284 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



present in Egypt*, as well as in other parts of 

 Africa, and in the hottest zone of America, dogs 

 are never attacked with the canine madness. So 

 that observation contradicts a plausible presump- 

 tion, and apparently founded on natural principles, 

 namely, that madness must prevail in proportion 

 to the intensity of the heat ; a proposition contra- 

 dicted by facts, and they will throw, perhaps, 

 some light on the nature of this cruel malady, and 

 on the method of curing it. 



The dogs of Egypt are a race of tall greyhounds, 

 which would be very beautiful, were they cared for, 

 or if they were only less cruelly treated. In losing 

 the elegance of their forms, they ought to have, 

 one would think, no longer the same impress of the 

 qualities which, every where else, render them so 

 recommendable. Nevertheless theirinstinct, though 

 perhaps impaired, is by no means extinguished. 

 You see them going and coming through the most 

 frequented streets, and shunning to touch the 



* " M. Lecointre, who resided in Egypt, assures us that, in 

 " this country, the hydrophobia never appeared, and that at 

 " Aleppo, where there is a prodigious multitude of dogs of 

 " different species, roving about, abandoned to themselves, and 

 " without a master ; that there, where those animals perish in 

 " great numbers, for want of water and food, and by the heat 

 " of the climate, the hydrophobia never was seen." (Mem. on 

 the Means of curing the Hydrophobia, by M. de Matheis, in- 

 serted in the Biblioth. Physico-Econom. A. D, 17&4, p. 216.) 



clothe* 



