Orientalism and Imperialism From Nineteenth Century Missionary Imaginings To The Contemporary Middle East Andrew Wilcox

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Orientalism and Imperialism
i
Suspensions: Contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamicate Thought
Series editors: Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh and Lucian Stone
This series interrupts standardized discourses involving the Middle East

and the Islamicate world by introducing creative and emerging ideas. The
incisive works included in this series provide a counterpoint to the reigning
canons of theory, theology, philosophy, literature and criticism through
investigations of vast experiential typologies – such as violence, mourning,
vulnerability, tension, and humour – in light of contemporary Middle Eastern
and Islamicate thought.
Other titles in this series include:

Gilles Deleuze, Postcolonian Theory, and the Philosophy of Limit, Réda Bensmaïa
Against Moderate Islam, Farhang Erfani
The Qur’an and Modern Arabic Literary Criticism: From Taha to Nasr,
Mohammad Salama
Hostage Space of the Contemporary Islamicate World, Dejan Lukic
On the Arab Revolts and the Iranian Revolution, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
The Politics of Writing Islam, Mahmut Mutman
The Writing of Violence in the Middle East, Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh
Iranian Identity and Cosmopolitanism, edited by Lucian Stone
Continental Philosophy and the Palestinian Question, by Zahi Zalloua
Sorcery, Totem and Jihad, Christopher Wise
Traces of Racial Exception, Ronit Lentin
Revolutionary Bodies, Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi
Plural Maghreb, Abdelkebir Khatibi
ii
Orientalism and Imperialism
From Nineteenth-century Missionary
Imaginings to the Contemporary
Middle East
Andrew Wilcox
University of Exeter, UK
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC 1B 3DP, UK
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2018
Copyright © Andrew Wilcox, 2018
Andrew Wilcox has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an extension of this

copyright page.
Series design © Catherine Wood

Cover image © Before Light, Walid Siti
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret
any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB : 978-1-3500-3379-5
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Series: Suspensions: Contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamicate Thought
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iv
Contents
Series Foreword vi
Acknowledgements vii
1 Introduction 1
A spiritual conflict 1
The Orientalist Critique 9
Imperialism: an ambiguous concept 19
Missionaries and their imperialist credentials 25
Methodology 29
Use of sources 32
2 A Lack of Consensus 37
Agents of the Great Powers 37
Individual agents of personal conscience 44
Missionaries as ambiguous actors 48
3 Orientalism Through a Lens 61

An Oriental realm of Mohammedan domination 62
Restoration and Essential Difference 81
Proselytization and Circumstantial Difference 97
4 Agents of Imperialism? 119

Cultural quarantine – the Anglican mission 120
Sharing the message – the American mission 145
5 Conclusion 165
Summary 165
Impressions 175
Notes 185
Bibliography 223
Index 231
v
Series Foreword
Poets, artists, theologians, philosophers and mystics in the Middle East and
Islamicate world have been interrogating notions of desire, madness, sensuality,
solitude, death, time, space, etc. for centuries, thus constituting an expansive and
ever-mutating intellectual landscape. Like all theory and creative outpouring,
then, theirs is its own vital constellation – a construction cobbled together from
singular visceral experiences, intellectual ruins, novel aesthetic techniques,
social-political-ideological detours, and premonitions of a future – built and
torn down (partially or in toto), and rebuilt again with slight and severe
variations. The horizons shift, and frequently leave those who dare traverse these
lands bewildered and vulnerable.
Consequently, these thinkers and their visionary ideas largely remain
unknown, or worse, mispronounced and misrepresented in the so-called
Western world. In the hands of imperialistic frameworks, a select few are deemed
worthy of notice and are spoken on behalf of, or rather about. Their ideas are
simplified into mere social formulae and empirical scholarly categories. Whereas
so-called Western philosophers and writers are given full leniency to contemplate
the most incisive or abstract ideas, non-Western thinkers, especially those
located in the imagined realms of the Middle East and Islamicate world, are
reduced to speaking of purely political histories or monolithic cultural narratives.
In other words, they are distorted and contorted to fit within hegemonic
paradigms that steal away their more captivating potentials.
Contributors to this series provide a counterpoint to the reigning canons of
theory, theology, philosophy, literature and criticism through investigations of
the vast experiential typologies of such regions. Each volume in the series acts as
a ‘suspension’ in the sense that the authors will position contemporary thought
in an enigmatic new terrain of inquiry, where it will be compelled to confront
unforeseen works of critical and creative imagination. These analyses will not
only highlight the full range of current intellectual and artistic trends and their
benefits for the citizens of these phantom spheres, but also argue that the ideas
themselves are borderless, and thus of great relevance to all citizens of the world.
Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh and Lucian Stone
vi
Acknowledgements
Many people have helped me in the process of turning an initial idea into a
coherent theory and then of turning theory into a book, but there is one person
without whom this simply would not have come about and I would like to
express my sincere gratitude to Ilan Pappe for his encouragement, support and
insightful criticism in the long process of writing and re-drafting my manuscript.
My thanks also go out to Professor Christine Allison of the Centre for Kurdish
Studies at the University of Exeter for her guidance and criticism. Equally, the
tireless efforts of Lizzie Sherwood at the Disabilities Resource Centre in proof
reading my manuscript seem to me to have been the least of her contribution,
whereas the encouragement she gave me and the opportunity she provided to
bounce ideas around had a far greater constructive effect upon all of my work
while at Exeter. I need also to add that without the support of the Centre for
Kurdish Studies, in providing me with a grant and a world class environment in
which to conduct my research, I would never have been able to have achieved
the first step in this long process; thanks to Professor Gareth Stansfield for his
understanding and in holding the award open when the whole project seemed to
me to be on the rocks. Finally, I need to thank my good friends Sue and Phil for
providing a calm working environment at a difficult time and for their patient
tolerance in endlessly listening to my ideas as they took shape, and similarly to
Marc and Evie for their input during the earlier phases of the process.
vii
viii
1
Introduction
A spiritual conflict
Throughout the nineteenth century and up until the outbreak of the First World
War, a protracted struggle was fought between two Protestant missions over the
fate of a supposedly Oriental people. This was not a conflict of guns and swords
but of words and ideas the import of which was the anticipated spiritual
transformation of an Oriental realm. The protagonists in this dispute were two
organizations, each articulating its own understanding of this Oriental space
and each imagining the nature of the Oriental soul in relation to their own
beliefs. On one side were the American Presbyterians of the West Persia Mission
whose millennialist calling impelled them to teach and convert others to their
understandings of the world. On the other were the Anglicans of the Assyrian
Mission whose aspiration to protect and nurture an Oriental people from the
ravages of Westernization led them to oppose the activities of the American
missionaries. It is true that the rhetorical battle is itself of interest but its
true importance to this book lies in the opportunities it offers to examine
attitudes towards the Orient. Through their justifications of method and the
denouncements of their opponents these missionaries express in some detail
how they perceive the Orient to exist. As a textual body, therefore, the archives of
these two missionary organizations present a treasure-trove of data illuminating
the study of Orientalism. Of particular interest to this work is the juxtaposition
of these opposing missionary portrayals of the Orient which allow for a closer
examination of Orientalism as a critique. In this way, the divergence of their
contradictory explanations of Oriental nature reveals the scope available for free
thought within Orientalist discourse and thus permits an examination of how
we should consider Orientalism to operate when considered as a textual practice
governed by discursive forces. Furthermore, as Orientalism is considered within
the Orientalist critique to be intrinsically related to aspects of power, the
conflicting world views of these two missions present an ideal opportunity to
1
2 Orientalism and Imperialism
interrogate the relationships which may exist between these missionaries and
imperialism. More generally, the ambiguity of the missionary objectives of both
missions with regard to the formal interests of empire and the projection of state
power offers an interesting exploration of an old conundrum – that of the
ambiguous position of missionaries with regard to the consolidation of imperial
interests. Before outlining my understanding of Orientalism as a critique, it will
be helpful to specify the particular boundaries of the Orient of this study and to
introduce the two missions that form its context.
It is true to say that, in the parlance of nineteenth-century Europeans and
Americans, the idea of the Orient could allude to so broad a concept as all of
those lands which were conceptually not the West. The Orient of this particular
missionary conflict, however, was constituted more specifically by those lands
and peoples governed by the Islamic states of the Ottoman Empire and Persia, a
conceptual space which these missionaries systematically referred to as a
‘Mohammedan’ realm.1 The importance of this Orient is that it represented to
the missionaries an opposite to the symbolic realm of Christendom which at
that time seemed to them to be in the ascendant due to the grace of God’s
approval. The two missions of this study were united by an underlying goal, the
spiritual overthrow of this realm through the conversion of its peoples to
Christianity, but the burning question which formed the centre-piece of their
disagreement was by what means should the local populations be converted. On
the one hand, the Presbyterians asserted that the ‘light and truth’2 of their Gospel
message should be directly administered to the ‘dark minds’3 of every Oriental.
While on the other, the Anglicans eschewed such direct proselytization claiming
that, in order to avoid the creation of some dreadful chimera, one had to respect
‘the genius and sympathies of the Oriental mind’.4 This latter idea meant that, in
the view of the Anglican mission, an Oriental mind required an Oriental form of
Christianity and only an Oriental Christianity had any chance of achieving the
conversion of the Muslim majority. Where these opposed Orientalist views
collided most forcefully was in the struggle over who had the moral right to
assist the Christian communities of the Old East Syrian Church; communities
known to the missionaries by the interchangeable epithets of Syrian, Assyrian or
Nestorian. This people, who were often conceived of by the missionaries as a
nation, comprised a loose coalition of communities affiliated by their religion
and, to varying degrees, under the leadership of the Patriarch Mar Shimun. These
communities were, however, dispersed into both tribal and non-tribal groupings
across a wide territory which straddled the border between Persia and the
Ottoman Empire, an area which these missionaries knew as Kurdistan.
Introduction 3
The definition of Kurdistan in academia has been and remains a notoriously

difficult and highly politicized issue. In the present day, there exist within the
borders of the four nation-states of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, geographical
regions where the majority of the population identify themselves as Kurdish. This
geographical region is frequently, although not without contestation, considered
to be Kurdistan.5 What is of primary significance to this book, however, is the
usage of the term by the missionaries themselves and, importantly, during a
period before the crystallization of these nation-states.6 To the missionaries of
the Assyrian and West Persia Missions the term ‘Kurd’ referred to a Muslim
people, described usually but not always as tribal and semi-nomadic, and
frequently used as a synonym for wildness and lawlessness. It might be added
that the missionaries frequently projected themselves into the role of advocate
for the welfare of Christian communities in the region, and that this regularly put
them in a position of antagonism towards the Kurds, whom they consequently
perceived as raiders and oppressors. To the Anglican and Presbyterian missionary
writers, therefore, the region where the Kurds predominated was Kurdistan. This
also correlated with their understanding of official Ottoman and Persian usage of
the term to indicate the largely mountainous provinces of the border regions
between the two states. This rather fluid definition leads to an indistinct
delineation of the region in geographical terms, but for the purposes of this work
it certainly included the regions within the Ottoman Empire known as Bohtan,
Bahdinan, Hakkiari (Hakkari) and as far north as Lake Van. On the Persian side
of the border this area included the mountainous regions which surrounded the
fertile plains enfolding Lake Urumia (Urmia7) with Soldooz (modern-day
Naghadeh) to the south and Salmas to the north.
The sole target of Anglican missionary effort was, as its name implies, the
Assyrian Church and its people to whom they generally referred as Syrian, but
the latter term should in no way be confused with the nation-state of Syria. This
modern political entity, the name of which derives from the Roman province,
was the creation of the Great Powers after the First World War and has little
historical continuity except as a Roman and later as an Ottoman administrative
district. The name Syrian applied to the Christian community on the other hand
refers to their usage of Syriac as a language and it should be noted that their
demographic distribution in the nineteenth century in no way corresponds to
the boundaries of the modern nation-state.8 The aim of the American mission,
by contrast, was the conversion of all Orientals to their particular form of
Christianity. However, in the words of the American missionary Robert McEwan
Labaree ‘no other nationality in this part of the world has furnished more loyal
laborers in Christ’s vineyard than the Syrian’.9 Therefore, to both the Anglican
and the American missions, the Syrian community was of prime significance
and thus a focus of their disagreement as to the nature of the Orient.
The term Syrian, therefore, is used throughout this book as an adjective to
describe the Syriac speaking Christians inhabiting the Kurdish region.10 More
specifically, it is used to refer to those Christians who adhere to the form of
worship and social organization known as the Old East Syrian Church or Church
of the East.11 Although this dispersed community was essentially ecclesiastical
in origin, Heleen Murre-van den Berg suggests that there is good reason to
suppose that by the nineteenth century they had for some time begun to think
of themselves as an ethnic group distinct from their neighbours in race and
culture.12 Broadly speaking they dwelt in tribally organized communities in the
mountains of Hakkiari in Ottoman-governed Kurdistan and as non-tribal
agriculturalists or town dwellers in the fertile Urmia Plains of Persia. This
division of communities is often referred to by the missionaries as that between
ashiret (tribal) and rayat (non-tribal). The Anglican missionary Rev. Wigram
explains the terms as follows, ‘ashiret is a word that strictly means “tribe” or clan;
but as descriptive of status it is contrasted with rayat or subject, and means that
the bearers of the name [ashiret] pay tribute [. . .] and not taxes.’13 This distinction
usually correlated with those Syrians living on one side of the border or the
other, with the ashiret largely on the Ottoman side and rayat on the Persian side,
but this was not without exception. The missionaries would also refer to this
divided people as separated into mountaineers and plains dwellers, with the
majority of the former on the Ottoman side of the border and the majority of the
latter on the Persian side; there is thus a certain correlation between ashiret and
mountaineers and between rayat and plains dwellers.14
Anglican interest in the Kurdish region took its missionary form in the shape
of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians and can be
traced back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Following an 1835 Royal
Geographical Society (RGS ) expedition to the Euphrates valley,15 a second
expedition was organized in 1838 funded by a coalition of the RGS and the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK ).16 The SPCK ’s interest was
in expanding knowledge about the hitherto almost unknown Mountain
Nestorians,17 while the RGS pursued a more political/economic interest in the
discovery of alternative overland routes to India.18 This material fact points to
the heart of the debate on the ambiguity of the missionary relationship with
imperial power. On the one hand, the religious mission was directed and funded
by private subscription and interest, but on the other, it was a political interest
Introduction 5
which opened that possibility in the first place. It points to the fact that missionary
activity did not take place in a vacuum but was to some extent a by-product of
growing Western dominance, and this is a subject I will explore in detail in
chapter four. The initial foray was followed, in 1842, by the Rev. George Percy
Badger’s expedition to assess the feasibility of a permanent mission.19 The
mission was curtailed, however, by the 1843 Bedr Khan rebellion (where certain
Kurdish tribes were responsible for the widespread massacre of Syrians) and the
controversy this caused in terms of perceived missionary culpability in these
events.20 It was thus not until April 1876 that a subsequent expedition of enquiry
led by the Rev. Cutts was dispatched in response to a petition purporting to be
from ‘the Nestorian people’.21 Formal mission was tentatively commenced in
1881 with a single missionary worker and was later put on a more permanent
footing in 1885 with the dispatch of additional missionaries.22
The overarching aim of the Anglican mission was to achieve some degree of
ecumenical union between the Church of England and the Church of the East as
associated branches of a broadly conceived apostolic Church.23 This sentiment
was in line with the High Church tone of the mission and embraced the Oxford
Movement’s hope that the various branches of the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church would be united in ecumenical union.24 Perhaps the most
significant obstacle in the pursuit of this objective was the perceived heretical
status of the Oriental Church which was known to the Anglicans, among other
names, as the Nestorian Church. The particular point at issue was that Nestorius,
the fifth century bishop of Constantinople, was considered by the Western
Churches to have been anathematized, whereas within the Old East Syrian
tradition Nestorius was held as one of the fathers of the Church.25 Furthermore,
two particular forms of address attributed to Nestorius and condemned by Cyril
the Archbishop of Alexandria at the Council of Ephesus 431,26 were in common
usage in the Old East Syrian Church at the time of the mission. Within the
Western Churches, Cyril is considered to have been victorious at the Council of
Ephesus and is thus held as one of the doctors of the early Christian Church
while Nestorius was branded a heretic. The form of words championed by
Nestorius which refer to the Virgin Mary as the Mother of Christ was also
condemned, and in its place the epithet Mother of God became the required
doctrine. Furthermore, in terms of the nature of Christ it has been assumed that
Nestorius proclaimed Christ to have been possessed of two distinct persons with
two separate natures (one human and one Divine) instead of one person with
two natures. To put the case in rather simplistic terms, the position of the Western
Churches is that Christ should be considered as one Person but with two Natures
– Divine and human – whereas, according to Paul Clayton, the Nestorian

theological speculations which are ascribed to the Patriarchal seat of Antioch led
to the idea of Christ as two Persons. Clayton says this of Nestorius and Antioch,
‘Its fundamental philosophical assumptions about the natures of God and
humanity compelled the Antiochenes to assert that there are two subjects in the
Incarnation: the Word himself and a distinct human personality.’27 It is not the
object of this book to discuss the rights and wrongs of these two apparently
opposed formulas, but it is necessary to state that the Anglicans perceived the
Nestorian heresy as endemic within the Old East Syrian Church and that this
heresy was a serious obstacle to ecumenical union.
Throughout its period of service, the Anglican mission remained a small-scale
endeavour, with around half a dozen unmarried male missionaries and five nuns
from the Sisters of Bethany in Urmia at its most numerous, until it was disbanded
at the outbreak of the First World War.28 The official Anglican archive web-site
describes missionary work as ‘intended to regenerate and reform the Assyrian
Christians, focusing on the education of both clergy and laity. A college for priests
and deacons was established, as were five high schools and forty village schools.’29
A further aspect of the Anglican mission was that the missionaries dispensed
medicines and humanitarian aid, particularly in times of crisis, and so when
considering imperialism one should not overlook the charitable spirit which
formed a large part of the mission’s ethos. This is also true of the educational work
which was the principal aim of the mission and which, according to Archbishop
Tait, sought to ‘influence them for good and to promote such progress, educational
and other, as shall conduce to them real advancement & Christian Civilisation’.30
As for American missionary interest in the Kurdish region, this can be traced
back to the exploratory efforts of Eli Smith and Harrison Dwight in 1829.31
These preliminary sorties were then consolidated in 1834 through the creation,
by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM ), of a
mission to the Nestorian Christians of Urumia in northwest Persia.32 A formal
mission was established that year by the Rev. Justin Perkins who was joined, a
year later, by Dr and Mrs Asahel Grant.33 The mission remained a relatively small
affair until it became, in 1871, a solely Presbyterian endeavour after which it
underwent a vigorous expansion to include the whole of Persia within its remit.34
The focus of this book falls upon the West Persia Mission35 and its main mission
stations of Urumia and Tabriz which, lying on the eastern edges of the Kurdish
region, had the Syrian and Armenian Christians as its main targets but also
attempted the proselytization of Persian and Kurdish Muslims.36 The size, in
terms of missionaries, of these two combined mission stations was usually
Introduction 7
somewhat larger than that of the Anglican mission, but was never much in excess
of around twenty individuals.37
The object of the Presbyterian mission was essentially evangelical, to bring to
all who would listen to their message a personal knowledge of the Gospels in
the belief that such a knowledge would bring forth the action of the Holy Spirit
upon the individual. Prior to 1871 it was hoped that the American missionaries
could work within the Old East Syrian Church but the activities of the Americans
and their converts soon met with hostility from the Old Church hierarchy and a
new policy of proselytization out of the Old Church was deemed expedient.38
The hostility generated by the missionaries was perhaps unsurprising given
the Presbyterian tradition of deemphasizing hierarchy and patriarchy.39
Amanda Porterfield suggests that these ideas disrupted traditional cultural
assumptions about authority and aggravated the relationship between indigenous
Christians and Muslims.40 On one level, she explains, the representation of
Muslim repression ‘struck many Muslims as offensive and combative, and [itself]
contributed to their persecution of the Nestorian community’.41 But perhaps
the most contentious issue was that of gender differentiation and the role of
women, a cause which was promoted by the mission and in particular by the
activities of the Female Seminary set up in Urumia by Fidelia Fiske.42 Porterfield
explains that ‘the American ideal of Republican Motherhood nurtured
fundamental changes in Nestorian concepts of womanhood, and these changes
figured centrally in the increasingly strained relationship between Nestorian and
Muslim culture as well as in the polarization of Nestorian culture’.43 These
ideological standpoints elicited hostility from the traditional institutions of
authority within the Nestorian Church and ultimately led the missionaries to
abandon their original policy of working to ‘restore’ the Church from within.
It should be added that the expanded scope of the West Persia Mission,
which included proselytization from other groups such as the Armenian and
Muslim communities, required a separate local Protestant body to accommodate
proselytes from outside the Old Syrian Church.44 Consequently, the method of
proselytization to a new Evangelical Syrian institution became mission policy,
and it is this approach which the Presbyterians inherited in 1871.45
The archive of the Presbyterian Historical Society describes missionary work
in Persia as ‘three-fold in nature: evangelical, medical and educational’.46
Numerous local churches were organized and placed in the hands of native
ministers within the central Evangelical Church of Iran. Medical work began as
early as 1835 and was extended in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Formal hospitals were built in Kermanshah in 1882, in Teheran in 1890, and in

Tabriz in 1913, followed by similar openings in Meshed, Hamadan, and Resht.47
For some reason this overview ignores a hospital which was already well
established in Urmia by 1913, but it does nonetheless emphasize the enormous
humanitarian work which was being performed by the Presbyterian missionaries
for no apparent ulterior motive other than service to mankind and the visible
example of virtue that might perhaps lead to voluntary conversion.48 Equally, the
educational work performed by the missionaries provided the sole means of
formal education available to many Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the
region, and formed the basis for future schools. The Presbyterian Historical
Society states that schools were initially established for the children of
missionaries but that ultimately ‘these grew into multi-national institutions such
as the Alborz Foundation (Armaghan Institute), Iran Bethel (Damavand)
College, the Community School of Teheran, [and] the Mehr Jordan Schools’.49 In
Urmia, the missionaries established a seminary school for the training of native
pastors, a higher school for both Muslim and Christian students, and sponsored
numerous village schools administered by native teachers. So, while these
educational activities may have included religious, ethical and even political
principles which would prove to be contentious and even divisive, we should not
overlook the apparent altruism of the missionaries’ intent.
In terms of doctrine, American Protestant missionaries during this period
tended to hold to a millennialist hope that looked towards the second coming of
Christ and the establishment of a thousand-year reign of peace on earth. This was
true of the Presbyterian missionaries of this study whose aspirations conform to
what Hans-Lukas Kieser refers to as Postmillennialism.50 ‘Postmillennialism was
millennialism plus modern Enlightenment; it entrusted missionary America
with the task of preparing the Kingdom, in inter- and transnational cooperation,
using to this end all pacific means: science, technological progress, and historical
opportunities’.51 Postmillennialism is contrasted to Premillennialism in which
the arrival of Christ presupposes the transformation of the world. In the
postmillennialist imagining, therefore, the preparation of the world preceded the
coming of Christ and consequently necessitated a vision of Orientals as
redeemable and equally imagined the geographical Orient as perfectible.
Beyond the activities of the Anglican and American missionaries in the
region, their work had a broader effect upon the culture of their home countries.
Throughout the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, the Near East
presented a source of fascination to the supporters of mission back home.
Introduction 9
Therefore, part of the importance of missionary narratives lies in their role in

presenting an image of the Orient which fed back into a broader societal
discourse. Couched in a biblical framework, the region seemed, throughout the
nineteenth century, to provide evidence for many Orientalist fantasies such as
the lost greatness of biblical civilizations which were presented as newly
accessible through the application of new scientific methods. The sciences of
philology and archaeology were seen to be decoding the remnants of an ancient
past, and the fate of the lost tribes of Israel was a popular theme of ‘scientific’
speculation.52 Within the context of a nineteenth-century popular European and
American understanding of the Orient these enquiries tended to look beyond
the contemporary cultures of the East, which were perceived to be largely
irrelevant to the grandeur of past civilizations. Alternatively, the contemporary
cultures of the Holy Lands were seen as a means of decoding the Bible as a
historical document.53 This treatment of Oriental cultures nonetheless reduces
the region and its peoples to something of a living fossil whose only significance
lies in its value in illuminating the past within a Christocentric world view.
Robert Irwin, in his repost to the Orientalist Critique, gives an account of the
predilection within academic Orientalism for studying early Islam and classical
Arabic as a vehicle for approaching subjects of biblical interest rather than
representing a particular interest in the Orient itself.54 Thus a dominant public
perception was that what remained in the East was a degeneration from past
glories which had left the Orient in a state of decline and with an ethical and
moral spirit which seemed to deny the very possibility of redemption.55 It is
noteworthy, however, that missionary endeavour is predicated upon the
redemption of the Orient and thus their narrative productions must surely
present the Orient and Orientals in a different light to this common perception.
This in turn demands questions as to how missionaries could defy the pressures
of Orientalist discourse and how their own textual output might have disrupted
stereotypical images of the Orient. This, therefore, is the context of the study
contained within this book, but before turning to an analysis of the missionary
texts themselves I need to explain in more detail my understanding of the
Orientalist critique as a theoretical model and of imperialism as a concept.
The Orientalist Critique
Two basic questions have driven the research of this book; one relates to
Orientalism as a textual practice, the other focuses upon the relationship between
missionaries and imperialism. The first question asks whether the knowledge
production of the missionaries studied exhibits an Orientalist style, and if so
what form does it take? The second asks whether they can be considered as
agents of imperialism in one form or another? It is crucial therefore that, before
trying to propose an answer to these questions, I state clearly what constitutes an
Orientalist style within the terms of my analysis.
The concept of Orientalism is absolutely central to this study but the term is
potentially ambiguous. On the one hand the word itself can be taken as indicating
the esteemed profession of those who simply study the Orient, and whose work
does not necessarily conform to the dictates of discursive pressure. On the other,
it can be taken as indicating the presence of a discursive tradition which controls
or influences the representation of the Orient in a manner that supports the
underlying thesis of Western superiority. It is this latter point of view which
constitutes the starting point of my theoretical model and to which I shall refer
as the Orientalist Critique.
So, what is meant by a discursive tradition? Jäger and Maier, who have written
on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA ), define a discourse as ‘an institutionalized
way of talking that regulates and reinforces action and thereby exerts power’.56 A
discursive tradition by extension indicates something more attenuated over time
and constituting a practice that perpetuates a particular status quo. Orientalism,
as an institutionalized way of talking about the Orient, is thus a discursive
tradition which regulates and reinforces thought and action on the subject of the
Orient. To develop this idea further I need to turn to the seminal work of Edward
Said who, building upon Michel Foucault’s concept of the discursive formation,
popularized the notion of Orientalism as a discourse.
While Edward Said has stated that ‘Orientalism is a partisan book, [and] not
a theoretical machine’57, it is nonetheless possible to extrapolate a theoretical
model from his work. Firstly, it is my understanding that Said himself would
have frowned upon rigid and dogmatic definitions of Orientalism as a
phenomenon, for it is not to be conceived of as an ideology or project but rather
as an operating force or process active in society. An idea that is most helpful as
a starting point in understanding this process is that ‘Orientalism is a style of
thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made
between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident.” ’58 This style of
thought takes as its basis the a priori notion that both East and West are in some
real sense homogenous geographical units which differ from each other in their
very nature. Consequently, the rules and standards which govern the
representation of the Orient, it is argued, differ from those which are used to
Introduction 11
represent the Occident. The Critique further suggests that this double standard
is a crucial tool, though not necessarily a conscious one, in both creating and
maintaining the ‘otherness’ of the Orient. Orientalist textual style frequently
results from the reification of an abstract concept into a supposedly real object
the nature of which embodies Oriental inferiority: for example, perceived
Oriental dishonesty is seen to be something rooted in an Oriental nature. A
striking feature of this process of ‘othering’ is that, not only does it allow for the
easy compartmentalization of a diversity of individuals and groups into a single
homogenous and malleable unit, but it also facilitates the consolidation of a
Western self-image. Through comparison with the ‘otherness’ of the Orient, the
Occident is itself defined, and this style of thought is in part a way of looking at
objects of knowledge and talking about them in terms of the value system of the
narrator’s own culture.59 In this sense, the focus is less upon what the Orient is,
than upon what the Occident should be. This is, however, not to say that either
the Orient or the Occident actually exist in terms beyond the realm of ideas, but
neither should it be dismissed as purely imaginary.60 Orientalism as a system of
representing the ‘other’ has real effects, not least in the justification of inequality
by recourse to a perceived essential difference between the Oriental and the
Occidental.61
This brings us to a concept that I would like to emphasize, that of essential
difference. This is a style of representation which portrays the differences
separating the narrator from the object of description by suggesting that they
result from the presence of an intrinsic nature that is forever fixed.62 In this way,
the Oriental is rhetorically rendered irrevocably different from, and usually
inferior to, the Occidental. The word irrevocable is central to the notion of
essential difference: not only does this style of representation imagine an
essentialized Oriental but this essence is perceived as immutable. The importance
of highlighting essential difference in Orientalist narratives is that it represents
the point at which meaning is attributed by the narrator to the perception of
difference, where difference ceases to be mere observation and acquires an
altogether more judgemental character. In the context of missionaries, the
problem arises, however, that when one considers the desire to convert the
Oriental, one is also faced with a belief that such a distinction can be eradicated.
This suggests perhaps that something outside the essentialism of the Orientalist
discourse is at play in the construction and maintenance of a distinct proselytizing
missionary world-view. It begs the question as to whether proselytizing
missionaries could see and articulate a view of the Orient from the perspective
of another discourse.
The manner in which discourses operate, both within society and upon the
individual, is an important point which must be addressed in any discussion of
Orientalism. In this respect, Said recognizes his debt to Michel Foucault and the
notion of the discourse as both a constraining and a compelling pressure, in the
realm of culture, upon what can and cannot be said (and by whom) concerning
a field of knowledge.63 These rules of inclusion and exclusion should not be
confused with overt censorship but rather understood to exist as a kind of,
frequently unconscious, self-censorship. Furthermore, Said states that ‘so
authoritative a position did Orientalism have that [. . .] no one writing, thinking,
or acting on the Orient could do so without taking account of the limitations on
thought and action imposed by [the discourse of] Orientalism.’64 This assertion,
however, seems to suggest that discourses in general and the Orientalist discourse
in particular are deterministic in the regulation of thought and action within
society. Robert Irwin, one of Said’s most formidable critics, suggests that this is a
central flaw in his theory. While Irwin’s refutation of Orientalism focuses upon
some indisputable factual errors contained within Said’s book, his criticism also
attacks its theory.65 Irwin argues that Said could not seem to choose between
Michel Foucault’s ideas of the Discourse as an irresistible force which determines
the narratives produced by Orientalists, and Antonio Gramsci’s notion of
hegemonic narratives which are the conscious product of elites to regulate the
thought and action of subordinates.66 Irwin accuses Said of playing fast and
loose with these two theoretical positions to make his point. The weakness of
Irwin’s attack, however, is that it is not an illegitimate activity to make use of
some aspects of a particular theory while selectively dropping others. Jeffrey
Guhin and Jonathan Wyrtzen argue that throughout Said’s seminal work ‘one
sees a constructive tension between Foucault, who argues that the authoritative
power structure is unavoidable, and Gramsci, who is more optimistic about the
possible uses of positive knowledge’.67 Their evaluation of this tension is that in
‘Foucault’s model, culture of any sort is fed into a sausage factory of power-
knowledge, allowing an ever-deeper consolidation of power. In Said and
Gramsci’s model, the sausage factory still exists, and culture can contribute to it,
but it doesn’t have to.’68 They conclude by asserting that within the Saidian model
a producer of knowledge does have the potential to stand ‘outside of power’.69
Later scholars have adopted and adapted the Foucauldian concept of
discourse, and the discipline of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA ) has emerged
in recent decades. In the field of CDA , definitions vary but that elaborated by
Jäger and Maier corresponds closely to my own understanding and is worth
quoting in full at this juncture. To reiterate, they state that ‘a discourse can be
Introduction 13
defined as an institutionalized way of talking that regulates and reinforces action

and thereby exerts power’.70 Furthermore, this definition ‘can be illustrated by the
image of discourse as a flow of knowledge throughout time. Different discourses
are intimately entangled with each other and together form the giant milling
mass of overall societal discourse.’71 The image of culture as a milling mass of
autonomous discourses which interact with one another through the agency of
the individual allows one to break free from the determinism implicit in a
shallower reading of Said’s discourse theory. Said himself is reported by Guhin
and Wyrtzen as saying that while he was writing Orientalism he ‘was already
aware of the problems of Foucault’s determinism’ in which ‘everything is always
assimilated and acculturated’.72 Said continues by stating that the ‘notion of a
kind of non-coercive knowledge, which [he came] to at the end of his book, was
deliberately anti-Foucault’.73 To emphasize this point and to highlight the
importance of individual volition in the spirit of Said’s work one need only point
to the introduction to Orientalism in which he states that ‘unlike Michel Foucault,
to whose work I am greatly indebted, I do believe in the determining imprint of
individual writers upon the otherwise anonymous collective body of texts
constituting a discursive formation like Orientalism’.74
The idea of agency is further extended by Abdelmajid Hannoum who
demonstrates that not only do individual authors leave their personal impression
upon a discourse but that discourses can be co-opted to further the objectives of
competing social groups within a heterogeneous culture. Speaking of the French
colonization of Algeria in the mid to late nineteenth century, Hannoum relates
how the knowledge production of the Arab Bureau with its specific political
agenda was co-opted by opposing groups with differing ideas as to the nature of
colonization. He relates that:
for those who later changed their political position, it was already too late, for
they established a discourse that they no longer controlled. In fact, it is this same
discourse fabricated by the Arab Bureau that was soon appropriated by their
opponents, namely the Church and the settlers. The first sought to justify an
agenda of religious conversion; the second sought to defend that same policy of
containment that the members of the Arab Bureau had once defended so
vehemently.75
This account suggests that a discourse, while canonizing certain data and
representations as authoritative, is nonetheless open to modification and
redirection. It also underlines the agency of individuals and groups who can use
and redirect an existing discourse for their own purposes. On an allied point, in
the field of cultural psychology, Hubert Hermans argues that cultures are neither
homogeneous nor externally distinctive.76 They are instead, he argues, a dynamic
network of individual identity positions which are in a state of constant
negotiation. I would add that, as a consequence of this, the influence of discursive
pressures cannot be uniformly exerted throughout a culture and must give rise
to individual variance both between and within various discourses. Here can be
seen, in the disciplines of discourse analysis, cultural psychology and historical
analysis ways of explaining the collective phenomenon of culture in a manner
which also emphasizes the agency of the individual; and this, whilst not
eliminating, must nuance the discursive pressures latent within society, culture
and the group.
Therefore, throughout this book I consider a discourse to be a collective
influence, both constraining and creative, which is exerted unevenly throughout
a culture upon the production of knowledge within a particular domain. It is
not, after all, possible for human beings to make socially meaningful statements
about anything without situating those statements within an accepted framework
of understanding, and importantly these frameworks are not neutral in terms of
the values they promote and prohibit. While a discourse in this context can be
understood as a system of rules which govern the creation of mental objects
from the raw materials of the world we experience, these rules themselves should
in no way be considered as fixed or immutable. In a somewhat organic sense, the
very rules constituted by a discourse can be envisaged as being constantly
renegotiated, through acts of communication, with the changing environment in
which individuals find themselves. The agency of the individual thus negates to
some extent the determinism implied by discursive pressure (which has a merely
influential presence in my view), and what is of prime significance to this work
is that access to alternative discourses can facilitate divergence from dominant
norms and so produce considerable variation within the textual output of
Orientalists.
As an example of the collision of discursive pressures through the agency of
the individual, the work of Daphne Desser provides a useful insight. In her
article ‘Fraught Literacy’, which concerns missionary involvement in the
education of the colonized population of Hawaii during the nineteenth century,
she speaks of the inconsistencies produced by a confusion of discourses.77 Her
thesis focuses upon the ‘dynamic of competing desires for connection and
separation’78 felt by female missionary educators towards the Hawaiian objects
of their mission. This tension is expressed as a conflict between an ideology
based upon biblical texts, which ‘foster real and imagined Christian communities
Introduction 15
that supposedly would transcend race and nationality’,79 and the racist
ethnocentrism of nineteenth-century American culture.80 An intriguing
observation made by Desser is that the competing and often contradictory
values of the two discourses are not necessarily neatly and logically divided. She
argues that a ‘clean binary between connection and separation does not exist. A
desire for connection, for example, can be shot through simultaneously with a
desire for separation’.81 This suggests that individual missionaries were actively
negotiating, not necessarily consciously or coherently, the conflicting dictates of
different discourses through their ability to choose between divergent sets of
norms in the construction of unique identity positions (to use Hermans’ phrase).
Therefore, in the presence of competing discourses, individual narratives may
not necessarily conform to the collective voice of the group. What is important
in methodological terms is to attempt to gauge a consensus but also to reflect the
seemingly aberrant, partly because the very presence of divergent thought goes
a long way to erode the notion of discourses as hopelessly deterministic.
To turn to the question of the domain of competence over which the
Orientalist discourse is theoretically supposed to exert its influence, it can be
stated that within the Saidian model this domain is not simply knowledge of
the Orient but also the relationship between the Orient and its seemingly natural
opposite the Occident. This relationship takes its most concrete textual form as
pronouncements upon the nature of the Orient made by those believing
themselves to be Occidentals (most of the time) whose authority is emphasized
by the disequilibrium of power between East and West. This is not to say that
authority is always dictated by the use or even the threat of force, but rather that
the association between the locus of power and the institutions of knowledge
production asserts the authority and veracity of the discourse itself. In this way,
the power of the West is seen to demonstrate the veracity of its knowledge about
the East. In a sense, that is the central point to Orientalism, that the moral and
intellectual qualities of the West are understood to have brought about the
disequilibrium of power in the first place, and thus it is evidently useless to
envisage the equality of the Oriental when it comes to explaining the realities of
their existence. These pronouncements upon the Orient frequently take the form
of a ‘true’ understanding of the East which is presented as being beyond the
capacity of the Oriental to articulate. This perceived incapacity for logical self-
representation not only allows for but demands that the Orientalist must speak
for the Oriental. This in turn produces a style of representation of the ‘other’
which Said calls exteriority, a technique in which the Orientalist narrator must
speak for the Oriental as the only acceptable interpreter of an otherwise illogical
and emotional realm. An interesting corollary of this expression of Orientalism

is that the Oriental is depicted as being incapable of the kind of self-reflection
which defines the Westerner and so rational self-knowledge becomes the rightful
property of the West. Consequently, the threat of contestation by the Oriental is
neutralized by its status as irrational, illogical and emotional knowledge;82 and
this neutralization of the Oriental voice is one of the most obvious phenomena
in which the connection between knowledge production and power can be
observed.
In recent historiography, the Critique of Orientalism, though by no means
universally accepted, has been useful in exposing the myth of the supposed
neutrality of knowledge production associated with imperialism.83 The Critique
has identified a relationship between what could be termed the ‘Orientalizing’
of certain parts of the world and justifications in the application of unequal
power. What is less clear, however, is just how consistent and predictable this
relationship between knowledge production and power might be. A frequently
observable feature of the process of Orientalizing has been the organization of
observations into binary categories of opposition which support the principal
notion of the ontological difference between East and West. However, to assume
that all Occidental authors writing about the Orient did so in a uniformly
predictable manner is to create one’s own binary category in which the Occident
itself becomes a homogenous and generalizable entity in opposition to the
Orient.84 If due care is not taken for the specificity of the particular case we risk
presenting a picture of the Occident which is as much of a caricature as the
Orientalism that Said originally critiqued. While it seems reasonable to suppose
that the discourse of Orientalism undoubtedly exerted an environmental
pressure upon those who operated within it, the existence of alternative
discourses whose domains of competence may have overlapped in the lives of
individuals must surely have influenced the narratives expressed by them
concerning the Orient. What I am proposing here is the existence of a plurality
of discourses whose domains of competence are not necessarily discretely
delineated but which, as in a Venn diagram, overlap in the experiences pertaining
to the individual; this concept can also be found in CDA under the title of
discourse position. On this point, Jäger and Maier suggest that individuals
‘develop a discourse position because they are enmeshed in various discourses.
They are exposed to discourses and work them into a specific ideological position
or worldview in the course of their life.’85
In the case of proselytizing missionaries, it seems reasonable to suggest that
they belonged to a culture which was given to an essentialist Orientalism, but it
Introduction 17
is equally clear that they were enmeshed in a Christian egalitarian world-view

which contradicted some of these assumptions. Andrew Ross notes that before
the 1850s ‘a belief in the oneness of humanity was widespread’86 amongst
Protestant missionaries due to a religious conviction as to ‘the essential equality
of all human beings irrespective of race’.87 Ross refers to this egalitarian attitude
as ‘conversionist’ because of its focus upon proselytization.88 He argues, however,
that this situation changed with the rise to popularity of ‘scientific’ racial theories
throughout the nineteenth century and the hegemony of a ‘racial understanding
of history and culture’.89 What is particularly interesting in Ross’s illustration of a
changing cultural and intellectual climate, from an egalitarian to a hierarchical
explanation of the nature of humanity, is the resistance to popular racism which
can be observed by those with an interest in proselytization.90 This would seem
to be evidence of competition between opposing discourses (one egalitarian and
inclusive, the other essentialist and exclusive) through the agency of individual
volition. The interpretation of the Orientalist critique that I have outlined so far
emphasizes the notion of a discourse as a compelling pressure as opposed to a
determinative force, and the textual output of missionaries can be seen as a
reactive process which encompasses a diversity of experiences. These experiences
can be woven into any number of discursive ‘strands’ which may compete with
and contradict each other without necessarily undermining the core principle of
the discourse; which in the case of Orientalism is the reification of the idea of the
Orient as the natural and inferior opposite to the Occident.
To round off this summary of the Orientalist critique I would like to add a
concept of my own, that of circumstantial difference. While essential difference is
on occasion described by Edward Said as a definitive component of Orientalism,
it does not seem reasonable to suggest that there were no alternative Orientalist
views. Within the textual output of proselytizing missionaries, for example, one
may expect to see the articulation of sentiments which while being Orientalist,
in the sense that they represent the East as a monolithic entity in opposition to
an equally monolithic West, nonetheless ascribe an alternative meaning to the
nature of those differences perceived to separate the two. An alternative mode of
representation, and not necessarily the only alternative, would be to attribute
these perceived differences to the environmental circumstances of Oriental life.
Hannoum identifies just such an articulation within the French colonial
discourse which he terms colonial heresies, and which he describes as being less
essentialist than orthodox representations.91 Speaking of Pellissier de Reynaud,
Hannoum explains that this officer of the Arab Bureau felt humanity to be one
unit and that ‘the differences between societies [were] caused by the differences
of their soil and climate’.92 Nonetheless, Hannoum explains, Reynaud was writing
within the colonial discourse and the ‘postulate shared by all the members of the
Arab Bureau was that the natives lacked civilization. Divergence occurred in the
ways the natives as objects were constructed, seldom in the political solutions
offered.’93 In a similar fashion, I am proposing that there exist two opposed
styles of Orientalism which have contradictory ideological explanations as to the
ontological state of the Oriental.94 As with Hannoum’s colonial heresies, the
conversionist missionaries do not portray the native as the negation of civilization
but rather as perfectible. In Hannoum’s interpretation, it is the Oriental’s ‘social
organization that causes him to be “plunged into a state of barbarism”, but in any
case not because of some “inherent nature”. In other words, the heretical discourse
contains the dichotomy “us” and “them”, an anthropological one that, ultimately,
presupposes the unity of humanity.’95 He argues that this dichotomy is not
Orientalist because it does not ‘pose the opposition “West” versus “East” – two
entities that mutually exclude each other’.96 I would, however, argue that it does,
though not in an ontological sense but rather in an anthropological one. In this
view, it is not the Oriental that is the negation of civilization but the Orient (as a
social and religious unit) that opposes the civilization of the West. In the case of
the conversionist missionaries, these two opposed styles of representation
(essential difference and circumstantial difference) support diametrically opposed
methods of engagement with the Orient but do not undermine the underlying
principle that the Orient exists as an oppositional unit to that of the Occident.
While I have used the concept of circumstantial difference as an analytical tool
in examining the textual output of nineteenth-century missionaries, it is striking
that one can observe examples of such a style of thought in today’s world. Images
of the Middle East as a region desperately in need of the tutelage of the West in
terms of freedom and democracy have formed a vital part in justifications for
the invasion of Iraq in recent years. Equally, the Clash of Civilizations narrative
attempts to paint a picture of the Muslim world as unambiguously representative
of a single civilization in opposition to the West.97 In this theoretical model,
Samuel P. Huntington divides the world into seven or eight civilizations in
an attempt to explain the emerging global politics of a post-Cold War world,
but by choosing such vast groupings he unavoidably falls foul of the pitfalls
of generalization which, as will be shown, beset the narratives of nineteenth-
century missionaries. Equally, the mainstream media representation of the
Middle East as a land of terrorism and extremism exemplified by the Islamic
State organization is a trope which seems to pervade the popular imagination
whilst disregarding the diversity of experience and points-of-view which make
Introduction 19
up the lives of those who live in the region. What makes these ideas and images
potentially Orientalist is their tendency to take specific examples and to
generalize them into pronouncements as to the nature of the Islamic East as
a reified whole. There is no doubt that examples of terrorism, extremism,
religious turmoil and governmental repression exist, but their presentation as
representative of Islam is a distortion which seems to be a direct descendant of
the Orientalism which is so prevalent in the textual output of the missionaries
studied in this book. Today, essentialist portrayals of a putative Orient and its
peoples are largely discredited as inaccurate racist stereotyping, and this seems
to lead people to believe that Orientalist views are thus a thing of the past. A
contention of this book, however, is that Orientalism is not necessarily based
upon an essentialist and racist view of the world and that other more egalitarian
perceptions of humanity can give rise to narratives which are nonetheless
Orientalist in their reductive representation of the region and its peoples.
Therefore, throughout this book I will refer to this alternative mode of
representation as an Orientalism of circumstantial difference: circumstantial
because it explains difference as the result of environmental influences upon an
essentially common human nature, Orientalist because it nonetheless represents
the idea of the Orient as a real geographical space in which one can legitimately
generalize about customs and mentalities which are intrinsically opposed to
those of a putative West. Furthermore, unlike Hannoum’s colonial heresies, the
Orientalism of circumstantial difference exhibited by the proselytizing
missionaries of this work does give rise to practical solutions to the ‘problem’ of
Oriental difference which are opposed to the methods of the more essentialist
Anglicans.
Imperialism: an ambiguous concept
Much has been written in recent decades about the ambiguous nature of
missionaries with regard to imperialism but a point which is often lacking in
such discussions is the ambiguity of the term itself. Many scholars have insisted
that imperialism is the primary issue at stake in Edward Said’s critique of
Orientalism, that the most significant aspect of the production of knowledge by
Orientalists is its effect upon the development and maintenance of Occidental
empires. In an article exploring the meaning of Said’s work in relation to his
political engagement, Nadia Abu El-Haj speaks of the different levels on which
the critique can be read. On a very general level, she explains, Orientalism is
concerned with what might be termed representation, a broad engagement

with ‘the question of how human societies distinguish between selves and others
and with what consequences’.98 This is precisely how I have outlined Orientalism
in the preceding section of this chapter, and such a reading is not chiefly
concerned with locating the connection between representation and imperialism
but with exploring the characterization of the Orient and its peoples. Abu El-Haj,
however, argues that such an interpretation misses the point of Said’s work,
explaining that:
The problem of representation as elaborated by Said in Orientalism is, thus,

better understood as inseparable from the context of empire and the relations of
power and subordination entailed therein. He sought to understand how, in the
context of specific historical encounters between Europe and the Arab Middle
East, representing Otherness – demarcating the difference between East and
West, between Christianity and Islam – generated imperial power in the West
and helped to elaborate the patterns of thought and culture that made that
imperial endeavor imaginable, sustainable, and quite centrally, (morally) ‘good.’99
I would venture, however, that we need to be cautious as to what message is taken

from the statement that Orientalism generated imperial power. While Orientalist
representations can be seen to support imperial projects and even to facilitate the
underlying thirst for imperial power, it should not be assumed that imperial
power is simply the product of Orientalist ideas alone; the will to power is surely
also the result of other personal and collective interests. To assume that the
Orientalist discourse alone determines the power of an empire would be to
invoke a Foucauldian determinism quite at odds with the individualism explicit
in Said’s theory. There are in fact good reasons to suspect that such a direct causal
link between representation and imperial power cannot be assumed. For example,
Robert Irwin points out what he sees as the inconsistency in Said’s argument, this
time with regard to periodization. Irwin suggests that in trying to demonstrate
the ancient roots of Orientalism, Said is attributing a style of representation
which is intrinsically linked in his theory to domination and supremacy to a time
when the West was itself dominated by the Orient. Irwin writes that:
The chronological issue is of some importance, for if Aeschylus, Dante and

Postel are to be indicted for Orientalism, it follows that the necessary linkage
between Orientalism and imperialism that Said posits elsewhere cannot be true.
Until the late seventeenth century at least, Europe was threatened by Ottoman
imperialism and it is hard to date Western economic dominance of the Middle
East to earlier than the late eighteenth century.100
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For the purpose of histological examination it is essential that
portions of the brain, spinal cord, liver, kidney, and intestine, should
be examined microscopically. The nervous tissue should be placed
in formalin and Müller’s fluid, and a portion in alcohol for the
examination of the fibres. The liver, kidney, etc., should be placed in
5 per cent. formaldehyde. The tissues are then treated by the
ordinary histological methods, and sections prepared. With nervous
tissue it is essential that those prepared for the examination of the
cells should be made by the celloidin method; the others may be
treated by imbedding in paraffin. The points to be sought for in the
tissues are sufficiently indicated in the chapter on Pathology and
Symptomatology, but may be briefly recapitulated:
In the brain, as well as in all the tissues, careful search should be
made for minute microscopical hæmorrhages, and for evidences of
old hæmorrhages in the form of small masses of fibrous tissue, etc.
Parenchymatous degeneration, chromatolysis of nuclei, etc., nerve
degeneration.
The arteries and veins should also receive close scrutiny, as the
presence or absence of arteritis should be noted.
In the kidney particularly, search should be made for both
interstitial and parenchymatous nephritis.
The liver frequently shows signs of microscopic hæmorrhage, and
it is as well, in taking a portion of tissue for examination, to choose
those portions which appear to be specially congested.
In the brain and spinal cord and nervous tissue, search is to be
made for the same hæmorrhages as already noted. In addition, the
condition of the nerve fibres should be noted, the presence or
absence of periaxial neuritis, as well as degeneration of the axis
cells, and the various ganglion cells both in the brain and spinal cord
should be closely examined for chromatolysis and nuclear atrophy.
No evidence is afforded by micro-chemical tests of any of the
sections thus obtained, except those of the lung. It may be possible
in the case of the lung to determine the presence of lead granules in
the alveolar cells, and attention should be paid to this. It is possible
also that some evidence may be afforded by examination
microscopically of the red bone-marrow.
The intestinal walls should be examined for evidence of lead
particles.
If any dark staining, deep or superficial, be found in the intestine, it
should be removed for chemical analysis. Necrotic areas of the
intestinal wall should be sought for.
Hæmatology.—For all practical purposes, the best stain for
detection of basophile granules in the erythrocytes is Wright’s
modification of Romanowski’s stain. This stain may be obtained in
appropriate tablets, and may be prepared immediately before use,
although a stain which has been standing for ten days or a fortnight
gives much better results than a quite new stain. The stain consists
of a solution of polychrome methylene blue, together with eosin in
methyl alcohol, and the method of procedure is as follows:
Blood is obtained by a small puncture, and slides smeared and
allowed to dry. Immediately on drying the slip is flooded with the
stain, and allowed to remain for two minutes. This causes fixation. At
the end of the two minutes the stain is diluted with an equal volume
of distilled water, and allowed to remain on for a further three
minutes. At the end of this time the stain is poured off, and the slip
washed in distilled water for another three minutes, or until the
characteristic purple-violet appearance is produced. It is better to
examine such films with an oil-immersion lens, the oil being placed
directly upon the films, and not covered with a cover-slip, as the
action of Canada balsam tends to decolorize the blue. If such
specimens are required to be kept, the oil may be washed off with
xylol. It is possible to observe basophile staining with a good sixth,
but an oil-immersion lens gives much the best result. The typical
staining produced by this means gives darkish bodies scattered
about the red corpuscles, staining sometimes deeply as the nuclei of
the white corpuscles. In other cases the appearance is like that of
fine dust scattered throughout the cell. In addition to these two
forms, the whole red cell may take on a slight generalized lilac tint,
the normal cells remaining free from granules, and stained red by the
eosin. Search of 100 fields of the microscope should be made, and if
no basophile granules are found in such fields it is unlikely that they
will be found.
Basophile staining is not more pathognomonic of lead poisoning
than of any other form of anæmia, but may be regarded as a highly
important confirmatory diagnostic sign.
A differential count of the leucocytes present may be also made on
the same film in which basophile staining is observed; 300 should be
counted at least. In a typical case of lead poisoning it is found that
diminution in the polymorphonuclear leucocytes has taken place with
a corresponding increase of the lymphocytes, and possibly also the
large mononuclears, and probably a slight increase in the number of
eosinophiles.
This hæmatological method of diagnosis is of the utmost
importance in lead poisoning. A differential count such as is given on
p. 137, showing a large diminution in the polymorphonuclears, an
increase in the lymphocytes, evidence of changes in the red cells,
consisting of basophile staining, alteration in the shape of individual
cells, poikilocytosis, with vacuolation, is strong presumptive evidence
of lead absorption.
To complete the hæmatological examination, the hæmoglobin
should be estimated. This is best performed with Haldane’s
instrument—an exceedingly simple one to use. The estimation of the
number of red cells and white cells present is useful, but does not by
any means give such valuable information as does the differential
count and search for basophile granules.
Blood-Pressure.—Several methods are available for the
estimation of the blood-pressure. The pressure may be roughly
estimated as too high or too low by means of the finger. The
presence of thickening of the arteries may be also estimated in this
way, but for determining the absolute blood-pressure it is necessary
to use one or other of the instruments on the market. The estimation
of blood-pressure is an important point in relation to the suspected
presence of arterio-sclerosis, and should be performed wherever
possible. Sphygmographic tracings may also be taken. Such a
tracing in a case of typical poisoning gives a peculiar form of curve,
which, however, may be present in alcoholism and heavy work, and
arterio-sclerosis of many types.
Urine Examination.—In suspected cases of lead poisoning the
examination of the urine may reveal the presence of lead. In
addition, albumin is frequently present, especially in the early stages
of kidney inflammation. The ordinary tests for albumin should be
carried out, and it is also advisable to examine the urine
spectroscopically, as at times hæmoglobin, methæmoglobin,
hæmatoporphyrin, may be present in small quantities, each of which
can be detected by means of spectroscopic examination. Blood is
not common in the urine of lead-poisoned persons, although
microscopically hæmorrhages undoubtedly take place in the kidney.
These hæmorrhages are interstitial, and as a rule do not cause any
blood-pigment to be passed in a quantity that can be determined. It
is as well, however, to centrifugalize the urine, and examine the
deposit for red blood-cells.
The presence of hæmatoporphyrin, as suggested by Steinberg[10],
is probably due to hæmorrhages in the intestine, and its presence in
the urine should be regarded with suspicion in a lead-worker.
Where a lead-worker is suffering from continued absorption of
lead, even without the manifestation of other symptoms, a change
has been noted in the acidity of the blood—namely, a loss of normal
alkalinity. The estimation of the alkalinity or acidity of the blood direct
is an exceedingly difficult process, but much information may be
obtained by careful estimation of the acidity of the urine, and of the
acidity of the urine in relation particularly to the phosphates.
Joulie[11] has pointed out the extreme value which may be
obtained from a knowledge of the urinary constituents by the means
of estimation of the acidity with suchrate of chalk. The reagent is
made by slaking lime in such a way that the resulting compound is
practically dry. A quantity of this—about 25 grammes—is then
thoroughly shaken up with 10 per cent. solution of cane-sugar,
allowed to stand, and the solution titrated against decinormal acid
until it is of one-twentieth normal. The urine is then estimated
directly, the suchrate is run into the 25 c.c. of urine until a faint white
flocculent precipitate appears. The number of c.c. of the solution of
suchrate is then noted, and multiplied by the factor of the solution.
This gives the acidity related to the phosphate and other organic acid
contents, and is similar to the method used to determine the acidity
of wines.
The second estimation consists of estimating the phosphates
present by means of a standard solution of uranium nitrate, using
either potassium ferrocyanide or cochineal as an indicator. The
specific gravity of the urine is also determined. The result is then
expressed in terms of this specific gravity, or, rather, in the terms of
the density of the urine in relation to distilled water, and the whole
answer returned per litre. By this method it is not necessary to obtain
a twenty-four hours sample of the urine, the urine passed first thing
in the morning being taken for examination.
By using this density figure the quantity of acid and phosphate is
expressed in relation to the density, the equation being—
The observed acidity
= Acidity per litre.
The density per litre
The phosphate content is expressed in the same manner, while
the ratio of phosphate to acidity gives the ratio of excretion of
phosphate to acidity.
There is in lead-workers a considerable diminution in the amount
of phosphate excreted, and, as has been pointed out by Garrod and
others, lead apparently produces alteration in the solubility of the uric
acid content of the blood, and may therefore allow of its
decomposition. Probably lead as a urate is stored up in the tissues.
For further particulars of this method of the estimation of the urine,
the reader is referred to “Urologie Pratique et Thérapeutique
Nouvelle,” by H. Joulie.
An examination of the fæces of persons suspected of lead
poisoning may often give definite results both of the presence of lead
and hæmatoporphyrin. If small hæmorrhages have occurred high up
in the intestine, the presence of hæmatoporphyrin in the fæces may
result. The substance may be easily determined by means of the
characteristic absorption bands. A quantity of fæces is taken and
extracted with acid alcohol, and the filtrate examined
spectroscopically. Urobilin bands are commonly present, and,
particularly, where much constipation exists these bands are very
well marked. There is no difficulty whatever, however, in
distinguishing them from the characteristic bands of acid
hæmatoporphyrin.
Examination of the Fæces for Lead.—The moist method or
chemical examination
given above is the best one to apply for the determination of lead in
the fæces. As has already been pointed out, lead is commonly
excreted in the fæces, and, if only about 2 milligrammes per diem
are being excreted by the fæces in a lead-worker, the quantity
cannot be regarded as indicative of poisoning. One of us (K. W. G.)
has at times found as much as 8 to 10 milligrammes of lead excreted
in the fæces of persons engaged in a lead factory, and exhibiting no
signs or symptoms whatever of lead poisoning. If, however, the
quantity of lead in the fæces rises to anything above 6 milligrammes
per diem, there is definite evidence of an increased absorption of
lead, and if at the same time clinical symptoms be present,
suggesting lead poisoning, such a chemical determination is of the
first importance.
In estimating the presence of lead in fæces, it may be necessary
to deal with the separation of iron, which may be precipitated as
phosphate and filtered off, the quantitative estimation being
proceeded with in the filtrate.
Lead is much more commonly present in the fæces of lead-
workers than in the urine, and it is better to examine the fæces rather
than the urine in suspected cases.
REFERENCES.
[1] Gautier: Meillère’s Le Saturnisme, p. 74.
[2] Marsden and Abram: The Lancet, vol. i., p. 164, 1897.
[3] Shufflebotham and Mellor: Ibid., vol. ii., p. 746, 1903.
[4] Hebert: Comptes Rendus, tome cxxxvi., p. 1205, 1903.
[5] Fresenius and von Babo: Liebig’s Annalen, vol. xlix., p. 287, 1884.
[6] Glaister: Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. 1910.
[7] Dixon Mann: Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, p. 496.
[8] Vernon Harcourt, A.: A Method for the Approximate Estimation of
Small Quantities of Lead—Transactions of the Chemical Society, vol. cxvii.,
1910.
[9] King Alcock, S.: Brit. Med. Journ., vol. i., p. 1371, June 24, 1905.
[10] Steinberg: International Congress Industrial Hygiene. Brussels, 1910.
[11] Joulie, H.: Urologie Pratique et Thérapeutique Nouvelle.
CHAPTER XI
TREATMENT
In laying down the general lines of treatment for both lead
poisoning and lead absorption, it is essential in the first place to
distinguish carefully between the two states; for although lead
absorption may gradually drift into definite lead intoxication and lead
poisoning, with all the classical symptoms associated with the
saturnine cachexia, a large number of cases, particularly those in
industrial processes, do not and should not progress beyond the
early symptoms of lead absorption. The treatment, therefore, will
depend in the first place on whether the case be one so constantly
met with in industrial processes, where generalized symptoms of
lead absorption are manifest without any definite and disabling
symptoms traceable and sufficiently pronounced to enable a
diagnosis of lead poisoning to be made.
The facts given in the chapter on Pathology, on the methods of
entrance of lead, on the toxic manifestations, and the blood-
changes, and, above all, the facts relating to microscopical
hæmorrhages and other profound changes in the bloodvessels, point
clearly to the lines along which the general treatment for
amelioration, prevention, or cure of poisoning should be undertaken.
The treatment of the so-called “presaturnine state,” or what is
preferably termed the “state of lead absorption,” is one that the
appointed surgeon or certifying surgeon in lead factories or other
processes in which lead is manufactured or used, is constantly
called upon to treat. Lead poisoning is a definite entity as a disabling
disease, whereas lead absorption, although the prodromal stage of
such disease, cannot be defined as actual lead poisoning, as in
many instances persons may show signs of continued lead
absorption, but their powers of elimination can be maintained at such
a level that the ratio of absorption to elimination remains in
equilibrium.
With the preventive treatment of lead poisoning we have dealt in
another place (see p. 199). What is particularly required here is the
medicinal treatment, which may be helpful in preventing lead
absorption passing on to definite lead poisoning.
For many years it has been customary in the treatment of men
employed in lead works to give occasional purgatives, and it is,
moreover, a common and proper precaution to keep a stock of some
simple aperient medicine, preferably saline composed of sodium
sulphate and magnesium sulphate, at the works in charge of the
foreman, so that any man who so desires may obtain a dose of an
ordinary aperient mixture. We have seen from the pathological
evidence that the largest proportion of lead is excreted by the bowel,
and that, therefore, the sweeping away of the bowel contents—
particularly where constipation is set up—will naturally tend to
remove from the body a good deal of the lead which has been
already excreted into the intestine and which may presumably
become reabsorbed unless it be swept away. In a large electric
accumulator factory Epsom salts in the form of the granular
effervescing preparation is much appreciated. In winter 50 per cent.,
and in summer 90 per cent. of the men are said to take a daily dose.
In an important white-lead works chocolate tablets containing hypo-
(thio-)sulphite of sodium are supplied to the workers.
Another medicine made use of in lead works is the sulphuric acid
lemonade, this being acidulated with sulphuric acid and flavoured
with lemon. It is very questionable whether this substance has any
definite effect in the special direction in which it is supposed to work
—namely, that of forming an insoluble sulphate of lead in the
stomach and so preventing its absorption. The use of this drug was
suggested on the presumption that lead poisoning as a rule took its
origin from the dust swallowed and converted into a soluble form in
the stomach. As we have seen, there is very little evidence that this
entrance of lead is of much importance, although it does
occasionally take place. Furthermore, from the experiments of one of
us [K. W. G.[1]], it has been found that the sulphate of lead is at any
rate as soluble as other lead salts, such as white lead or litharge,
when acted upon by normal gastric juice.
With regard to the drinks supplied to workers in lead factories, it is
highly important that some form of fluid should be supplied which the
men may drink without harm, particularly in the more laborious forms
of employment, and, above all, in the factories where smelting,
desilverizing, etc., of lead is carried on. In these factories the use of
some type of lemonade containing sodium citrate is to be
recommended, as it has been shown that one of the pathological
effects of lead absorption is to produce an increased viscosity of the
blood, and the use of such drugs tends to some extent to diminish
this. A drink containing a few grains of sodium citrate to the ounce
and flavoured with lemon is freely drunk by workmen engaged in the
laborious processes.
Finally, as a general routine treatment, it is advisable to keep at
the factory some form of mixture containing iron, which may be given
to those persons who are showing signs of slight anæmia, generally
associated with some degree of constipation, and it is therefore
better to use a form of iron cathartic. This medicine should also be
kept in the care of the foreman, who will see that it is administered to
the men properly. In this way any persons who at the weekly
examination exhibit signs of anæmia may be promptly treated, and
what is more, the surgeon is assured that the workmen in question
actually obtain the medicine prescribed regularly.
During the routine weekly or monthly examination, or at whatever
intervals the medical examination takes place, particular attention
should be paid to the records kept of the state of health of the
various persons, and whenever possible alteration of employment
should always be enjoined when early signs of anæmia make their
appearance.
The surgeon should spare no pains to determine if any of the
workmen are confirmed alcoholics, and such persons should be
removed from work in dangerous processes, while at the same time
care should also be taken to eliminate any persons suffering from
those diseases which are known to be predisposing causes of lead
poisoning. The card system of registration of any symptoms noted or
treatment given facilitates supervision of the health of the men.
In times of stress where some particularly dangerous process is in
operation, as, for instance, where portions of a building which has
become thoroughly impregnated with lead dust is being pulled down,
or where machines are being altered, removed, or rebuilt, especial
care should be exercised with the workmen so employed, and it is
advisable in such cases to adopt preventive measures on the
supposition—generally correct—that such persons are absorbing a
larger quantity of lead owing to their peculiarly dusty employment
than they were under normal circumstances. At such times, also, it
may be advisable to administer some form of mild iron cathartic to all
persons employed in the factory for, say, a week at a time. It must
not be supposed, however, that these methods of treatment in any
way supersede the precautions for the prevention of lead poisoning
by mechanical and hygienic means; they are merely additional
precautions which may be put in force under special circumstances.
The Treatment of Lead Poisoning.—The treatment of definite
lead poisoning, as the treatment of lead absorption, is directed
towards the elimination of the poison, the promotion of repair to the
damaged tissues, and special treatment directed towards those
special organs which suffer mostly in lead poisoning. At the same
time, special treatment of urgent symptoms may be called for; but in
the treatment of the urgent symptoms the fact of the general
elimination of the poison must not be lost sight of.
We have already seen that the channel through which the poison
leaves the body is mainly the fæces. Treatment must therefore be
directed, as in the former instance (lead absorption), towards
eliminating the poison by this means as much as possible, both by
the use of enemata, and later the use of sulphate of magnesia,
which may be added to the ordinary fluid enema; and it is far better
in obstinate cases of constipation and colic to give enemata than to
continue with the huge doses of salines or other aperients, such as
croton-oil, elaterinum, or castor-oil.
Colic.—Lead colic may be simple, acute, recurrent, or chronic
and continued. In whatever form colic appears pain is invariably
referred to the lower part of the abdomen, frequently into the groins,
and occasionally to the umbilicus. The pain has to be distinguished
particularly from acute gastritis, and occasionally from appendicitis,
and sometimes from that of typhoid fever. Acute colitis—not common
in this country—and dysentery, may, to some extent, simulate the
pain of lead colic, but John Hunter’s[2] original definition of “dry
bellyache” conveys very vividly the type of pain. Occasionally
diarrhœa may be met with, but as a rule obstinate constipation is
present. In continued colic, or chronic colic, sometimes lasting for
several months, obstinate constipation is the rule. In the simple
acute colic the pain passes off in the course of five or six days,
generally disappearing about four days after the lower intestine has
been thoroughly cleared.
The pain of lead colic is relieved by pressure upon the abdomen,
whereas that of gastritis and most other forms of abdominal pain
may be generally elicited along the descending colon and splenic
flexure; mucus is commonly found in the stools, especially the first
evacuation, after obstinate constipation occasionally of several days’
duration associated with an ordinary attack of lead colic. Blood may
be passed, but this symptom is not common. The pain in the acute
form is paroxysmal; it is rarely persistent, being typically intermittent.
During the paroxysm distinct slowing of the pulse-rate with an
increased blood-pressure takes place, and the administration of
vaso-dilators—such, for instance, as amyl nitrite—during a paroxysm
rapidly relieves the pain and lowers the blood-pressure, and in this
way distinguishes acute colic of lead poisoning from, say, subacute
appendicitis.
Vomiting may or may not be present, though the patient usually
complains of feeling sick, but there may be at times vomiting of a
frothy mucus.
It is unusual for a patient to die from acute colic, but acute
paroxysms have been recorded in which yielding of the blood-
vessels of the brain has occurred.
Recurrent colic is as a rule less severe than the simple acute form,
but may last for several weeks, clearing up for three or four days at a
time and then recurring with little diminution in violence from the first
attack. Such cases are probably due to the gradual excretion of lead
by the intestine, and should be treated on this supposition.
In the continued or chronic colic the pain may persist for as long
as two months, during the whole of which time the patient complains
of uneasiness and even constant pain in the lower part of the
abdomen, which becomes considerably worse after each
evacuation, and almost invariably is associated with exceedingly
obstinate constipation. It is this type of case that olive-oil or liquid
paraffin relieves, while in the acuter forms drastic purgatives such as
castor-oil, croton-oil, or pulv. jalapæ comp. may be administered.
For the treatment of pain in colic one of the various vaso-dilators
should be used, as, in addition to the spasm of the intestine, a very
considerable vaso-constriction of the whole of the vessels in the
mesenteric area occurs. Amyl nitrite gives immediate relief, but the
effect passes off somewhat rapidly, whilst scopolamine, although
taking somewhat longer to act, is better for continuous use, as its
action is longer maintained. Sodium nitrite, liquor trinitrini, and
antipyrin are also of use. Atropin may be used, but it is perhaps
better given in conjunction with magnesium sulphate.
Whatever form of purgative is given, some form of anodyne should
be combined. Drissole and Tanquerel[3] are said to have obtained
excellent results with croton-oil; one drop is given, followed seven or
eight hours later by another, and then by an enema of 2 pints of
normal saline. After two or three days the croton-oil may be again
given, one drop at a time each day. In addition, Tanquerel made use
of belladonna and opium together, finding that their combined action
was better than that of opium alone, as the physiological effect of
belladonna probably assists in preventing the intestinal cramp.
Hoffmann[4] recommends the use of olive-oil and opium, giving 3
to 4 ounces of olive-oil. He says that this relieves the spasm of the
pylorus, and is of particular use where severe vomiting is associated
with the colic. This use of olive-oil, first suggested by Hoffmann in
1760, and revived by Weill and Duplant[5] in 1902, is somewhat
interesting, in view of the modern tendency to administer paraffinum
liquidum in the treatment of chronic constipation.
Briquet[6] recommends 4 grammes of alum and 4 grammes of
dilute sulphuric acid three times daily, with the addition of 0·05
gramme of pulv. opii at night. Briquet says that although the
purgative method rapidly diminishes the colic, the elimination of the
poison does not take place as rapidly as by means of the treatment
he recommends, though it is open to doubt whether the use of either
of these two drugs is likely to produce any further neutralization or
excretion of absorbed lead than sulphate of magnesia. It is quite
certain that the magnesium sulphate does not act as a neutralizer of
the poison, as in a factory where sulphate of lead is manufactured
some cases of definite lead poisoning occurred, in which at least half
must have been due to the inhalation of lead sulphate dust. Under
these circumstances it seems hardly worth while to attempt to form a
sulphate of lead in the body. The action of magnesium sulphate and
other salines, however, in promoting the flow of fluid towards the
intestines, and rapidly diluting and washing out the contents, tend to
eliminate such lead as has already been excreted into the bowel.
A number of other drugs have been given from time to time for the
purpose of forming an insoluble compound with the metal in the
intestine, such, for instance, as sulphur in many forms, which is still
much used in French hospitals. Peyrow[7] advises sulphide of soda,
whilst Meillère prefers potassium sulphide as being less irritating. He
considers sulphuretted hydrogen a proper prophylactic against
reabsorption. Both experimental work and clinical observation show
that a change to sulphide does take place in the lower bowel, and
that staining of this part of the intestine is due to lead sulphide; but
as the figure on Plate II. shows, the lead may exist in the form of
granules of a dark nature, deeply embedded in the intestinal wall,
besides being situated in the exterior.
Stevens[8] suggests the use of ¹⁄₂-grain doses of calcium
permanganate thrice daily to relieve pain.
A certain number of other drugs may be also made use of from the
point of view of diminishing the pain, and one French observer
advocates the hypodermic injection of cocaine, but it is doubtful
whether any good would follow from such a procedure. Hypodermic
injections of morphia should be given whenever the pain is great,
and diaphoretics as well as diuretics should also be given, such, for
instance, as ammonium acetate, citrate of potash, or soda.
Chloroform water and chloral and bromine water may be also used,
and when no other drug is at hand, the inhalation of chloroform will
rapidly relieve the acute vaso-motor spasms associated with colic.
During the attack of colic, and for at least a day subsequent to its
disappearance, the patient should be kept on a fluid diet; milk is
best, and 10 grains of sodium citrate should be added to each glass
of milk. After the colic has subsided, a light farinaceous diet should
be given, and it is better not to give meat until at least a week has
elapsed. Alcohol is to be avoided.
The Anæmia of Lead Poisoning.—As has been pointed out in
Chapter VIII (p. 135), the anæmia of lead poisoning is one due to the
destruction of the red blood-cells. This is evidenced not only by the
curious sallow complexion, by the occasional presence of
hæmatoporphyrin in the fæces and urine, and often by the curious
yellow of the sclerotics, but also by an increase in the viscosity of the
blood itself. Moreover, the urine of persons suffering from lead
poisoning is invariably highly coloured, and may even show the
presence of methæmoglobin. As the anæmia is generally a symptom
of continued lead absorption for a long period, and does not
necessarily occur with every case of colic—in fact, acute colic may
often supervene without any symptoms of continued anæmia—the
persons suffering from lead anæmia should be removed from their
direct contact with the dangerous processes, and should be given, if
possible, work in the open air. Iron and arsenic may be used,
preferably in combination, whilst the iodide of iron often gives good
results. Whatever preparation of iron is given, care should always be
exercised in avoiding any constipating effect, and the free action of
the bowel should be maintained, together with a liberal supply of
milk. Potassium iodide may be also given.
With regard to the action of potassium iodide, there is division of
opinion amongst various physicians as to the efficacy of the drug in
the elimination of lead from the body. At the same time a very large
number of persons hold that the administration of fairly large doses
of potassium iodide in the case of a person suffering from chronic
lead absorption may at times be associated with sudden
exacerbation of the disease, and that the drug apparently may
determine the production of acute symptoms, such as
encephalopathy or paralysis, when these have not been previous
features of the case. Our experience supports this statement, and on
more than one occasion one of us (K. W. G.) has seen a distinct
increase of symptoms follow the administration of large doses of
potassium iodide. From a comparison with other cases it seems that
these symptoms would have been unlikely to make their appearance
without some secondary cause. Against this point of view must be
quoted further experiments already referred to by Zinn[9], who found
that when lead iodide was administered to experimental animals
iodine alone was found in the urine; but it must be pointed out that
no estimations were made of the fæces, and it is possible that a
certain amount of lead was eliminated in this way. What exactly is
the action of iodide on the solubility of lead in the body it is difficult to
say; yet the use of iodine compounds has been followed with
considerable success in a number of chronic inflammatory diseases,
and it is possible that it may have the action of splitting off the
particular lead compound from its organic association with the
tissues, especially as it is well known that iodine plays a very
important rôle in the process of cell metabolism. Another point which
tends to support the use of iodine is the fact that the other two
halogens, bromide and chloride, both of which enter largely into cell
metabolism, also have a slightly beneficial effect on the excretion of
lead. The dose of the iodine given should not be large to commence
with, 3 grains three times a day is sufficient, the dose being run up to
some 30 or 40 grains per diem, the symptoms meanwhile being
carefully watched.
Other symptoms often associated with the anæmia of lead
poisoning are—
Rheumatic Pains.—These pains are suggestive of muscular
affection, and are possibly due to minute hæmorrhages occurring in
the muscle tissue, which have been discovered in the muscles of
experimentally poisoned animals. For the rheumatic pains
diaphoretics and citrates of soda and potassium may be given.
Lumbago.—The lumbago constantly complained of in chronic
lead poisoning and even in the early stage of lead absorption, is very
generally related to chronic constipation rather than to a definite
affection of the lumbo-sacral joints.
Nephritis.—Affections of the kidney associated with lead
poisoning are almost entirely confined to sclerosis. The presence of
albumin in the urine is not a very common symptom. As has been
pointed out already, the presence of lead in the urine is by no means
a regular feature of lead poisoning, though it may at times be
present, and the urine should always be examined for changes in the
kidneys; but as a number of cases of chronic lead poisoning are
associated with alcohol poisoning, the changes in the kidney cell are
almost certain to be present. On p. 95 the illustration showing the
disease in the kidney produced by experimental dosage with lead,
and the kidney of a fatal case of lead poisoning in a man who at the
same time had a strong alcoholic history, shows fairly definitely the
difference between these two points.
Acute nephritis occurs so rarely in the course of industrial lead
poisoning that it cannot be considered to be a disease due to lead.
In chronic nephritis treatment should be along the ordinary lines
and the same remark applies to enlargement of the liver.
Heart.—Symptoms due directly to disease of the heart are rarely
caused by lead alone. The heart muscle may suffer in the same way
as the other muscles of the body, and in lead poisoning in animals
distinct hæmorrhages are found between the muscular fibres in the
heart muscle, and it is therefore probable that a form of myocarditis
may exist in lead poisoning. This, together with the increased arterial
tension, may cause dilatation, but the symptoms are those related
more to the general condition of arterio-sclerosis than to any direct
heart lesion, and as a rule these symptoms do not call for any
special treatment.
Treatment of Nervous Manifestations in Lead Poisoning.—
With one or two exceptions, the diseases of the nervous system
associated with lead intoxication only appear when actual lead
poisoning is established. Certain evidences of affection of the
nervous system are occasionally seen in the prodromal stage, or
stage of lead absorption. These may be merely temporary and
disappear often under treatment, by change of employment and
reduction in the quantity of lead absorbed. Thus, dilatation of the
pupils—the reaction to light being extremely sluggish or absent—is
often a feature of the later stages of the condition of lead absorption.
Tremor may also be a symptom, the outstretched hands exhibiting a
fine undulatory movement, often increased on attempting to perform
some act such as touching the nose, or touching the two fingers
together, and when these symptoms occur they must always be
regarded as of somewhat grave import. But it must be remembered
that tremor may occur as a common complication of alcoholic cases,
and further, follows excessively hard manual work, though there is
usually little difficulty in distinguishing between the various forms.
The symptomology of nervous diseases associated with lead
poisoning has already been carefully set out in Chapter IX., and the
pathological changes underlying these symptoms in Chapter V.
Of the general treatment, little needs to be added to what has
already been stated for the treatment of lead anæmia and general
lead intoxication. Iron and arsenic (not strychnine, especially in
presence of colic), and other similar drugs, should be employed
together with iodides either as potassium iodide or as an injection in
the form of an organic compound, of which there are several
varieties on the market.
The injection of normal serum has been advised, as well as saline
injections, and in some instances venesection has been practised,
but it is doubtful whether anything is to be gained by this form of
treatment.
Further, it has been stated that some lead is excreted through the
skin, and for this reason sulphur baths, bathing in sulphuretted
hydrogen water, etc., have been recommended to neutralize any
lead that has gained access to the skin. Serafini[10] has claimed that
by means of electrolytic baths a certain amount of lead can be found
present in the water after continuous passing of a current, and it has
been supposed by these observers that the lead has been actually
driven out of the body under the action of the electric current. It is, of
course, possible that such lead as is discoverable in the water was
merely that which had already become incorporated with the
patient’s skin through mechanical contact.
Whatever form of treatment be adopted of a general type, the
patient must certainly be removed from the chance of any further
lead absorption; a person who is suffering from wrist-drop or other
form of paresis should not be employed in any portion of a lead
works where he may come into contact with any form of lead or its
compounds for at least a year after the paresis has disappeared, and
even then it is inadvisable for such a person to return to any form of
dangerous lead work.
The electrical treatment of the injured nerves and muscles should
be undertaken energetically; both the galvanic or faradic currents
may be used. Probably the best form is the galvanic. A small
medicinal battery may be utilized, the method of application being as
follows: One pole of the battery should be placed over the affected
muscle, and the other pole placed in a basin of water into which the
patient’s hand is dipped. The current should then be passed. It is
better not to use a current of too great intensity, particularly at the
start, although it is found in practice that a much greater current can
be borne in the early stages of the treatment than when the muscles
and nerves commence to recover. As a rule the patient experiences
no inconvenience whatever from a considerable current during the
first week of his affection, but at the end of a fortnight or three weeks
less than one-third of the initial current can be borne. The current
should not be passed continuously, but should be used for a short
time and then shut off, being again switched on for five or six
minutes, and then again shut off. The applications may also be
modified by placing one hand in the vessel of water and stroking the
affected muscle and nerve with the free electrode. The application of
the current should be for not more than half an hour at a time, and
may be applied twice in the twenty-four hours. It is quite easy to
instruct the patient to perform the electrical treatment for himself in
this manner when the paresis is affecting either the upper or lower
extremity.
With the faradic current the circuit should be closed while the
current is at a minimum, and then the quantity of current raised to
some 15 to 20 milliampères.
For affections of the lower extremity the application may be made
by means of one of the usual baths in which the foot is immersed,
the other electrode being placed on the back or other suitable
position. If both the lower extremities are involved, then both feet
should be placed in a bath into each of which the source of electricity
is connected.
Ionization by means of the faradic current may also be made use
of. For this purpose one of the halogens, preferably iodine or
chlorine, should be used, it being remembered that chlorine and
iodine ions enter from the negative pole, so that in such a case the
bath in which the affected limb is placed must be connected with the
negative pole of the battery.
Subsequently, with either form of electrical treatment, the part
should be well rubbed, and passive movements as well as massage
are an advantage in promoting the return of normal function. As the
muscles gradually return towards their normal state, graduated
muscular exercises should be used.
When treated in the first week or two of the onset, lead paresis
frequently recovers, and in a person suffering from lead palsy for the
first time, confined only to the hands or to a group of muscles in the
shoulder, prognosis is good. The prognosis of palsy of the lower
limbs is not so good.
Paralysis of the facial nerve is occasionally seen in lead poisoning,
and where this occurs it should be treated as previously
recommended, by means of iodides in association with localized
electrical treatment. One pole of the battery should be placed below
the external auditory meatus, and the other one passed over the
face on the affected side.
In long-standing cases where no attempt has been made at
treatment in the early stages of the disease, and where considerable
muscle degeneration has already taken place, the prognosis as a
rule is very bad. Efforts should always be made in an early case by
passive movements and massage of the affected muscles to
improve their nutrition as far as possible. The diet should be light,
and alcohol should not be given at any time.
Affections of the Central Nervous System.—The typical form
of affection of the central cerebral nervous system caused by lead, is
lead encephalopathy. The disease may be insidious in its onset, and
may be preceded by a long stage of chronic headache with slight or
total remissions. Headaches may last for several months before the
actual acute stage of the disease is reached. In the examination of
several brains of persons who have died from lead encephalitis,
microscopic sections of the brain have shown signs of hæmorrhages
which must have taken place some considerable time prior to death,
and were no doubt associated with the headache that had been
complained of for some time previously, before the onset of the fatal
illness. (See Plate III.) Persistent headache occurring in a lead-
worker should always be regarded with grave suspicion, and such a
case should be treated on the assumption that it is an early case of

Orientalism and Imperialism From Nineteenth Century Missionary Imaginings To The Contemporary Middle East Andrew Wilcox

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Orientalism and Imperialism From Nineteenth Century Missionary Imaginings To The Contemporary Middle East Andrew Wilcox

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Orientalism and Imperialism From

Nineteenth Century Missionary

Melville and the idea of blackness race and imperialism

The Ottoman East in the Nineteenth Century Societies

From War to Peace in the Balkans the Middle East and

Book Traces: Nineteenth-Century Readers And The Future

From Melancholia To Depression: Disordered Mood In

From Sadat to Saddam The Decline of American Diplomacy

The Amorous Restoration : love, sex, and politics in

Emerging Scholarship on the Middle East and Central

Series editors: Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh and Lucian Stone

This series interrupts standardized discourses involving the Middle East

Other titles in this series include:

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First published in Great Britain 2018

Copyright © Andrew Wilcox, 2018

For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an extension of this

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Series: Suspensions: Contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamicate Thought

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3 Orientalism Through a Lens 61

4 Agents of Imperialism? 119

Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh and Lucian Stone

The deﬁnition of Kurdistan in academia has been and remains a notoriously

– Divine and human – whereas, according to Paul Clayton, the Nestorian

Formal hospitals were built in Kermanshah in 1882, in Teheran in 1890, and in

Therefore, part of the importance of missionary narratives lies in their role in

The Orientalist Critique

deﬁned as an institutionalized way of talking that regulates and reinforces action

and emotional realm. An interesting corollary of this expression of Orientalism

is equally clear that they were enmeshed in a Christian egalitarian world-view

Imperialism: an ambiguous concept

concerned with what might be termed representation, a broad engagement

The problem of representation as elaborated by Said in Orientalism is, thus,

I would venture, however, that we need to be cautious as to what message is taken

The chronological issue is of some importance, for if Aeschylus, Dante and

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