1839] Regeneration of Medicine in Egypt. 403 



under Clot Bey, it decorated him at length with the title and degree 

 of Professor attached to the Museum of Natural History, an office 

 with which he is still invested, with general satisfaction, uniting as 

 he does to a brilliant genius an excellent heart, that renders him ac- 

 ceptable and dear to all his acquaintance and friends. 



Besides the alumni educated (well or ill) in the Abou-Zabel College, 

 the Pacha sent to Europe, especially to France, about one hundred 

 Egyptian lads, with the view of thus diffusing the enlightenment and 

 civilization of this era throughout his dominions, and of acquiring at 

 the same time the reputation of a prince who was a philosopher, a 

 philanthropist, and a munificent patron of the sciences. The result of 

 the second experiment was not much happier than that of the first, as 

 the youths did not take back with them that useful assortment of 

 science that was expected ; so that with the exception of a scanty 

 number, the major part of them afforded to the Pacha no great source 

 of congratulation for the trial he had made. 



Vaccination was introduced into Egypt about the year 1824, 

 through the beneficent designs of the venerable Chev. Drovetti, 

 whose continual traits of philanthropy resemble so many globules im- 

 pregnated with vitality, which animate and give life to whoever receive 

 them. With the approbation of his superiors, he formed a commission 

 consisting of two Italian physicians, Massara and Cant, and of one 

 Frenchman, M. Dumas, for the purpose of propagating in the interior 

 of the country the practice of so precious an invention. This commis- 

 sion, provided by the never-sufficiently commendable Chev. Drovetti 

 with all the necessaries, encountered in the discharge of their duties 

 immense difficulties and perils, so much so, that in the province of 

 Menoufic a general insurrection was very near breaking out, as the 

 Arabs, especially the women,* supposed that the incisions made on the 

 arms of their infants, far from being a salutary antidote, were a politi- 

 cal stratagem of the Pacha, whose object was to impress on the persons 

 of his subjects an indelible mark, so as afterwards to be enabled to 

 distinguish and kidnap them with greater facility into the military 

 levies, and other raisings of men for the accomplishment of his vast 

 enterprises ; so that after long and fruitless attempts the vaccination 

 emissaries were compelled to desist and give up all hopes of success ; 

 and thus among the Arabs became extinct the practice of Jenner's 

 antidote, which is doubtless one of the finest gifts bestowed by Pro- 

 vidence on mankind in modern times. This is a great fatality for 

 Egypt, where the small-pox frequently causes mortality in the extreme. 



* It is calculated that the proportion of women at present in Egypt, is a third great- 

 er than that of men. 



3 G 



