ordure, the bodies of dead dogs and cats, &c. which emitted a stench more disagreeable and putrid than any thing I ever experienced in my life. As to the degree of solar heat, it far exceeded what I conceived the human frame to be capable of bearing. The sensation under this heat was totally different from what I had ever experienced; it resembled the approach of an heated substance to the body. The quicksilver, in Fahrenheit’s thermometer, rose to between 156 and 162 degrees.[28] From the 30th of May I never saw it so low as 156, but generally between 158 and 160. After I left Bassorah I was told that it rose still higher. In the coolest part of the house, with the aid of every invention to decrease the heat, the quicksilver rose to 115; but after I came away, I was informed that it rose still higher, even at seven in the morning, the hour which we accounted the coolest in the day. Once the heat was said to be so intolerable, that no one could expose himself to it long enough to observe the thermometer in the sun. Some of the oldest inhabitants of Bassorah said that they never remembered to have heard of such a heat in any part of Persia or Arabia. The natives of the country appeared more alarmed at the heat than the Europeans: nothing could induce them to expose themselves to the sun after ten o’clock. I left Bassorah for Aleppo on the 30th of May. On our arrival at Zabira, the heat was so intense, that even the Arabs sunk under it.” [28] Spirit of wine boils at 175. From this account it was natural to expect that violent sickness would ensue. This was the opinion of the inhabitants, and they were not deceived. The sickness, however, was not the true plague, but a violent remitting fever; and even this did not originate in the city itself, but was observed to approach from Asia Minor, ravaging Diarbekir, and keeping the course of the Tigris, to Bagdad, where many died. From thence it followed the course of the Euphrates to Bassorah, and for about twenty miles lower. The opposite, or Persian shore, though within a few miles, was exempted, and it did not spread more than twenty miles into the desert.[29] [29] Transactions of Society for improving Medical Knowledge.