran at the end of 1808. The Mission moved on northwards again to
Tabriz in May 1809. The British had a specific political interest in northern
Persia. It was from Tabriz that Abbas Mirza was co-ordinating resistance to
Russian expansion into Persia’s northern territories. All of them were
eventually lost to Russia under the Treaties of Gulistan 1813 and Turkmenchai
1828; the lost territories are now known as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
Dr
Campbell was in his early twenties when he arrived at the court of Abbas Mirza.
He had early on impressed Sir Harford Jones who writes in his memoirs that “My
Indian companions [accompanying sepoys], however, were soon pinched,
notwithstanding all the warm clothing I could purchase for them; and though a
sad dysentery broke out amongst them, yet, through the care and medical skill
of Doctor Campbell, and the attention of Sir Henry Willock in making them take
exercise indoors, I did not lose a man. It fortunately happened, that I
possessed a few dozen of very old and very fine Port wine; which, after Doctor
Campbell had told me, that it appeared, when given in small quantities, to be
more powerfully efficient in stopping the effects of the disorder than any
other medicaments, was entirely kept for their use”. In this case, the remedy was not a new one.
Periodically from the time of the Roman Empire wine, and specifically port
wine, had been administered as at least a palliative for dysentery.
James
Drummond Campbell remained in Persia, dying in Tehran on 25 March 1818, aged
thirty. Miss Betsy married in Dundee on the first of July of the same year but
whether the news of Drummond Campbell’s death had already reached her I don’t
know. In his Will, Campbell makes a bequest to her and her sister Isabella,
noting that he has always considered them as sisters. Betsy may have hoped for
some other role.
Campbell
was unmarried but with a son Alexander born in 1812 and named after his older
brother who was to die in 1817 when his horse fell on him during a sporting
event at Bombay. There was a second son, Henry, both boys born to a local
partner named in his Will as “Gul zhuy” who is to receive “not less than 4oo
Tomans”. Since the Toman could be sub-divided into ten thousand dinars, this
suggests a substantial sum. The second part of this transcription of her name
in the Bombay copy of the will is not entirely clear but the Gul prefix,
meaning “rose” or “flower” and usually combined with a noun qualifier, is
definitely Persianate though at the time that could include Armenian. The
orphaned Alexander eventually became in 1838 a doctor with the East India
Company, nominated to its service at the highest level by a Director of the Company,
Sir Henry Willock who in an earlier guise was Captain Willock. Alexander’s
father’s reputation must have stood very high. But Alexander Campbell died in
Bombay in 1842 at the same age as his father. Research has turned up no information about the second son Henry
which suggests either that he died in childhood or was assimilated into Persian
society.
The Will
shows Campbell to be a wealthy man who makes large bequests to his surviving
sisters in Scotland and to his father who is to receive his “Persian Order”,
the Order of the Lion and the Sun instituted in 1808 by Fat’h Ali Shah, Ali
Mirza’s reigning father, and originally designed as an honour for foreigners.
In its first enamel painted form as a small medallion it depicts a recumbent
lion and in the background a sun with a female face. Campbell’s wealth was
probably accumulated in the form of gifts from Abbas Mirza, who he accompanied
when he went hunting. James Morier in his Second Journey records him
being summonsed to a tiger hunt.
As chance
would have it, a traveller of Scottish descent, Sir Robert Ker Porter, was in
Tehran when Drummond Campbell was dying. He stayed by his bed and attended the
funeral at the church of Saints Thaddeus and Bartholomew, writing about it in
the Travels he published in 1821, “We followed him to the grave, with
the sincerest mourning, and saw him interred with all the respect which the
limited Christian establishment in this country would allow. He was buried in
the interior of the Armenian church at Teheran, not far from the altar; the
funeral service being performed, first by the priest of that faith, and then,
according to the protestant ritual, by Captain Willock. … no European, dying in
these dominions, probably was ever more deeply regretted by the Persians, from
the King himself to the humblest of his subjects …. Abbas Mirza held him so
near to his heart, that when Captain Willock and myself went to him after the
sad event, his first words were, " I know not whether to offer my
consolations to you for the irreparable loss we have sustained, or to ask you
to give me yours."
Transcription needs more work
Addressed
to: Miss Betsy Stormonth care of [first
name left blank] Wedderburn Esq
Pearsie Kirriemiur
Datelined:
Edinr Dec. 24 1806
My Dear
Miss Betsy
You
desire me if I am not too much offended to write you how Bell is – as if I
could be offended with you! But in case you might suppose such a thing I hasten
to undeceive you in the hope at the same time you will find it out of my power
to accuse you of the same barbarity … laid last time. I shall this instant give
you my address “Samway’s Lodgings 5 College St” – don’t suppose it is for the
sake of the Eggs that I am so punctual you cannot surely pay yourself
such a poor compliment. If you favour me … greatest happiness you can confer
upon me – I wish I could muster up something agreeable to say to you …. which I participate [?] and
my head is so stuf’d with Anatomy & such like stuff that I might as well
attempt to dance a fandango as write an amusing letter – so you must trust to
my heart not to my head for any pleasure you may derive from this epistle. I
hope you have a good new year in Prose this season as I have got no time
for versifying. May each returning year find you as happy as I wish you …as you
deserve. I must not forget Miss Stormont [her sister Isabella] in my
benediction. May she also be as happy as she deserves and as all that know her
wish her.
I hope we
shall not be again disappointed this winter in the expectation of seeing
you here. I dined the other day at Craigliet. Miss Ramsay [?]
was quite well and fascinating as in May. Why should you put is off so
long as May? All the gaieties of Edin will be over and your humble devoted
among the rest of them (but that depends upon circumstances). I hope you
will in pity alter your plans and come over either in winter or early in
Spring. I know very well you said you did not like Edinr last time you
was here which was in the gayest season but I can assure you if you did not
like it then you would like it still less in Summer. You did not mention in
your letter … do anything to serve you
or not here as I suspect you must be dull sometimes at Airly [Airlie] I
think some books or something of that kind might be acceptable. If you wish for
any let me know immediately. I will procure them for you – or if you want any
cheap bargains at the Agency office you know you could apply to a better hand.
I wish I
could …any sort of satisfaction write you how Bell is but alas that is a
melancholy subject. I know very well my dear Miss Betsy the very great
affection you have for her & I know very well how much she deserves it. Nor
would I for the world wantonly hurt your feelings – but it is needless to
dissemble the last accounts we have were of a very unfavourable nature. Her
cough is not better, her appetite gone, & her strength quite left her, in
short her situation is most distressing and …. of returning health. Yet her
spirits continue wonderfully good. She yet talks of returning health and of the
delights of spring which she hopes to enjoy in Devonshire but, Alas, much I
fear Spring will be superfluous, you too well know what a sister she has been
to me and you know there is not a being on earth for whom … a greater
affection.
We had a
letter from Mary the other day dated Tuesday week in which she tells us Bell
had a nervous fit which reduced her strength to the lowest ebb. However, she
has got over that & is a little better & had no return of the fit. She
is to write whenever there is any change for the better or worse. My brother
joins me in love to you all.
Believe
me ever my Dear Miss Betsy Yours most sincerely JasDmndCampbell [James
Drummond Campbell]
I shall
write whenever we hear from Ross.
*
1806
James Drummond Campbell
Dr
Richard Forty researched the Scottish archives for me.
Wright,
Denis The English Among the Persians
(1977)
Ebrahimnejad,
Hormoz Medicine in Iran. Profession,
Practice, and Politics 1800 – 1925 (2014)
iranicaonline.org/articles/health-in-persia-iii
Sir
Harford Jones-Brydges An Account of His Majesty's Mission to the Court of
Persia in the years 1807–11 (1834)
Sir
Robert Ker Porter Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia,
&c. &c. during the Years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 (1821)
James
Morier A Journey Through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople
in the Years 1808 and 1809 (18xx)
James
Morier A Second Journey Through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to
Constantinople between the Years 1810 and 1816 (18xx)
James
Morier Adventures of Hajji Baba in England (Revised edition 1835)
Wikipedia:
Mirza Baba Afshar
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