DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME 87 



control of their own consuls only, and the sanitary 

 authority had no power. Each colony is self-con- 

 tained, and will brook no interference from officials 

 of the Egyptian Government. The consuls were 

 often haughty personages of their respective diplo- 

 matic corps, and it was frequently found a hopeless 

 undertaking to appeal to them for help, though some 

 of them assisted in every way. We were forced to 

 employ every ingenuity to gain our object public 

 health. It is to be hoped that others will not meet 

 with these unnecessary difficulties, but they are set 

 down here from the store-book of experience so that 

 he who runs may read, overcome, or steer clear of 

 them. Perhaps in the place of the difficulties en- 

 countered in Egypt others will arise elsewhere, and 

 they will have to be surmounted in a like manner ; 

 they can be surmounted, that is the chief thing. If 

 there are laws that will assist in the prohibition of 

 stagnant water, they may be enforced if necessary. 

 But where persuasion will obtain the same result, it 

 should be employed for preference. Popular admin- 

 istration does more for the community than despot- 

 lism, and it is more lasting. 



