213 



for very numerous carefully made observations have 

 demonstrated tlie contrary. 



It is an interesting fact that the temperature of the Nile 

 water was never found to be lower than 56° Fah., generally 

 about 60° Fah., the difference being due to the sandbanks 

 and depth of current, whilst the surrounding atmosphere 

 was often from ten to fifteen degrees lower, — the mean 

 of the minima being 52^° F., and if we deduct the bright 

 night temperature of Nubia, which, on the 8th February, 

 1857, at Derr reached 70° P„ the mean of the minima would 

 be below 50° F. Mr. Spencer Wells found the mean minima 

 in a voyage up the Nile, in 1849-50, to be only 45° Fah., 

 and I am informed that the mean of the minima of the 

 last winter (1857-58,) was still lower. 



All writers of any authority agree in the ancient salubrity 

 of Egypt, and the great longevity of its inhabitants,though 

 they may differ as to the causes. A recent writer, however, 

 (J. A. St. John, in his Egypt and Nubia,) states that " it 

 was observed by the ancients, that of all manldnd the 

 Egyptians were the shortest lived." The very contrary 

 is the fact. The unanimous voice of antiquity told it, 

 but it is only necessary to cite a few authors. Prosper 

 Alpinus, a most competent authority, has devoted a whole 

 chapter to this subject in his Medictna Egyptica. He 

 there distinctly states, that the Egyptians lived to a much 

 more advanced age than any other nation ; — " very many 

 of them lived to more than a hundred years, and for the 

 most part, the life allotted to them is of ninety years 

 duration." He attributes this longevity to the climate 

 and their mode of living. They were very temperate 

 both in their food and drink, using for the latter httle 

 more than the Nile water, and contrasting very strikingly 

 and favourably in both these particulars with Europeans, 

 and especially Britons, Gaiils, Dutcli, Germans, and Poles, 

 who drank wine and beer freely, and used large quajitities 



