Lack of general care and cleanliness is believed to be the chief cause of the disease. The strange apathy of the people, no doubt, has some influence in spreading the disease; for they seem to accept blindness as one of the decrees of Fate.
The world may well be proud of man's triumph over the forces of nature, upon viewing the Suez Canal. The construction of it was a scheme from the time of the greatest antiquity. It was left for France with her enterprise and science to achieve this brilliant victory over nature, and to add fame to her name through the accomplishment of so wonderful a feat.
It is an undisputed fact, that in the days of ancient history the Red Sea and the Mediterranean were indirectly connected by a canal. We can with no certainty, however, fix the date of its construction. Some writers place the date as far back as six hundred years before Christ.
The subject remains wrapped in mystery. Aristotle and Pliny ascribe its construction to a half-mythical personage. Some writers believe the Persian king, Darius, was its constructer. Others ascribe it to the Ptolemies, so that the originator and maker remain unknown.
Such a canal did exist. It began about a mile and a half from Suez, and extended in a northwesterly direction, through a remarkable series of natural depressions, to ancient Bubastis on the eastern branch of the Nile.
The canal was ninety-two miles long. Sixty miles of this extent had been cut through by the labor of man. The width varied from one hundred and eight to one hundred and sixty-five feet, the depth was fifteen feet. Pliny, an ancient writer, declared it to have been thirty feet deep.
History does not state how long the canal was used. It finally became choked with sand deposits and remained unused until the second century a.d., when it was cleared for navigation.
Again, in course of time, it became practically useless from sand deposits. It remained in this condition till the conquest of Egypt by Amron. He had it reopened and named it "The Canal of the Prince of the Faithful."
It remained open for nearly a century. In 767 a.d. the sands again conquered, and in this condition it was left till the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte. The attention of modern Europe was then directed to it. A number of engineers were employed to survey it and report upon it; but no result followed their report.
The subject continued to agitate the public mind from time to time; yet no definite action took place till 1847, when France, England, and Austria sent commissioners for the purpose of ascertaining accurately the difference in level of the two seas, the Red and the Mediterranean.