388 
EGYPT, 
jncreafe. As the waters of the Nile retire from the fur- 
face of the country they had inundated, a rich (lime of 
confiderable condentity is left, which forms a foil fo pro¬ 
ductive, as to render Egypt the mod: fertile land in the 
known world: but unfortunately this (lime, fubjeCted to 
the univerfal laws of matter, is no fooner feparated from 
its principle of aClion, than corruption enfues, and conti¬ 
nues until all the putrid juices are totally abforbed by 
the'heat of the fun, which then leaves the ground per¬ 
fectly brittle, and full of filfures : the atmofphere at this 
timeceafing to be tainted, the plague throughout Egypt 
difappears. This theory, however natural to Egypt, 
cannot be immediately applied to other countries, where 
the plague annually rages ; but an examination into their 
climate, foil, and the cuftoms of the people, will proba¬ 
bly prove the pofition, that the plague is local, occa- 
fioned by a corrupted (tale of atmofphere, and never in¬ 
troduced by contagion." 
Dr. White, an Englifh phyfician, attached to the army 
of Egypt, determined to difcover if this malady, fo de- 
dructive to a large portion of the globe, and which filled 
with apprehenfion the remainder, could not be checked, 
or rendered lefs virulent, by tli£ introduction of inocula¬ 
tion. Refolving to become the patient of his own fpe- 
culation, during the time the plague raged at Rofetta, 
he inoculated himfelf with matter taken from an infeCled 
perfon. The attempt failed twice; the third proved fa¬ 
tal : in three days after the fymptoms appeared he died, 
falling a much-to-be-lamented victim to a didintereded 
zeal, benevolently and intrepidly directed for the benefit 
and happinefs of the community.—“The fever called 
plague, (fays fir Robert Wilfon,) is not attended with 
any corporeal pain ; torpor tranquillizes all fenfibility of 
mind, and the hour of dilfolution is expected with apathy. 
The crifis is death, or complete recovery. 
Dr. Wittman, however, who compiled an Hidorical 
Journal of the Plague, during his continuance with the 
Turkifh army in Syria and Egypt, is decidedly of opi¬ 
nion that the plague is extremely contagious ; but thinks 
it may be generated by mephitic air—by the dime left on 
the fliores after the inundations of the Nile—by the flench 
of carrion, or all kinds of dead carcafes, as well as from 
the filth, flench, and confined hovels, of fuch multitudes 
of poor miferable inhabitants. See the article Medicine. 
So little do the people of the country dread this difeafe, 
that Ibrahim Bey encamped on the very burial-ground at 
El-Arifh, where the bodies of feveral thoufands of per- 
fons who had fallen victims to the plague during the 
eourfe of the lad fix weeks, were interred. “ His own 
tent, (fays Dr. Wittman,) covered a part of the graves!” 
Egypt, in curious fubjecls of Natural Iiidory, is rather 
limited. Its mineralogy is not opulent, nor does it feem 
ever to have produced any of the metals. A mountain 
towards tire Red Sea is Riled that of emeralds ; and even 
now the bed emeralds are by the Perdans called thofe of 
Said, or Upper Egypt: but the mines are no longer 
worked, and even tlie (pot feems unknown. Wad has 
publifned an account of Egyptian fodils, from ancient 
fragments in the mufeurn of cardinal Borgia at Veletri. 
They are of red granite ; white granite with hornblende ; 
grey felfpar, and black hornblende. The porphyry leems 
petrolilex with fpots of felfpar. There is alio a little 
fragment, w ith hieroglyphics, of micaceous fchidus, con¬ 
fiding of brownidi black mica: other remains are of 
land-done, and fand-done brefcia, felfpar, Terpentine, 
lapis oil.iris, white marble with veins of diver mica, 
fwine-done, what is called green bafalt by the Italians, 
and jafperof various kinds ; with topaz, or the chryfolite 
of the ancients, amethyd, rock crydal, calcedony, onyx, 
carnelian, heliotrope, obfidian, lazulite; but there feem 
to be none of emerald. Many are of bafalt, or the 
Ethiopic done of Herodotus and Strabo; Pliny adding 
that the native word means iron .- the Egyptian is fome- 
times a grunden, being black hornblende with veins of 
felfpar; and particles of hornblende are vifible in all 
thefe bafalts. Thefe notices become interelling, as the 
Egyptians were the fird inventors of fculpture and archi¬ 
tecture, and the original materials may judly excite cu- 
riofity. Befides the natron lakes, there are fome mineral 
fprings, and one of fait water near Cairo, which is flip- 
pofed to have medical virtues. 
With regard to botanical productions, it is by no means 
eafy to didinguidi its native vegetables from thofe which 
have been introduced at various periods for profit or plea, 
fure, and have gradually naturalized themfelves in the 
foil of Egypt. Wherever the annual inundations extend, 
a number of feeds, brought down by the torrent from 
Ethiopia and Abydinia, mud be depofited together with 
the fertilizing mud, which, vegetating regularly every 
year, are probably midaken for truly indigenous plants. 
We fitall therefore mention fuch of the Egyptian vege¬ 
tables as are of mod importance, either by their prefect 
ufe or ancient fame, without being folicitous to examine 
whether they are real natives, or naturalized drangers. 
The lotus and papyrus have always been the appropriate 
decorations of the god of the Nile : the former of thefe 
is a fpecies of nymphaea or water lily, which at the retreat 
of the inundation covers all the canals and (hallow pools 
with its broad round leaves, among which are its cup- 
fiiaped blodoms of pure white, or caerulean blue, repofing 
with inimitable grace on the furface of the„water. The 
papyrus, facred to literature, after having long vanidied 
from the borders of the Nile, has at length been again 
recognized in the cyperus papyrus of the Linnaean fydem. 
(See the article Cyperus, vol. v. p.525.) The arum 
colocalia of ancient fame is dill cultivated in Egypt for 
its large efculent roots. The Egyptian fycamore (ficus 
fycomorus), probably introduced from the oppcdte fhore 
of Arabia, is of peculiar value from its fruit, its depth 
of diade, and the vigour with which it grows, even on 
the Tandy frontiers of the defert. The date palm, the 
pidachia, the oriental plane, and the bead-tree, adorn the 
(bores, and are cultivated in the vicinity of mod of the 
towns. The cyprefs overdiadows the burial grounds, 
and the caperbufii roots itfelf in the ruins of Egypt. The 
fenna, the mi mo I a nilotica, and the henne (Lawfonia 
inermis), are alfo charaCteriftic of Egypt; from the latter 
ot thefe, the women prepare that yellow dye with which 
they tinge the nails of their fingers. All the mod ex- 
quifite of the European fruits, fuch as the almond, the 
orange, pomegranate, fig, peach, and apricot, are culti¬ 
vated here with great ailiduity and fuccefs ; the various 
kinds of melons and gourds grow to full perfection, and 
compofe no unimportant portion of the food of the inha¬ 
bitants ; and mingled with thefe productions of the tem¬ 
perate regions are found the plantain, the fugar-cane, the 
cotton, and a few others, that have formerly been im¬ 
ported hither from the tropical climates. 
Contemplating the matchlefs fertility of the vale of 
Egypt, we cannot but notice the two magnificent profpects 
which it exhibits at two very different (eafonsof the year. 
If the traveller afcends either of the mountains, or one 
of the great pyramids near Cairo, in the month of July 
or Augud, lie beholds with amazement a fpacious fea, 
fpotted with innumerable towns and villages, interfeCled 
with feveral caufeys, and occalionally contraded with 
groves and orchards ; w hile a magnificent difplay of fyl- 
van and mountainous fcenery bounds the delightful view, 
and terminates a mod excprifite horizon at the utniod dis¬ 
tance the eye can pollibly reach. On the contrary, if the 
view be taken in winter, that is, in the months of January 
and February, the whole country refembles one extenfive 
meadow clothed with the fined verdure, and enamelled 
with an infinite variety of flowers; the plains are embel- 
liihed with numberlefs flocks and herds; the mild ze¬ 
phyrs are impregnated with the fweet odours that rife 
from the orange and lemon groves, and the air is altoge. 
ther fo pure and falubrious, that a more healthful or 
agreeable fpot cannot be found in the univerfe ; and, for 
this reafon, nature, which in winter feems to droop and 
languilh in every other climate, appears at this time to 
triumph in the delights of her Egyptian abode. 
s ' ' EGYPTIANS* 
