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ment of the present century it had dwiudled down to 

 two-and-a-half milHons, and now Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 

 a most competent authority, estimates the population at 

 one-and-a-half million. Cheapness of food, simple diet, 

 steady industry, combined with a paternal government, 

 and a most salubrious climate to afford universally health 

 and longevity to the children of the Egyptian Avomeri, 

 who were ever celebrated for their fecundity, yielding- 

 occasionally, according to Aristotle, five children, or even, 

 according to Pliny and Strabo, and not so rarelj' as to 

 make it a prodigy, seven children at a birth ! 



It is unnecessary to dwell long on the climate of Alex- 

 andria, as nearly all that is needed on the subject has 

 been already laid before the public in the writings of 

 more competent and experienced observers. 



It seems, however, sufficiently evident that Alexandria 

 is not a place which an invalid from this coiuitry would 

 willingly select for a winter's residence, for, though during 

 the summer rain rarely if ever falls, it does so frequently 

 and abundantly in winter, and the temperature then is also 

 low and unequal. Even during the period when the sky 

 is clear and no rain falls, the air is saturated Avith moisture 

 and occasions in the invalid a feeling of languor and 

 oppression. Besides, the lake Mareotis, with its mixture 

 of fresh and sea waters, and the numerous ancient under- 

 ground cisterns, sadly tend to render Alexandria the abode 

 of fever, ophthalmia, and dyscntry. It is calcidated, from 

 the returns of the last twenty years, that one-tenth of the 

 entire population die off annually from fever alone. Dj- 

 sentry here, as throughout the Delta, is very destructive 

 at certain seasons, and ophthalmia in its mild and severe 

 forms is met with in every direction. Dyspepsia is very 

 prevalent among the European residents, and tlie sufferers 

 from bronchitis are numerous. The cholera has also had 

 in its visitations a larger share of victims here than in most 

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