Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/728

704 704 EGYPT [PISKA.SES. or spring, and if the earliest cases occur towards the close of the year, one may be sure of a plague of great severity and long continuance. At first the cases are generally few, but they gradually increase, and in the hottest weather attain their maximum. The disease is not long in travelling from Alexandria to Cairo, but it rarely ascends much higher up the river, and has seldom been known at Thebes in modern times. Many medical writers have denied the contagious character of the plague, in particular Clot-Bey, a French physician, who was long chief medical officer of the Egyptian Government, and who published a treatise on the subject (Clot-Bey, De la Peste) ; yet the evidence on the other side is too strong to be rebutted. An epidemic of plague is greatly to be dreaded in the present circumstances of Egypt, llapid communications would readily bring the disease to Europe, and the interests of commerce would stand in the way of the reasonable precaution of quarantine. It is stated that the plague is endemic in the marshes of Chaldsea. Surely it would be well if the European Governments were to appoint a com mission for the investigation of the disease and to ascertain what, if any, is the value of the sanitary measures of the Turkish Government. Dysentery is an extremely common malady, and causes very large mortality. It may usually be traced to a careless course of diet, and especially to eating uncooked vegetables, unripe fruit, or other unwholesome food, and to drinking brackish water. Mr Lane has published a mode of treat ment which has been attended with extraordinary success (Modem Egyptians, App. E. of all later editions). Asiatic cholera visited Egypt in its westward course on the first two occasions of its appearance in Europe. According to the Government returns, which were probably below the truth, nearly 200,000 persons perished from the disease in all Egypt during the great cholera of 1848. It is remark able that after each of these great epidemics the disease appeared a second time, but with far less destructive results. Among the diseases most dreaded by the Euro pean residents is liver-complaint. These who abstain from alcoholic drinks, or use them with extreme moderation, escape the complaint altogether, or suffer from it in a com paratively mild form. Hemorrhoids and hernise are among the commonest maladies. Skin diseases have been at all times very prevalent in Egypt. Leprosy is now well known, but not common, unlike elephantiasis, which in more than one form has numerous victims. Small-pox was formerly very severe, but it has been checked in its virulence by vaccination. The so-called guinea-worm occurs, but it is perhaps not indigenous. Of the diseases of the eye, ophthalmia is the most formidable, from its prevalence and malignant character ; yet perhaps no malady more readily yields to treatmenb if promptly used. Where the predisposition exists, a slight cause, such as the irritation occasioned by a grain of dust or sand, is enough to produce an inflammation, which, if not checked, inflicts a lasting injury if it does not produce blindness. For this disease Mr Lane has published a very efficacious mode of treatment (Mod. Ey., App. E). Clot- Bey affirms that pulmonary consumption is ex tremely rare among the native inhabitants (Aper$u, ii. 372), yet another physician asserted (but not in print) that he had met with not a few cases in a short practice. Asthma and bronchitis are among the common disorders. The occurrence of coup-de-soleil is not unusual, but it is rarely attended with fatal results, probably on account of the sobriety of the people. Madness is common, generally in the form of idiocy. Maniacs alone are confined; idiots are regarded with much respect as saints, and it is probable that some persons feign idiocy to become objects of popular veneration, supported by alms. One of the Memlook sultans, Kalaoon, following the example of Saladin (Abul fedce Annales, ed. Reiske, iv. 30, 31) founded a madhouse, or m&ristdn, at Cairo, which was still used thirty years ago (Englishivoman in Egypt, i. 166). Its inmates were subse quently transferred to a modern hospital. Nervous affec tions are uncommon, probably owing to the calm life which the inhabitants lead. Rheumatism is of more usual occurrence; but, according to Clot-Bey, gout is unknown (Aperpu, ii. 377). It is well worthy of notice luat, although ownerless dogs are very common in Cairo and the other towns, and watch-dogs are kept by the villagers, canine madness and hydrophobia are unknown ; but Clot-Bey is probably in error when he says that rabies has never been observed in Egypt (id. ii. 78), for the Coptic prayer-books contain a prayer to be used for a person suffering from hydrophobia, 1 and this is not likely to have been derived from a foreign source. (For an account of the diseases of Egypt, see Clot-Bey s Apercu General and De la Peste. and Descr. de I Egypte, xiii. 29). Geology. In considering the geology of Egypt, its deserts claim our first notice. By a desert is generally understood a wide plain of shifting sand ; but this is usually an erroneous description of such a tract, and especially inapplicable to the deserts which border the valley of the Nile. These are raised mountain regions, the surface of which is often covered with sand, debris, and pebbles, intersected by valleys, and diversified, in the case of the western desert, by some oases. On both sides of the Nile the mountains are limestone, until a little above Thebes, where the sandstone commences. At the First Cataract red granite and other primitive rocks burst through the sandstone beneath the bed of the Nile, and for a considerable space on the east, obstructing the course of the river by numerous small islands and rocks, and thus forming the rapids. In several places, chiefly on the eastern side, the mountains approach the river, and sometimes reach it. They are always utterly devoid of vegetation, and, except the granite, generally of a yellowish or reddish colour, though in some places they are greyish. Near the Cataract the sandstone mountains are partially covered with bright yellow sand in drifts. The mountains on both sides near the river are usually about 300 feet in height, and rarely much loftier. The highest point on the western bank at Thebes is four times that altitude. If one leaves the river and ascends the mountains, he finds a great rocky tract before him, the only easy paths through which are along valleys often very winding. The eastern desert gradually rises until about midway between the Nile and the Red Sea, where primitive rocks burst through the later formation, and the loftiest of them, a granite mountain called Gebel-Ghdreb (about lat. 28), attains the height of about 6000 feet. In this portion of the desert are porphyry, breccia, and basalt rocks, which were anciently much prized for purposes of architecture and sculpture. The western desert is of a lower elevation, and is principally remarkable for its oases, which are deep valleys containing alluvial soil, but they are little productive except in dates. Their beauty and fertility have been naturally much exaggerated. Notwithstanding the inequalities of their surface, it is evident that the deserts rise towards the Red Sea, attaining their greatest height in the penin sula of Sinai, which is but a continuation of the same tract. The most remarkable geological change which has been observed to have taken place in Egypt is one still in opera tion, the depression of the northern shore notwithstanding 1 This is stated on the authority of the late Rev. J. R. T. Lieder of Cairo.