Surat

:For the town in France, see Surat, Puy-de-Dôme.

Banian Hospital for the Dumb

The following is an account of a bestiary at Surat offered by a nineteenth century visitor to the city. It appeared in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction on September 1, 1827.

Related Topics:
Bestiary - The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction

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"The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution; it consists of a large plot of ground, enclosed with high walls, divided into several courts or wards, for the accommodation of animals; in sickness it for themselves. At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds, with an aged tortoise, who was known to have been there for seventy-five years. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin. The overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets, for a stipulated sum, to pass a night among the fleas, lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffering them to enjoy their feast without molestation."

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