352 NOETH-EAST APEICA. 



better still in the desert, as was shown by the medical statistics taken while the 

 heavy works were in progress for the construction of the Suez Canal. Egypt is 

 even visited in winter by a number of European invalids, especially those suffering 

 from affections of the chest. But the large cities of Cairo and Alexandria, where 

 the streets are constantly swept by whirlwinds of dust, do not appear to be the 

 best places of residence for persons subject to these complaints. Here in fact 

 consumption commits great ravages amongst immigrants from the Upper Nile, and 

 every year carries off numerous victims, even amongst the natives. In Cairo a 

 seventh part of the mortality is due to pulmonary affections, and in the military 

 hospitals as many as one-third of the deaths has sometimes been caused by tuber- 

 culosis. But the maladies Europeans have most to dread are dysentery and, in 

 certain parts of the delta, marsh fevers. Hepatitis, a " specific poisoning of the 

 liver," almost unknown amongst the Mohammedans, who abstain from alcoholic 

 drinks, is very common among Europeans, owing to their less careful habits. 



The chief disorders of the natives are such as may be attributed to their abject 

 poverty. The plague, formerly so terrible, and which in 1834 and 1835 carried 

 off 45,000 persons in Alexandria, and 75,000 in Cairo, has ceased its ravages in the 

 Nile Valley. Even cholera, which in 1883 converted Damietta into a vast 

 hospital, now confines its periodical visitations to a very restricted area. But on 

 the other hand anemia, caused by insufficient nourishment, is everywhere endemic 

 and fatal, especially to children. In no other country are blind and one-eyed 

 persons so numerous as in Egypt. On landing at the quays of Alexandria the 

 stranger is at once struck by the effects of contagious ophthalmia amongst the 

 crowds clamouring around him, and this first impression is confirmed by his sub- 

 sequent observations and supported by statistical returns.* Poverty of blood, the 

 reflection of the light on the white walls and on the surface of the river, the 

 sudden changes of temperature, and especially the saline and nitrous dust formed 

 by the decomposition of the Nilotic mud and raised in whirlwinds by the breeze, 

 are the chief causes to which must be attributed these dangerous ophthalmic 

 affections. Nevertheless the Bedouins of the desert are nearly all endowed with 

 excellent sight. The flies, the " plague of Egypt," certainly contribute much to 

 foster and aggravate these disorders. " W^hen one sees the normal fly-ridden 

 countenances of the Egyptian children, it is impossible to be surprised at the 

 enormous proportion of blind or one-eyed adults. Ophthalmia arises in various 

 ways ; but it is undoubtedly propagated by flies, and to the carelessness and pre- 

 judice of mothers and the un cleanness of infants must be ascribed a good deal of 

 its prevalence. The women think it is unlucky to wash a baby's face, and prefer 

 to let him go blind all his life to removing the pestilential flies that cover his eyes 

 like a patch of court -plaster."! They lose even the strength to drive away the 

 swarms of their tormentors, and patiently wait for sleep to relieve them from their 

 sufferings. 



Leprosy, although less common than in Syria, has unfortunately not dis- 



* Proportion of persons sufferinc: I'rom ophthalmic disorder.s in Egypt, according to Amici : 1 7 per cent, 

 t " Social Life in Egypt," page 59. 



