From this last case, as well as from many others similar, but too numerous here to recapitulate, it appears that the human constitution requires a certain miasma, to prepare it to receive the pestilential infection.
General Observation.—When the carbuncles or buboes appeared to have a blackish rim round their base, the case of that patient was desperate, and invariably fatal. Sometimes the whole body was covered with black spots like partridge-shot; such patients always fell victims to the disorder, and those who felt the blow internally, shewing no external disfiguration, did not survive more than a few hours.
The plague, which appears necessary to carry off the overplus of encreasing population, visits this country about once in every twenty years: the last visitation was in 1799 and 1800, being more fatal than any ever before known.
The Mohammedans never postpone burying their dead more than twenty-four hours; in summer it would be offensive to keep them longer, for which reason they often inter the body a few hours after death; they first wash it, then lay it on a wooden tray, without any coffin, but covered with a shroud of cotton cloth; it is thus borne to the grave by four men, followed by the relations and friends of the deceased, chaunting, (La Allah illa Allah wa Mohammed rassul Allah.) There is no God but the true God, and Mohammed is his prophet. The body is deposited in the grave with the head towards Mecca, each of the two extremities of the sepulchre being marked by an upright stone. It is unlawful to take fees at an interment, the bier belongs to the (Jamâ) mosque, and is used, free of expense, by those who apply for it. The cemetery is a piece of ground uninclosed, attached to some sanctuary, outside of the town, for the Mohammedans do not allow the dead to be buried among the habitations of the living, or in towns; they highly venerate the burying-places, and, whenever they pass them, pray for the deceased.
Diseases.—The inhabitants of this country, besides the plague already described, are subject to many loathsome and distressing diseases.
Many of the cities and towns of Marocco are visited yearly by malignant epidemies, which the natives call fruit-fevers; they originate from their indulgence in fruit, which abounds throughout this fertile garden of the world. The fruits deemed most febrile are musk-melons, apricots, and all unripe stone fruits. Alpinus, de Medicina Egyptiorum, says, “Autumno grassantur febres pestilentiales multæ quæ subdole invadunt, et sæpe medicum et ægrum decipiunt.”
Jedrie (Small-pox).—Inoculation for this disease appears to have been known in this country long before we were acquainted with it in Europe. The Arabs of the Desert make the incision for inoculation with a sharp flint. Horses and cattle are very much subject to the jedrie: this disease is much dreaded by the natives; the patient is advised to breathe in the open air. The fatality of this disease may proceed, in a great measure, from the thickness of the skin of the Arabs, always exposed to the sun and air, which, preventing the effort which nature makes to throw the morbid matter to the surface, tends to throw it back into the circulation of the blood.
Mjinen and Baldness.—Children are frequently affected with baldness; and the falling sickness is a common disease; the women are particularly subject to it; they call it m’jinen, i.e. possessed with a spirit.
Head-ache, Bowel Complaints, and Rheumatism.—The head-ache is common, but it is only temporary, arising generally from a suddenst oppage of perspiration, and goes off again on using exercise, which, in this hot climate, immediately causes perspiration. The stomach is often relaxed with the heat, and becomes extremely painful, this they improperly call (Ujah el Kulleb) the heart ache. They are frequently complaining of gripings, and universal weakness, which are probably caused by the water they continually drink; they complain also of (Ujah el Adem) the bone-ache, rheumatism, which is often occasioned by their being accustomed to sit on the ground without shoes.
(Bu Telleese) Nyctalopia.—This ophthalmic disease is little known in the northern provinces; but in Suse and Sahara it prevails. A defect of vision comes on at dusk, but without pain; the patient is deprived of sight, so that he cannot see distinctly, even with the assistance of candles. During my residence at Agadeer, in the quality of agent for the ci-devant States General of the United Provinces, a cousin of mine was dreadfully afflicted with this troublesome disease, losing his sight at evening, and continuing in that state till the rising sun. A Deleim Arab, a famous physician, communicated to me a sovereign remedy, which being extremely simple, I had not sufficient faith in his prescription to give it a trial, till reflecting that the simplicity of the remedy was such as to preclude the possibility of its being injurious: it was therefore applied inwardly; and twelve hours afterwards, to my astonishment, the boy’s eyes were perfectly well, and continued so during twenty-one days, when I again had recourse to the same remedy, and it effected a cure, on one administration, during thirty days, when it again attacked him; the remedy was again applied with the same beneficial effect as before.