conducted for several centuries in a lavish manner, regardless of
expense. But little over a century after its foundation the fame
of its methods of treatment led to the establishment of a larger
and still more luxurious institution--the Mansuri hospital at
Cairo. It seems that a certain sultan, having been cured by
medicines from the Damascene hospital, determined to build one of
his own at Cairo which should eclipse even the great Damascene
institution.

In a single year (1283-1284) this hospital was begun and
completed. No efforts were spared in hurrying on the good work,
and no one was exempt from performing labor on the building if he
chanced to pass one of the adjoining streets. It was the order of
the sultan that any person passing near could be impressed into
the work, and this order was carried out to the letter, noblemen
and beggars alike being forced to lend a hand. Very naturally,
the adjacent thoroughfares became unpopular and practically
deserted, but still the holy work progressed rapidly and was
shortly completed.

This immense structure is said to have contained four courts,
each having a fountain in the centre; lecture-halls, wards for
isolating certain diseases, and a department that corresponded to
the modern hospital's "out-patient" department. The yearly
endowment amounted to something like the equivalent of one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. A novel feature was a
hall where musicians played day and night, and another where
story-tellers were employed, so that persons troubled with
insomnia were amused and melancholiacs cheered. Those of a
religious turn of mind could listen to readings of the Koran,