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summing up the character and criticising the actions of Mohammad Alee, to be influenced by his reception of, or attention

to us.

Our very intelligent countryman, the British vice-consul, Dr. Walne, obligingly opens his house twice a week for the entertainment of foreigners. We accepted his invitation one evening, and met several very agreeable and well-informed people of different nations, but principally English, either settlers in the country, travellers like ourselves, or passengers to India. The conversation naturally turned on the country we were in, and the prospects and advantages of the "Egyptian Society," lately got up by Dr. Walne, and which offers to the traveller and foreign resident, a source of information and improvement he could not possibly have obtained by any other means. Rooms have been fitted up, a collection of the best works on Egypt procured, and a museum is in progress of collection. Here the literary and scientific investigator, engaged in the study of Egypt, (for it is a study in itself,) can have access to sources of information that no one person could possibly obtain in any other way. In no other country, and among no other people, is the power of show more influential than among the Egyptians, whose ideas of personal or national greatness are derived from the appearance of external grandeur, and formal observances, empty though they be. England has felt and acknowledged this in times past in foreign countries, and it would now be well if her representative here considered it too, and did not allow the Arab fellah to point at him the finger of derision, nor the writer to tell of the minister of Great Britain riding through the streets of Cairo on an ass! The honour and integrity of our representative are known and appreciated, and his acquaintance with the diplomatic art is doubtless great; but the compensation allowed by our government and the East India Company, would surely allow of a little more state, when such is absolutely necessary to ensure both personal and national respect.

CHAPTER XII.

EGYPT.

Visit to the Hospital-The Eye-wards-Egyptian Ophthalmia-Its causes-Treatment-College and School of Medicine-Students-Professors-Dissections-Museum-Instruction-The Maternity-Benefits of the Institution-The Magician-Description of the Exhibition-The Incantation-Its failure-Trials of the power of Magic-Proofs of its Deception-InferenceThe Serpent-charmer-The Coluber Haje-Snake-eating-A Subscription Ball-Female Dress -The Sufa-Gambling-Compliment to the British-Old Cairo-The Ferry-Plains of Geza -The Gossamer-Taxes-The Crops-Pyramids of Aboosier-Plains of Memphis-Irrigation -The Desert-Rocks-Opinions concerning-Birds-Insectiverous Hawks-The ScarabæusIts Habits-Its Sacred character-The Sacking of the Tombs-Sackara-Catacombs-A Deformed Mummy-Tomb of Bergami-Hieroglyphics-Antiques.

LET us now inquire into the state of science, and the medical schools of Egypt.

Saturday 27.-Having a letter of introduction to the chief medical attendant, Dr. Pruner, I this morning visited the military hospital and medical college at Casser-el-Ein, or Abouzabel. This splendid establishment, decidedly the best constituted, and the one which reflects most credit on the humanity and liberality of the Básha of any of the recent improvements in Egypt, is situated in the midst of a most charming park, about a mile from the city. The road lay through groves of olives lately planted; the ground was covered with a most luxuriant crop of corn, and the different plantations, as well as the whole of the way-side, bordered by rows of carobs and acacias, which will soon afford a cool and most delightful shade. Around the palace of Ibrahim Basha, which stands near this, there are several groves of orange trees, limes, and bananas. The hospital is a noble building, two stories high; airy, most admirably located, and of great extent, forming a square, each side of which is upwards of three hundred feet in length, enclosing a large court in the centre. One of the sides and part of the front are occupied by the students, and different departments of the medical school. The morning visit

THE GREAT MILITARY HOSPITAL.

235

was proceeding when I arrived, and I am bound to say, that a cleaner, better regulated, and better conducted medical establishment I never visited. It is on the plan of most British hospitals -containing a long corridor with wards on one side; these, forty in number, are lofty and well ventilated, and are capable of containing 1200 patients. Besides these, there is a civil hospital in the city, which has accommodation for about three hundred persons.

The medical attendants were all Europeans, and consisted of the six professors of the school, and a distinguished German physician, Dr. Pruner, who had likewise the care of the civil hospital in the city. The number of patients labouring under diseases of the eye, and whom I was especially anxious to see, amounted to several hundreds, but the cases of acute ophthalmia in the hospital at that moment were but few. When this disease is prevalent in autumn, 700 cases are frequently in the house at once, and not less than 300 often present themselves in a morning.

Egyptian ophthalmia has attracted so much attention, and has become a subject of such general interest, that I may be excused a brief notice of what appeared to me to be some of the predisposing causes of this formidable malady. The affection appears to be decidedly epidemic, and occurs periodically during the season of the Khumáséen winds, and is particularly violent in autumn, after the fall of the Nile, and when many noxious exhalations rise, the effects of the late inundation. It varies in character every year, both as to violence and duration, and generally retains the type it commenced with throughout. This character the medical men study accurately, and on the greater or less intensity of the inflammation lies the line of treatment, such as general bleeding, leeching, &c.*

* As a predisposing cause, I conceive that a peculiarity of the natural formation of the eye in the lower orders, those who are most exposed, contributes in some measure to the susceptibility of this disease; the cilia, or eye-lashes, being poor, ill-set, and scanty, and the eye-brows very small, and particularly devoid of hair. Diseases of the lids and the other appendages of the organs of sight, such as trichiasis, or irregularity of the lashes; ectropium and entropium, a turning out or inwards of the hairs; and diseases of their roots, interfering with the natural secretion of the adjacent glands; together with tinea palpebrarum and psorophthalmia, ending in

236

EGYPTIAN OPHTHALMIA.

By the Europeans in the country it is generally attributed to suppressed perspiration; but, why should not the inhabitants of other warm countries be subject to a similar disease, where the heat is much greater, and the same cause exists in equal force?

Bleeding is not generally resorted to, unless it assume a very inflammatory type. Locally, astringent lotions, such as nitrate of silver, styled by the natives "The Devil's Fire," sulphate of zinc, and the preparation of copper of the old pharmacopoeias, called the aqua sappharina, are applied.

The pharmaceutical department is under the care of the professor of that art, and the students of the college assist in turn to compound medicine, and become acquainted with the practical details of that most necessary branch of medical education. The pharmacy was on a scale of great magnificence; beautifully

lippitudo, is very frequent even among those who have never suffered from purulent or Egyptian ophthalmia-all these assist in keeping up a predisposition to inflammatory diseases of the eye; to which may be added, exposure to the rays of a powerful sun, without any kind of shade or defence, as the turboosh, or even the turban offers little or none; and the sand-drifts and hot winds at the season of the Khumáséen also act most deleteriously on the visual organs. We have also the undoubted epidemic nature of the disease, similar to that of the other mucous membranes; and lastly, extreme dirtiness. Little idea can be formed of this without seeing it; the eyes or the face are seldom washed; the natural discharge is allowed to accumulate, and often a number of flies will be found collected in the corners of the eyes, to remove which would be considered unlucky. I have invariably remarked, that in the Mooslim ablutions before prayer, although they wash the arms to the elbows, the feet, back of the neck, crown of the head, and behind the ears, they always avoid washing the eyes. I do not think that blackening the edges of the eye-lids at all contributes towards the production of ophthalmia; and females, who alone use it, are much less liable to it than men, even allowing for their comparative numbers, and the circumstances in which they are placed.

With regard to the exact nature or specific character of this disease, I must say, that at first it in no wise differed from severe conjunctivitis, or catarrhal ophthalmia, of Europe, or even this country, except in the exceeding violence of its attack, and the extreme rapidity of its course. As, however, the disease became purulent, the papillarkörper on the surface of the divesting membrane, so accurately described by Müller, Jäger, and Peringer, became developed almost in a few hours, and sudden destruction of the organ soon followed.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.

237

clean, in comparison with such establishments in England, and had in it all the most valuable and approved medicines, many of which were prepared in the laboratory by native hands.

I was next transferred to the care of Dr. Sicher, who conducted me through the college and school of medicine, which, as I before stated, forms a part of the building of the hospital, so that the student has but to cross the court from his dormitory to the ward, and can proceed from thence in a few minutes to the dissecting theatre, or the lecture-room; become acquainted with materia medica under the same roof in which he sleeps, and enjoy his morning's walk in the botanic garden beneath his window. Besides this, the students are all required to become acquainted with practical operative chemistry, and for that purpose are sent for a certain time to work at the chloride of lime and saltpetre manufactories. This system, added to that of the general medical education here given, is one well worthy of imitation in Great Britain, and reflects no small credit on its founder, Clot Bey.

At the date of my visit, there were three hundred students in the college, who were fed, clothed, educated, and paid by the Básha. The dormitories and other apartments of these young men were clean and airy, and they themselves appeared orderly and attentive. They all wore a uniform; were regularly drilled as soldiers; and rose in rank and pay according to proficiency. The pay varies from twenty to fifty piasters a month, and they are allowed to walk beyond the college once a week, on Friday, the Mohammadan sabbath. The nominal duration of study is five years; but the greater number of the pupils are drafted off into the army or navy after three years; some few remain as long as

seven.

The school of medicine consists of seven professorships, viz.anatomy and physiology, surgery, pathology and internal clinique, medicine and chemistry, botany and materia medica, and pharmacy. Instruction is given by means of an Arab interpreter, or dragoman; the professor writes his lecture, and it is translated to the class in his presence by the interpreter. The majority of the professors are French, and their salary is somewhat more than £200 a year. They are all obliged to wear the Egyptian uniform, and shave the head, but no sacrifice of religion or principle is demanded; and, I need hardly remark, that

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