Scientific luldllgeuce — Aiitkrupulogy. 185 



Plague. By M. de Segur Dupeyron. — M. de Segur Dupey- 

 ron had already attempted to prove that the plague comes to 

 Europe chiefly from Egypt. This proposition not having been 

 generally admitted, he has thought it necessary to develop fur- 

 ther this part of his researches. In examining the correspon- 

 dence of the consuls preserved in the archives of the I^oreign Office, 

 M. de Segur has found that two circumstances are indicated, 

 which, in certain cases, may produce the plague in Egypt. 

 These circumstances are, 1. Famine ; 2. Malignant Fevers. But 

 famine in Egypt is generally caused by the too great or too small 

 rise of the Nile. After a small inundation, little of the land 

 having been irrigated, but a small portion can be sown ; and 

 after a great overflow the waters require a long time to retire, 

 and the seed-time passes before all the grain has been deposited 

 in the earth. Hence M. de Segur has searched in Arabian 

 authors for information regarding the height attained by the 

 Nile, in the greatest possible number of overflowings, and he has 

 inquired if, in the years corresponding to the too small and too 

 great inundations, the plague has not existed somewhere. His 

 investigations have been limited to the period comprised between 

 the middle of the tenth century, and the middle of the fifteenth, 

 because the works which he has been able to consult, notice 

 only the inundations during that epoch. Of fifty to fifty-five 

 » plagues that have occurred in Europe during these five cen- 

 turies, forty coincide with the too great or loo small risings of 

 the Nile. As the great work on Egypt contains a table of the 

 heights of the river from 1737 to 1800, the author has been able 

 to ascertain if in that number of years the plague occurred in 

 the country after unfavourable inundations, and he has found 

 that of fourteen plagues which took place during the period, 

 thirteen coincide with the bad inundations which produce 

 famine. After an examination of the correspondence of the 

 consuls in Syria, and in the islands of the Archipelago, M. 

 de Segur endeavours to prove, 1. That the plague prevailed in 

 Syria and the Archipelago only after it had previously mani- 

 fested itself in Egypt ; 2. That the famine in Syria and the 

 Archipelago has been followed only by malignant fevers, and 

 never by the plague, unless when it existed in Egypt ; and he 

 concludes, that the famine in Syria and the islands of the Archi- 



VOL. XXI. NO. XM. JUI.Y 1880. N 



