The lord of al-Munaytira wrote to 'Izz al-Din Abu l-'Asakir Sultan asking him to send him a physician, so as to cure some sick people. Sultan sent a Christian doctor from Shayzar named Thabit. He went to al-Munaytira, but returned after only ten days, saying he had been unable to help. His first patient was a Frankish knight with an abscess on his leg. He had applied a poultice, and it improved, but a Frankish doctor had ridiculed this treatment; instead of treating the abscess, he cut off the leg, leading to the knight's death. Next came an imbecile Frankish woman, whom Thabit cured by putting her on a diet to replace her previous food of garlic and mustard, which had led to the imbecility. But the same Frankish doctor shaved off her hair while allowing her to revert to her previous diet, so the imbecility returned. Then he incised her skull with a razor, peeled off the skin and rubbed it with salt, causing instant death. Thabit's medicine was useless. But Frankish medicine did have its successes: king Fulk had a villainous treasurer, a knight named Bernard, who had a nasty wound on his leg from a horse's kick, open in fourteen places. This was cured by a Frankish doctor who removed all ointments from it and washed it with vinegar. Abu l-Fath, an artisan from Shayzar, was once in Antioch on business with his son, who suffered badly from scrofula. A man from Antioch taught him an effective remedy, on condition that he did not ask for money to use it on others. The remedy, involving glasswort, olive oil, vinegar, burnt lead and ghee butter, was tried out by Usama, who guaranteed that it worked. Wiiliam of Bures, on a journey from Acre to Tiberias, told Usama and Mu'in al-Din Anar of a priest who, instead of laying on hands to cure a man, blocked his nose with wax to save him suffering