EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 341 
clfic, carefully provided, for the prevailing difeafes of the country. 
Ading mildly, both as a carminative and diuretic, nothing is more 
efFed:ualto remove the cephalalgia and laffitude often experienced 
during the great heat, which precedes the Nile's augmentation, 
than a few drops of this fpirit taken in water. Pulmonary com- 
plaints, occafioned by bad air, the fuflfocating heat of the foutherly 
winds at certain feafons, and the ill efFe(fl of fudden tranfition 
from the burning heat of the fun to the chilling nocturnal dew, 
are often relieved by it. It might even be fuggefted, that as re- 
gular and continued tranfpiration feems very adverfe to peftilen- 
tial infedlion, a proper ufe of fp. fal. ammon. might not be. 
wholly contemptible as an antidote to its infedion. 
Aphrodifiacs. 
" ' No part of the materia medica is fo much in requifition as 
thofe which ftimulate to animal pleafure. The lacerta fcbicus^ 
in powder, and a thoufand other articles of the fame kind, are 
in continual demand. For this chiefly fields are fown with 
ha/hijh^ the bang of the Eaft Indies. It is ufed in a variety of 
forms, but in none, it is fuppofed, more efficacioufly than what 
is in Arabic called Maijun^ a kind of eleduary, in w^hich both 
men and women indulge to excefs. The impotence of age, and 
the languor of fatiety or difeafe, ponder in vain the oracles of 
the defcendant of Ifmail, for the invigorating influence of the 
benign deity of Canopus. 
Chara^eriftics 
