In the cure of the simple gonorrhea, a decoction of mallows is commonly used, and they seem to place their chief confidence in diuretics. I never heard of an injection, but from those who were acquainted with European practice. Certain herbs and roots macerated, are applied locally in case of inflammation and tension (chordee).
Shankers, &c. externally, are repeatedly washed with soap and water, and then kept covered with the red earth above mentioned. I never saw the effect, but the cure is said to be rapid.
In Dar-Fûr I have not observed the venereal disease more formidable than in Egypt. I saw a few individuals who were mutilated in the organs of generation by its effects.
The old women, who are physicians in ordinary, use a decoction of certain roots, of which I never came at the knowlege, infused in bouza, which appear to operate successfully. Gleets are frequent; and continued indulgence produces early debility and impotence.
The great advantages of the étuves, or warm baths, is evident in very many instances in Kahira. But it is difficult to admit Savary’s assertion (vol. i. p. 108) in its full extent, viz. that they operate as a radical cure of the venereal disease. They doubtless assuage many of its graver symptoms.
In no country are pulmonary diseases more rare than in Egypt, which could not happen if the baths had any tendency to cause them.
Leprosy.
The leprosy is more frequent in Syria than in Egypt. It exists however in the latter country, with all its concomitants of swelled and distorted joints, a livid, spotted, parched, and cracked skin, &c.
I have seen it under all its forms of Borras, Jiddâm, &c. In Kahira there is no provision for the unhappy sufferers, who are allowed to beg about the streets, but forbidden by their religion from the contact of others, and excluded from society by an inefficient police. I have heard of a cure of the leprosy in its worst stage, by the use of corrosive sublimate in small doses. The natives seem not to know any specific.
In Dar-Fûr, the Borras, which is not uncommon, gives to the blacks the appearance of being pyebald, changing to white both the skin and hair. A case of, what I was convinced was Jiddâm, beginning in the hands, was cured under my observation by a slave, a native of the kingdom called Baghermi, but the means he had used he could not be prevailed on to disclose.