Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798Browne, William George
History
Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798
Browne, William George
Egypt -- Description and travel; Sudan -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
The women of Fûr, in like manner, are assisted by their own sex, and
are seldom long confined: yet nature seems to render child-bearing
more difficult to them than to the Egyptians, and their care after
delivery is not always such as to prevent both the mother and the
child from suffering. I have known several instances where cold caught
after the accident has proved of serious consequences to the mother.
_Hydrophobia._
The _rabies canina_, or hydrophobia, is either very unusual or
entirely unknown both in Egypt and Fûr. I never heard of an instance
of it in either country, which appears not entirely unworthy of
remark, not only as multitudes of dogs are found in each, which in
many instances can have no access to water, to the want of which was
once vulgarly attributed that dreadful malady, but as one fact more
in the series which must finally conduct us to its cause.
_Idea of Orientals respecting remedies._
Among the inhabitants of Egypt and Africa the classification of
remedies is remarkably simple. They have only two _grand divisions_,
مبردات refrigerants, and حمه heating medicines. They esteem
all the former beneficial, and the latter generally pernicious:
so that if the most skilful physician were to prescribe for his
patient what the latter supposed to possess an heating quality,
it would be impossible to persuade him to use it.
_Phlebotomy._
Scarification, or superficial incision of the skin, is commonly
recurred to for various diseases, and at all ages, from two years till
sixty. The head, breast, loins, legs, are all subjected to this simple
and apparently little efficacious treatment. Sometimes, however,
violent and obstinate pains in the head, proceeding from extraordinary
exertion, and other causes, are removed by superficially inciding
the skin, near the coronal suture, which occasions a sufficient
discharge of blood.
The other mode of bleeding is by horns, prepared for that purpose,
which operate on the same principle as our cupping glasses. These
are applied in a very simple manner, and without occasioning
any pain, remove such quantity of blood, as the operator judges
necessary. Adhesion is produced by applying the mouth to the
smaller aperture of the horn, which, when this is accomplished,
is stopped. The incision is commonly made with a razor.
_Bruises._
The bitumen found in the mummy pits is dissolved with butter by the
Egyptians, and not only applied externally, but taken inwardly, in
large doses, for bruises and wounds; it is said to have a surprising
effect.
_Petroleum._
Petroleum, which is brought from the western shore of the Arabian
gulf, near to Suez, is taken inwardly as well as outwardly applied,
and is much esteemed.
_Bezoar._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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