A'olires respcclifig Atvc Ecoki. 's\5 



rinder the above circumstances, ue expect a most ttrrible 

 disease. 



" The dry parching wind, which comes over tlie desert, 

 a/id which at certain sessojis blows in Egypt and in Arabia, i-s 

 well known, and was often severelv lilt by the army on their 

 march, both across tlie desert and the isthnuis of Suez. 

 'I'he whirlwinds <jf Siind rail with great iinpetaosity, are 

 very troublesome, and insinnate fine sand and dust every 

 where. It is hardly possible to keep the minute particles 

 out of the eves. 



" The dews, which fall in Egypt, I always heard were 

 very heavy, and were a cause of tlie diseases of the couutry- 

 l had occasion too, moretluiu once, to hear the natives at- 

 tribute much to them as the cause of their diseases ; with 

 what justice T will not pretend to decide. From some ex- 

 periments which I made in India, on the Red Sea, and lastly 

 in Egvpl, f am inclined to thurk that they are equally heavy 

 in the two former as in the latter quarter. After wciirhing 

 the matter carefully, I took a quantity of lint, twelve inches 

 square, exposed it for a night to the dew, and, by weighing 

 it in the morning again, ascertained the quantity which k 

 liad gained. I am aware that this is by no means a nice ex- 

 periment, and that in the performance of it several particu- 

 lars demand attention ; but it is sufficient to our pur[X)se, 

 and I learned by it, that, in the island of Bombay, on the 

 Red Sea, and in Lower Egypt, the quantity of dew Vvhich 

 falls is nearly equal. 



*' It ougjit to be mentioned, that, during the year wc 

 were in E^ypt, the season was not the usual one. TherE 

 was a greater overflow of the Nile. It rose higher on the 

 Nilometer than it had done for several former years, and it 

 was remarked to be much later in subsiding at Rosetta. 



*' The fall of rain at Alexandria was greater than on for- 

 mer years; and, at Rv)setta, the rains were in setting-in later 

 than usual. The season of the plague set-in much earlier 

 than usual*. 



**■ In general, the Thebaid, or Upper Egypt, is healthier 

 than the Lower. Never were troops more healthy than tlie 

 army when encamped near Glienne. 



" (ihiza, the antient Memphis, at the time the army 

 disembarked th(.re from Upper Egypt, wc found to be a 

 very unhealthy quarter. For a considerable time, aud im- 

 mediately before the arrival of the Indian army, it had been 



* These circumstances I learned from a meribcr of the French Institute, 

 and Irom the Pii.irnjacien en Chiifto tiie Fieiich army, who often related to 

 mt tka order which Bonaparte ;^ave hint to puison the wounded with OiliuniJ 



the 



