[30] Though it is so stated, the delay was apparently caused by the complete breakdown of Bruce’s health, a breakdown which obliged him to spend some time at Italian sulphur baths (Poretta). Bruce, before leaving Sennar and the regions of the Blue Nile, had received into his system the germ of the Guinea worm. This creature developed in the usual way. One day when Bruce was reading on a sofa at Cairo he felt an itching on his leg, and soon afterwards through the pimple thus raised appeared the head of the worm. Three inches of this parasite were wound off round a piece of silk, but on the ship which conveyed Bruce from Alexandria to Marseilles the surgeon clumsily broke off the portion of the worm extruding from the body. The remainder of the worm still in the leg caused the most terrible agony for thirty-five days, which Bruce had to spend in the lazaretto at Marseilles. Here, however, he received better surgical treatment. Nevertheless, for some time afterwards his leg gave him considerable trouble, and apparently, in 1774, he had to visit Italian sulphur baths. [31] All except, perhaps, some of his stories of Nubia and Sennar. [32] It is curious to read of his using a “rifle” in Abyssinia and thereby astonishing the princes. [33] The name of this notable African city is said to mean, in the local Arabic, “elephant’s trunk,” as the long spit of sand on which it was erected was supposed to resemble that feature. Other etymologies are quoted. Apparently the name was that of a small fishing village of grass huts which was selected by Ibrahim Pasha as a camp commanding both the White and Blue Niles and easily defended. Khartum, from its situation, rapidly became the metropolis of the Sudan. It was taken and destroyed by the Mahdi in 1885. Its site was reoccupied by Lord Kitchener’s victorious force in 1898. Khartum has since been rebuilt, and will probably become one of the greatest cities of Africa. [34] The son of a Swiss soldier in the Swiss corps subsidised by England in the Napoleonic wars. [35] Afterwards absorbed by the Royal Geographical Society. [36] As this journey was financed by the African Association, it may be regarded as a British contribution to Nile exploration. [37] The name Muhammad is affectedly pronounced by the Turks Mehemet, but is of course written by them Muhammad. [38] Afterwards for nearly forty years French consular agent at Khartum. [39] Mainly supported by the Archduchess Sophia.