320 
ings, contrived to manage their drapery adroitly, and 
walked with all the grac.e of European ladies. 
There are very few swarthy, lean, and really ugly 
persons of either sex to be met with at Damascus, ex- 
cept the Arabs of the deserts, who come accidentally 
upon business, and who in form and costume exactly 
resemble the miserable natives of Hedjaz. 
The people of Damascus commonly enjoy very good 
health, the women in particular are seldom ill. I believe 
that the general affluence, a regular conduct, a quiet 
life, moderate occupation, with the use of hot baths, 
produce these happy effects. The only endemial disease 
of the country is a malignant tertian fe#er, which, if 
not well treated, degenerates into obstructions, dropsy, 
or quartan fever. The ordinary duration of lives at Da- 
mascus is from seventy to eighty years, but some attain 
one hundred. 
It is with difficulty that the plague introduces itself 
into Damascus. It has only appeared four or five times, 
and then feebly, during the space of twenty, four years; 
and for ten years it has not re-appeared at all. When 
the plague is brought by sea, it is least disastrous, oc- 
casioning but few deaths; but when it is introduced 
from Aleppo, it is very destructive, and carries off many 
victims. The inhabitants, however, take no precautions, 
and I was astonished to see them preserved from this 
scourge when it exercised its ravages at Aleppo. The 
caravans, travellers, effects, &c. were expedited or re- 
ceived daily without any cautionary measures, and 
Damascus had escaped this destructive evil. This 
proves that actual contact is not alone sufficient to 
communicate the plague, and that there must be like- 
wise a combination of personal and local predisposing; 
causes. 
