The plague which happened in Egypt so early as the year 1348, when Constantinople was yet subject to the Greek emperor, and Egypt in possession of Mohammedans, may be supposed to have originated in the latter. But not to mention that there were many other places from which it might be brought, this single instance, not given in detail, is insufficient to overthrow the testimony of the modern inhabitants, who with one consent affirm, whether Mohammedans or Christians, that the plague is not endemial in Egypt, but that all the instances of it which they are able to trace are proved to have been derived from abroad.
The learned Dr. Mead has brought the plague from Ethiopia, where famine and the small-pox indeed carry off numbers; but where the plague was never known to exist. It is not remembered to have penetrated far into the Upper Egypt, except in some few instances, when it was known to have been carried thither by the boats from Kahira. No more is required to account for its introduction into Egypt at this day, than the admission, that it is never completely extinct at Constantinople, which, it seems, has scarcely been denied.
The imagination of one of our poets has drawn the pestilence from the filth of Kahira, and the mud of the Nile. But, not to mention that there is less disposition to fermentation and putrefaction in the atmosphere of Egypt, than in almost any other that I have heard described, Kahira is very far from being impure. No offensive substance remains in the streets twenty-four hours; and even what is left to annoy passengers in London and Paris for months, is there carried away and preserved for burning.
The mud of the Nile becomes dry in a very short space of time after the water has left it, except in the canal (Chalige) which is indeed not very odoriferous; but so far from emitting pestilential exhalations, that the Franks who especially dwell close to it, are never infected with the plague, and are in general among the most healthy of the inhabitants of that metropolis.
Small-pox.
The small-pox is a disease much dreaded by the people of Soudân, whether Moors or Negroes, and little less by the Bedouins of Egypt. The Christians of Kahira are many of them in the habit of inoculating. A few of the Mohammedans use the same practice. It is however almost impossible to persuade them to adopt our mode of treatment.
Independently of the general ill consequence of improper management of the patient, the chief reason of the extraordinary fatality of this complaint among the negroes, appears to be the thickness of the skin, which resisting the effort of nature to protrude the morbid matter to the surface, tends to throw it back into the circulation. A proprietor of slaves, who was rather anxious for the conservation of his property, than scrupulous in his attachment to religious prejudice, desired me to inoculate five of them. A strong dose of senna was administered as preparative, and they were afterwards restrained as to diet. Three of them had not in the whole forty pustules, and soon recovered. The other two suffered much; and the eruption, though not confluent, proved fatal to one of them. Whether he had caught it before, been improperly treated, or whether it was the effect of habit of body, was not clear. These were of the true negro cast, called, Fertît. They were all under twelve years of age.
Guinea Worm.
The Mohammedans of Fûr, and the Arabs, call the idolaters in their neighbourhood Fertît, (فرتيت à فرت improbus fuit). The disease called the Guinea Worm is known among them by the same name. It is extremely common, and very troublesome to the slaves, and sometimes to free persons. It is by some esteemed contagious, which however is rather surmised than certified. It consists of a whitish tumour, at first hard and painful. Often shews itself about the knee, in the fleshy part of the thigh, and in the foot, just below the instep. As it is matured, a small white worm appears, which is to be wound off by degrees, and in coming out is followed by the discharge of purulent matter. If broken in the extraction, it is sometimes very inconvenient, and often lasts four or even six months. There is no certain cure for this disease, which most frequently shews itself in the beginning of winter, after the rains; but generally disappears at the commencement of the hot season. It seems to originate in the water, which is replete with animalcules, and which no care is used to purify.
They find by the termination of the tumour the extremity of the worm, which they call wullad-el-Fertît, and in that spot, puncture the skin with a red-hot iron, which they conceive forces it out; but which always appeared to me a painful operation, without any kind of effect. There is observed in some individuals a greater disposition to this disease than in others, but it is not confined to age, sex, or colour.