398 Regeneration of Medicine in Egypt. [May, 



military, still the indigent sick of all the surrounding villages obtain 

 there gratuitous succour and advice. 



The internal government of the Hospital, and in general all its 

 various departments, were scrupulously modelled after the Hospitals of 

 Europe. 



The utility of the establishment in question being rapidly under- 

 stood, with that evidence which is so necessary to influence the indo- 

 lent spirits of the Easterns, other minor Hospitals began to be gradually 

 instituted in various quarters of the country, there being at present 

 six, beside several Infirmaries ; viz. one at Cairo, named Esbequich ; 

 one at Kassr-el-ain, for the alumni of the elementary School-house ; 

 a third at Furrah ; a fourth at Damietta ; and the fifth and sixth at 

 Alexandria for the army and navy troops. 



Prior to the year 1834, there was no Hospital specially intended for 

 non-military patients. The decree issued about that period by his 

 Highness may be considered an interesting piece of novelty, because 

 one of the Alexandria Hospitals, which had been originally destined 

 for the navy, was then thrown open indiscriminately to all, whether 

 Arabians or Christians, or of any other persuasion, as well subjects as 

 foreigners, if destitute of means. 



Although that was perhaps the effect of the wise Reformer's 

 policy, it was nevertheless a remarkable token of progress, when we 

 reflect on the antipathy that had for the past divided the Mahometans 

 from the professors of every other creed. 



With regard to the Hospital of Abou-Zabel, and the two others of 

 Alexandria, especially that denominated Ras-el-tim, it can be affirm- 

 ed, without flattery, that they are in a most satisfactory state at pre- 

 sent, and that they might be honorably compared with many similar 

 institutions in Europe. The others, mostly the work of Arabs, and 

 imperfect copies of the former prototypes, still retain the impress of 

 antique barbarism, and to them may be justly applied the words 

 of the divine Poet : 



" Non ragioniara di lor, ma garda e pass."* 



Following the example of Constantinople, Smyrna, and other cities 

 of the Levant, the European powers that hold commercial intercourse 

 with Egypt established an Hospital in Alexandria for their respective 

 subjects, with this difference however, that while in the above named 

 cities each European nation has it own Hospital apart, in Alexandria, 

 considering the minor number of European strangers, they deemed 

 one Hospital, to be managed with common funds and laws, would 



* " Let us not speak of them, but look and pass on."— Dante. 



