AND LOWER EGYPT. 275 



which their women wash themselves after lying-in. 

 A man gave me positive assurance, that he had 

 been freed by this means of several external symp- 

 toms which had entirely disappeared; but even if 

 this account had been entitled to credit, it was 

 nevertheless certain that his cure was merely pal- 

 liative ; for this very man was constantly com- 

 plaining of violent pains in his limbs, and parti- 

 cularly in the joints. At Cairo, and in the other 

 cities of Lower Egypt, the treatment is more me- 

 thodical : they administer for the space of forty 

 days the decoction of sarsaparilla ; the regimen 

 consists in eating nothing during that time, except 

 unleavened bread and honey. After that they 

 prescribe large potations of brandy. 



I observed that intermitting fevers were very 

 uncommon in Egypt. When they do appear, the 

 symptoms in general only continue for five or six 

 days, at the expiration of which period they either 

 cease altogether, or they become malignant fevers. 

 The Arabian name for fever is shone. The un- 

 wholesome food of the greater part of the inhabit- 

 ants generates an immense quantity of worms in 

 the intestines ; the Egyptians of the Said call 

 them /mowj'^'. There are few men in this country 

 who are not subject to the bloody piles: when 

 they swell and become very painful, they are 



T 2 usually 



