Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/434

 852 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. better still in the desert, as was shown by the medical statistics taken while the heavy works were in progress for the construction of the Suez Canal. Egypt is even visited in winter by a number of European invalids, especially those suffering from affections of the chest. But the large cities of Cairo and Alexandria, where the streets are constantly swept by whirlwinds of dust, do not appear to be the best places of residence for persons subject to these complaints. Here in fact consumption commits great ravages amongst immigrants from the Upper Nile, and every year carries off numerous victims, even amongst the natives. In Cairo a seventh part of the mortality is due to pulmonary affections, and in the military hospitals as many as one-third of the deaths has sometimes been caused by tuber- culosis. But the maladies Europeans have most to dread are dysentery and, in certain parts of the delta, marsh fevers. Hepatitis, a " specific poisoning of the liver," almost unknown amongst the Mohammedans, who abstain from alcoholic drinks, is very common among Europeans, owing to their less careful habits. The chief disorders of the natives are such as may be attributed to their abject poverty. The plague, formerly so terrible, and which in 1834 and 1835 carried off 45,000 persons in Alexandria, and 75,000 in Cairo, has ceased its ravages in the Nile Valley. Even cholera, which in 1883 converted Damietta into a vast hospital, now confines its periodical visitations to a very restricted area. But on the other hand anemia, caused by insufficient nourishment, is everywhere endemic and fatal, especially to children. In no other country are blind and one-eyed persons so numerous as in Egypt. On landing at the quays of Alexandria the stranger is at once struck by the effects of contagious ophthalmia amongst the crowds clamouring around him, and this first impression is confirmed by his sub- sequent observations and supported by statistical returns.* Poverty of blood, the reflection of the light on the white walls and on the surfaca of the river, the sudden changes of temperature, and especially the saline and nitrous dust formed by the decomposition of the Nilotic mud and raised in whirlwinds by the breeze, are the chief causes to which must be attributed these dangerous ophthalmic affections. Nevertheless the Bedouins of the desert are nearly all endowed with excellent sight. The flies, the " plague of Egypt," certainly contribute much to foster and aggravate these disorders. " When one sees the normal fly -ridden countenances of the Egyptian children, it is. impossible to be surprised at the enormous proportion of blind or one-eyed adults. Ophthalmia arises in various ways ; but it is undoubtedly propagated by flies, and to the carelessness and pre- judice of mothers and the un cleanness of infants must be ascribed a good deal of its prevalence. The women think it is unlucky to wash a baby's face, and prefer to let him go blind all his life to removing the pestilential flies that cover his eyes like a patch of court -plaster, "t They lose even the strength to drive away the swarms of their tormentors, and patiently wait for sleep to relieve them from their sufferings. Leprosy, although less common than in Syria, has unfortunately not dis- • Proportion of persons sufferinar from ophtlialinic disorders in Egj-pt, according to Amici : 1 7 per cent t " Social Life in Egypt," page n9.