Savary remarks, that in Egypt each mother affords nourishment to her own infant, even in compliance with a command of the Prophet, and that this prevents many diseases. No doubt can exist that the milk of the mother, long secreted and reserved for the child, is the proper nourishment at the birth, and by its acrid quality tends to facilitate the evacuation of the fæces, accumulated during the period of gestation, much better than any thing that can be substituted in its room. But when this effect is once produced, in many cases the milk of any other woman may be better than that of the mother; nay, that of the mother may be insalubrious à principio; and it is as yet far from being proved, that the milk of the mother is in all cases the best possible milk for the child.
If the mother abstain not from the male embrace, and become gravid, the milk becomes, as is well known, poison to the offspring.—The Arabic language has even a single word to express, quæ lactans consuescit viro, which they conceive extremely injurious.
Opium (Ar. Aphiûm).
The use of opium, as is well known, is carried to excess in Constantinople. Some persons have so long accustomed themselves to that powerful drug, that a dose of two drams, or more, will have no effect in exhilarating them, or producing that agreeable stupor which they seek. In such cases, they will swallow, in a convenient vehicle, several grains, to the amount, it is said, of ten, of corrosive sublimate of mercury, as a stimulus.
This effect of opium, as an antidote to one of the strongest mineral poisons, appears incredible, and would scarcely have been related, but on authority the least questionable. A reflection has in consequence forced itself on me, which I offer as a query. Mithridates, king of Pontus, is said to have so fortified himself with antidotes, that when misfortune obliged him to have recourse to poison to terminate his existence, though repeatedly administered to him, under different forms, it had no effect. Pontus, at that time no less than at present, furnished the best opium. Could Mithridates have used any antidote so powerful? And was not this effect of that drug more likely to be known in its native country than any where else? It may possibly be replied, that mineral poisons were not then in use, and that to the small number of vegetable ones then known, many other antidotes, capable of producing the same effect, might have been found. It is not however enquired, whether single antidotes might not have been found to obviate the influence of distinct poisons, but what could produce so complete a change in the human body, as that no poison should have any effect on it?
Circumcision.
The practice of circumcision may be traced to such remote antiquity, that its origin baffles all research: yet apparently its history has not received all the illustration of which it is capable from a diligent collection of facts. It has been ascribed to the structure of the organs, in certain countries, which it is said impede coition, or facilitate the appearance of morbid symptoms. But what may have been perfectly true of individuals, it may perhaps not be permitted to assume with regard to a whole nation, much less with relation to the inhabitants of an extensive region.
Among the Fûrians circumcision appears to be no other than a religious ceremony, performed in compliance with an express command of the author of their faith; and it is very doubtful whether it was ever practised among them before their conversion to Mohammedism. It is now often neglected till the male have attained the age of eighteen or more years, and this omission seems to be considered by them as a matter of indifference; nor are there persons who habitually and regularly exercise that art, as in Egypt and other Mohammedan countries.
Excision.
The excision of females is a peculiarity with which the Northern nations are less familiar: yet it would appear, that this usage is more evidently founded on physical causes, and is more clearly a matter of convenience, than the circumcision of males, as it seems not to have been ordained by the precept of any inspired legislator. A practice so widely diffused, it may be said, was hardly invented but to remedy some inconvenience commensurate in its extent. But, if so, how happens it that one race of idolatrous negroes, near Fûr, has a habit of extracting two or more of the front teeth of children before puberty? That it is customary with another race, in the same quarter, to file the teeth to a point[52]? that other nations cut open a second mouth? and innumerable other singularities which prevail among savages, and are as little to be reduced to any principle of convenience or utility.