THE SOURCE GF THE NILE. 4S3 



journey down the defert, to which Heaven, in pity to man- 

 kind, has confined it, and where it has, no doubt, contribu- 

 ted to the total extindtion of every thing that hath the breath 

 of hfe. A thermometer graduated upon this fcale would 

 exhibit a figure very different from the common one ; fori 

 am convinced by experiment, that a web of the fineft muf- 

 Jin, wrapt round the body at tiennaai-, will occafion at mid- 

 day a greater fenfation of heat in the body than the rife of 

 5° in the thermometer of Fahrenheit, 



At Sennaar, from 70° to 78° in Fahrenheit's thermometer 

 is cool ; from 79° to 92° temperate ; at 92" begins warm. 

 Although the degree of the thermometer marks a greater 

 heat than is felt by the body of us ftrangers, it feems to me 

 that the fenfations of the natives bear Hill a lefs proportion 

 to that degree than ours. On the 2d of Auguft, while I 

 was lying perfeftly enervated on a carpet, in a room delu- 

 ged with water, at twelve o'clock, the thermometer at 116°, 

 I law feveral black labourers pulling down a houfe, work- 

 ing with great vigour, without any fymptoms of being at 

 all incommoded. 



The difeafes of Sennaar are the dyfentery, or bloody flux, 

 fatal in proportion as it begins with the firft of the rains, or 

 the end of them, and return of the fair weather. Intermit- 

 ting fevers accompany this complaint very frequently, 

 which often ends in them. Bark is a fovereign remedy in 

 this country, and feems to be by fo much the furer, that it 

 purges on taking the firft doze, and this it does almoft with- 

 out exception, hpilepfies and fchirrous livers are like wife 

 very frequent, owing, as is fuppofed, to their defeating or 

 /liminifhing perfpiration, or flopping the pores by conftant 



.3 P 2 uncTiion^ 



