NOTE 1. - Yarkan or Yarken seems to be the general pronunciation of the
name to this day, though we write YARKAND.
[A Chinese traveller, translated by M. Gueluy (Desc. de la Chine
occidentales, p. 41), says that the word Yarkand is made of Iar,
earth, and Kiang (Kand?), large, vast, but this derivation is
doubtful. The more probable one is that Yarkand is made up of Yar, new,
and Kand, Kend, or Kent, city. - H. C.]
Mir 'Izzat Ullah in modern days speaks of the prevalence of goitre at
Yarkand. And Mr. Shaw informs me that during his recent visit to Yarkand
(1869) he had numerous applications for iodine as a remedy for that
disease. The theory which connects it with the close atmosphere of valleys
will not hold at Yarkand. (J. R. A. S. VII. 303.)
[Dr. Sven Hedin says that three-fourths of the population of Yarkand are
suffering from goitre; he ascribes the prevalence of the disease to the
bad quality of the water, which is kept in large basins, used
indifferently for bathing, washing, or draining. Only Hindu and
"Andijdanlik" merchants, who drink well water, are free from goitre.
Lieutenant Roborovsky, the companion of Pievtsov, in 1889, says: