o f a country, the draining o f the lands, and other agricultural improvements, tend to eradicate or diminish i t ; but at the same time, we ha ve seen countries depopulated where there was no morass, o r stagnate water for many days journey, nor even a tree to impede the current o f air, or a town, nor any thing but encampments o f Arabs, who procured water from wells o f a great depth, and inhabited plains so extensive and uniform, that the y resemble the sea, and are so similar in appearance after, as wre ll as before sun-rise, that i f the eye could abstract itself from the spot immediately surrounding the spectator, it could not be ascertained whether it were sea or land. I shall now subjoin a few cases for the further elucidation o f this distemper, hoping that the medical reader w ill pardon any inaccuracy originating from m y not being a professional man. Case I.—One afternoon, I went into the kitchen, and saw the cook making the b re ad ; he appeared in good health and spirits; I afterwards went into the adjoining parlour, and took up a book to r e a d ; in h a lf an hour the same man came to the door o f the room, with his eyes starting from his head, and his bed clothes, &c. in his hands, saying, “ open the gate for me, for I am (m’dorb) smitten.” I was astonished at the sudden transition, and desired him to go out, and I would follow and shut the gate. T h e next morning he sent his wife out on an errand, and got out o f bed, and came to the gate h a lf dressed, saying that he was quite recovered, and desired I would let him in. I did not, however, think it safe to admit him, but told him to go back to his house for a few days, until he should be able to ascertain that he was quite w e ll; he accordingly returned to his apartments, but expired that evening, and before day-break his body was in such a déplorable state, that his feet were putrefied. His wife, b y attending on him-, caught the infection, ha vin g a carbuncle, and also buboes, and was confined two months before she recovered. Case II.— L ’Hage Hamed O Bryhim, the old governor o f Mogodor, had twe lve or more children, and four wives, who were all attacked, and died (except only one young wife) ; he attended them successively to the grave, and notwithstanding that he assisted in performing the religious ceremony o f washing the body, he never himself caught the infection ; he lived some years afterwards, and out o f the whole household, consisting o f wive s, concubines, children, and slaves, he had but one person left, which was the before mentioned young wife : this lady, however, had received the infection, and was confined some time before she recovered. Case III.— Hamed ben A was smitten with the plague, which he compared to the sensation o f two musket balls fired a t him, one in each th ig h ; a giddiness and delirium succeeded, and immediately afterwards a green vomiting, and he fell senseless to the ground ; a short time afterwards, on the two places where he had felt as i f shot, biles or buboes formed, and on suppurating, discharged a foetid black pus : a (jimmera) carbuncle 011 the joint o f the arm near the elbow was fu ll o f thin ichor, contained in an elevated skin, surrounded b y a burning red colour; after three months confinement, being reduced to a skeleton, the disorder appeared to have exhausted itself, and he began to recover his strength, which in another month was fu lly re-established.' It was an observation fouuded on d a ily e x perience, during the prevalence o f this disorder, that those who were attacked with a nausea at tfie stomach, and a subsequent
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