184 



DISEASES. 



weeks : secondaries are to be feared ; noses dis- 

 appear, the hair falls off, and rheumatism and 

 spreading ulcers result. Gonorrhoea is so com- 

 mon that it is hardly considered a disease. Eew 

 strangers live long here without suffering from 

 irritation of the bladder, the result, it is said, of 

 hard lime-water : and the common effect of a 

 cold or of stricture is severe vesical catarrh. 

 Sarcocele and hydrocele, especially of the left 

 testis, according to the Arabs, attack all classes, 

 and are attributed to the relaxing climate, to 

 unrestrained sexual indulgence, and sometimes 

 to external injury. These diseases do not always 

 induce impotence or impede procreation. The 

 tunica vaginalis is believed to fill three times : 

 as in elephantiasis the member is but a mass of 

 flesh, a small meatus only remaining. The 

 deposition of serum is enormous ; I have heard 

 of six quarts being drawn off. The natives 

 punctuate with a heated copper needle, and 

 sometimes thus induce tetanus : Europeans add 

 injections of red wine and iodine. The latter is 

 also applied with benefit in the early stage to 

 sarcocele ; and both complaints have yielded, it 

 is said, to the galvanic current. Strangers are 

 advised at all times to wear suspensory band- 

 ages. 



