372 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



many hundreds of thousands of cases of gout which 

 doctors, through generations, have had to treat, really 

 much is known either as to its cause or as to its cure. 

 In my case it certainly was not brought about by port 

 wine drinking, either by myself or by any of my 

 forbears. Some say its cause is more mental than 

 physical and one is abjured not to worry, which is 

 often easier said than done. There is, however, one 

 consolation to those of gouty tendency : it takes a long 

 time to kill one ! And there are many worse ills to 

 which flesh is heir, though it is troublesome and 

 inconvenient, coming, as it does, like a thief in the 

 night and putting a ruthless embargo on one's activity. 

 In my earlier years I fought against it and carried on 

 my lectures and my laboratory work on crutches, but 

 after a while I found I had to lay up during the 

 attacks of the enemy. 



In the winter of 1892 we went by sea to Egypt, and 

 experienced the fact that the Mediterranean is the 

 most fickle of seas, especially on our return passage 

 from Alexandria to Brindisi, when we were caught by 

 a savage Levanter, and the lightly laden Hydaspes was 

 knocked about like a cork on the waters. One often 

 wonders how the Phoenicians and the Greeks and 

 Romans were able to voyage in their triremes and 

 similar cockleshells in seas subject to these tremendous 

 tempests. It is true that St. Paul was wrecked on the 

 island of Malta, but otherwise the losses by shipwreck 

 in old times do not appear to have been very serious. 

 I suppose they hugged the shore and were thus able 

 to avert disaster. 



There is no country in the world, in my opinion, at 

 the present time so interesting to the traveller as Egypt. 

 Not only have we ancient history laid visibly before 

 us to an extent impossible in any other country, for 



