EGYPT, AND SYRIA., 333 
and all the inconveniences confequent upon them are common, 
and increafed by general inattention to diet. 
The tuhhal^ or tehhal^ deriving its name from the fpleen, 
morbus fpkneticus, is very frequent. One of its outward fymp- 
toms is a tumor hard to the touch, but fubjedt to increafe and 
diminution, in the neighbourhood of the fpleen, and general 
inflation in the fupra-umbilical region. 
In Egypt Chriftians and the lefs fcrupulous Mohammedans ufe 
aqua vitce to remove the prefent fenfation. It operates as an 
anodyne, which is all they feek. In Dar-Fur the leaves of 
ferma pulverifed, and, by admixture with honey, formed into 
balls, (the common cathartic,) is the only medicine adminif- 
tered with any falutary effed. I found James's powder of great 
fervice to thofe with whom it operated as an emetic. The 
diflention of the fpleen prevents the ftomach from receiving a 
proper quantity of food, yet the inclination for food is undi- 
minifhed. 
■ ■ - - , . 
The liver being rendered incapable of its fundions, by re- 
peated extravafations of bile, the blood, which at all times cir- 
culates flowly from the fpleen through that gland, now much 
retarded, occafions fchirrofities of the fpleen, and at length per- 
fedly ftagnant in and diftending it, it becomes corrupted by the 
f^ces contained in the colon near it, and begins to putrify. In 
this ftate the difeafe frequently terminates in death. But thefe 
fchirrofities fometimes remain for years, without producing any 
very dangerous fymptoms. ->^-^ ^ -''-^ 
The 
