310 
BENGAZI. 
of the operations to which he had recourse at once delighted and 
astonished the Arabs. 
A man much emaciated, who had been long afflicted with the 
dropsy, was persuaded to submit to the operation of tapping ; and 
when his numerous Arab friends, who had assembled to witness the 
ceremony, saw the water streaming out from the abdomen, they 
were unable to restrain the loud expression of their surprise at the 
sight ; and lifting up their hands and eyes to Heaven, called Allah 
to witness that the tiheeb* was a most extraordinary man-)-! 
Dysentery and liver complaints were very common in Bengazi, but 
we did not observe so many cases of ophthalmia as we had found at 
Tripoly and Mesurata. Cutaneous diseases of the most virulent kind 
were very prevalent, as well among the people of the town, as among 
the Bedouin tribes in the neighbourhood ; indeed, we found that 
these disorders prevailed more or less in every part of the northern 
coast of Africa which we visited. The inhabitants of the Cyrenaica 
suppose them to be chiefly occasioned by handling their cattle, but it 
is probable that unwholesome food and water, to which they may be 
occasionally subjected, and the little use which they make of the 
latter for external purposes, contribute more effectually to engender 
* Tibeeb is the common Ai-ab term for a doctor. 
t Several quarts of water were taken from this poor man, who, when he left our 
house, was scarcely distinguishable as the same person who had entered it, having 
diminished so much in size after the operation. He was, in fact, materially relieved, 
and continued to improve daily in health ; till one day, after washing his shirt, he put 
it on, as the quickest way of drying it, a custom not uncommon among the Arabs, and 
caught so bad a cold in consequence, that all the doctor’s exertions were afterwards 
unable to save him. 
