I08 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



of the malady, and felt no inconvenience whatever 

 from it. Three children, the produce of their 

 union, enjoyed equally the most perfect health. 

 This fact was confirmed to me by all those who 

 had a more particular acquaintance with the 

 family of this man. 



However, the leprosy of the joints, the red disease 

 of the colonies of America, is regarded there as a 

 very contagious malady, and they carefully separate 

 from society all those who are infected with it. 

 Broucht by the negroes of the coast of Guinea, it 

 extends its ravages there to the negroes of the 

 other parls of Africa, as it does to those who are 

 born in America, and even to Europeans who 

 cohabit with black women. The small degree of 

 malignity which a disease, cruel in other climates, 

 retains in Egypt, is then a favourable exception for 

 that of this country already privileged in other re- 

 spects. It even appears, that this influence of the 

 atmosphere does not confine itself to Egypt alone, 

 and that it extends to other countries of the-^East. 

 Indeed M. Niebuhrhas remarked that at Bombay, 

 v/here the leprosy is not rareamongthecommonalty 

 of the Indians, It cannot be malignant, for they 

 allow, without difficulty, those who are diseased 

 with it, to work with those who are in good 

 health *. 



. * Pescription of Arabia, page 121, 



Whilst 



