Hydrophobia is entirely unknown in West Barbary, which is the more extraordinary, as dogs abound every where, are frequently destitute of water, and suffer intolerably from heat and exposure to the sun.
Hernia.—Cases of hernia are sometimes met with, though not so frequently as in Europe.
They have no effectual remedy for any of the before mentioned diseases; their whole materia medica consists, with little exception, of herbs and other vegetables, from their knowledge of the medical virtues of which much might be learned by European physicians. Bleeding is a general remedy for various complaints; the healthy let blood once a year. Scarification on the forehead, at the back of the head, below the root of the hair, on the loins, the breast, and the legs is generally practised in cases of violent head-ache proceeding from an obstructed perspiration.
The classification of remedies among the Arabs is remarkably simple, the two grand divisions are refrigerants and heating medicines: they quote some ancient Arabian, who says,
| Shrub Dim | Wine produces blood. |
| El Ham el Ham | Meat produces flesh. |
| Khubs Adem | Bread produces bone. |
| U el bakee makan | But all other things produce no good. |
FOOTNOTES:
[147]See the Author’s observations, in a letter to Mr. Willis, in Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1805.
[148]See [page 105.]
[149]I have been informed that there are still at Marocco, apartments wherein the dead were placed; and that after the whole family was swept away the doors were built up, and remain so to this day.
[150]There died, during the whole of the above periods, in the city of Marocco, 50,000; in Fas, 65,000; in Mogodor, 4,500; and in Saffy, 5,000; in all 124,500 souls!