SMALL-POX. 



195 



coast; the people suffer as much as the Turks 

 in Egypt without wearing the enormous bag- 

 trowsers which have been so severely blamed. 



Of the epidemics, the small-pox, a gift of 

 Inner Africa to the world, is fatal as at Goa or 

 Madagascar. Apparently propagated without 

 contact or fomites, it disfigures half the popula- 

 tion, and it is especially dangerous to full-blooded 

 Africans. About three years ago (1857) a Mas- 

 kat vessel imported a more virulent type. Shortly 

 before my arrival, numbers had died of the con- 

 fluent and common forms, and isolated cases 

 were reported till we left the Island. All classes 

 were equally prejudiced against vaccination. 

 The lymph sent from Aden and the Mauritius 

 was so deteriorated by the journey that it pro- 

 bably never produced a single vesicle (1857). 



Until 1859 cholera was unknown even by 

 name. Col. Hamerton, however, declared that 

 in 1835 hundreds were swept off by an epidemic, 

 whose principal symptoms were giddiness, vomit- 

 ing and purging, the peculiar anxious look, 

 collapse, and death. It did not re-appear for 

 some years ; but in a future chapter I shall no- 

 tice the frightful ravages which it made on the 

 East African coast at the time of my return from 

 the interior. 



