b 



Medicine. 183 



tion it was found to possess a slight aromatic taste, to be more 

 tonic and very superior to common brandy. The coffee also 

 was much altered ; when roasted it was more bitter than common 

 coffee, and left in the mouth a taste similar to that of an infu- 

 sion of bark. 



It is to be observed that the bark which produced all these 

 effects was fresh ; and the question whether that of commerce 

 would produce the same effects can only be answered by 

 experiment. 



3. The African Plague. — His Majesty's ship, which was lying- 

 in the port of Alexandria, when Colonel Fitzclarence passed 

 through Egypt, from India, on his way to England, convoyed to 

 Tangier a vessel which had on board two of the sons of Muley 

 Soliman, emperor of Morocco ; on their arrival at Tangier, the 

 princes immediately landed and proceeded to their father at Fas ; 

 but it was discovered by the governor or alkaid of Tangier, 

 that during the passage some persons had died; and accordingly 

 the Alkaid would not suffer any of the passengers to land, ex- 

 cept the princes, until he should have received orders from the 

 emperor how to act; he accordingly wrote to Fas, for the im- 

 perial orders, and in the mean time the princes arrived, and 

 presented themselves to die emperor : the latter wrote to the 

 alkaid, that as the princes had been suffered to land, it would 

 be unjust to prohibit the other passengers from coming ashore 

 also. He therefore ordered the alkaid to suffer all the passen- 

 gers, together with their baggage, to be landed, and soon 

 afterwards the plague appeared at Fas, and at Tangier. Thus 

 the contagion which is now ravaging west Barbary was im- 

 ported from Egypt. It docs not appear that the mortality is, 

 or has been during its acme at Fas, any thing comparable to 

 what it was during the plague that ravaged this country in 

 1799* and which carried off more than two-thirds of the 

 population of the empire. 



* It has been aEserted by a physician wliu has lately written, Observa- 

 tion» on Contagion, as it relates to tlm Plague and other cjndemtcal diseases. 



