7S GRAND CAIRO. 
Tlie mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer 
seemed at this time fixed. It remained at go** 
r^vp^^ ° foi" several days, without the smallest percep- 
tible change. Almost every European suffered 
from inflammation of the eyes. Many were 
troubled with cutaneous disorders. The prickly 
heat was very common. This was attributed 
to drinking the muddy water of the Nile, the 
inhabitants having no other. Their mode of 
purifying it, in a certain degree, is by rubbing 
the inside of the water-vessels with bruised 
almonds : this precipitates a portion of the mud, 
but it is never quite clear '. Many persons were 
afflicted with sores upon the skin, which were 
called "boils of the Nile;" and dysenterical com- 
plaints were universal. A singular species of 
cap. 14. to}7i.U. p. 18. L. Bat. 1635.) Aubrey, in his "Hermetick Pki- 
iosnphi/," printed for the second time, in London, in 1721, p. 172, says» 
Good Spirits are delighted and allured by sweet perfumes, as rich 
gums, frankincense, salts, &c. which was the reason that the priests 
of the Gentiles, and also the Christians, used them in their temples 
and sacrifices." It is a curious fact, that this superstitious notion, 
respecting a fragrant gum, should also exist in South America. The 
pastillas of Lima, used by the priests to destroy the influence cf Evil 
Spirits, consists of a gum which is used as incense when High Mass is 
solemnized at their altars. 
(1) The cause of this chemical agency in the oil of the Amygdalus 
communis has not been explained ; owing, perhaps, to our ignorance 
of the chemical constituents of this fruit, which has not been subjected 
to a regular analvsis. 
