_Some Account of a peculiar Species of Plague which depopulated West
Barbary in 1799 and 1800, and to the Effects of which the Author
was an eye-witness._
From various circumstances and appearances, and from the character of
the epidemical distemper which raged lately in the south of Spain,
there is every reason to suppose, it was similar to that distemper
or plague which depopulated West Barbary; for whether we call it by
the more reconcileable appellation of the epidemy, or yellow fever,
it was undoubtedly a plague, and a most destructive one, for wherever
it prevailed, it invariably carried off, in a few months, one-half,
or one-third, of the population.
It does not appear how the plague originated in Fas in the year
1799.[147] Some persons, who were there at the time it broke out, have
confidently ascribed it to infected merchandize imported into that
place from the East; whilst others, of equal veracity and judgment,
have not scrupled to ascribe it to the locusts which had infested
West Barbary during the seven preceding years,[148] the destruction
of which was followed by the (jedrie) small-pox, which pervaded
the country, and was generally fatal. The jedrie is supposed to be
the forerunner of this species of epidemy, as appears by an ancient
Arabic manuscript, which gives an account of the same disorder having
carried off two-thirds of the inhabitants of West Barbary about four
centuries since. But however this destructive epidemy originated,
its leading features were novel, and its consequences more dreadful
than the common plague of Turkey, or that of Syria, or Egypt. Let
every one freely declare his own sentiments about it; let him assign
any credible account of its rise, or the causes that introduced so
terrible a scene. I shall relate only what its symptoms were, what
it actually was, and how it terminated, having been an eye-witness
of its dreadful effects, and having seen and visited many who were
afflicted, and who were dying with it.
In the month of April, 1799, a dreadful plague, of a most destructive
nature, manifested itself in the city of Old Faz, which soon after
communicated itself to the new city. This unparalleled calamity,
carried off one or two the first day, three or four the second day,
six or eight the third day, and increasing progressively, until the
mortality amounted to two in the hundred of the aggregate population,
continuing _with unabating violence_, ten, fifteen, or twenty days;
being of longer duration in old than in new towns; then diminishing in
a progressive proportion from one thousand a day to nine hundred, then
to eight hundred, and so on until it disappeared. Whatever recourse
was had to medicine and to physicians was unavailing; so that such
expedients were at length totally relinquished, and the people,
overpowered by this terrible scourge, lost all hopes of surviving it.
Whilst it raged in the town of Mogodor, a small village (Diabet),
situated about two miles south-east of that place, remained
uninfected, although the communication was open between them: on the
_thirty-fourth day_, however, after its first appearance at Mogodor,
this village was discovered to be infected, and the disorder raged
with great violence, making dreadful havock among the human species
for _twenty-one_ days, carrying off, during that period, one hundred
persons out of one hundred and thirty-three, the original population
of the village, before the plague visited it; none died after this,
and those who were infected, recovered in the course of a month or
two, some losing an eye, or the use of a leg or an arm.
Many similar circumstances might be here adduced relative to the
numerous and populous villages dispersed through the extensive
Shelluh province of Haha, all which shared a similar or a worse
fate. Travelling through this province shortly after the plague had
exhausted itself, I saw many uninhabited ruins, which I had before
witnessed as flourishing villages; on making enquiry concerning
the population of these dismal remains, I was informed that in one
village, which contained six hundred inhabitants, four persons only
had escaped the ravage. Other villages, which had contained four
or five hundred, had only seven or eight survivors left to relate
the calamities they had suffered. Families which had retired to
the country to avoid the infection, on returning to town, when all
infection had apparently ceased, were generally attacked, and died;
a singular instance of this kind happened at Mogodor, where, after
the mortality had subsided, a corps of troops arrived from the city of
Terodant, in the province of Suse, where the plague had been raging,
and had subsided; these troops, after remaining three days at Mogodor,
were attacked with the disease, and it raged exclusively among them
for about a month, during which it carried off two-thirds of their
original number, one hundred men; during this interval the other
inhabitants of the town were exempt from the disorder, though these
troops were not confined to any particular quarter, many of them
having had apartments in the houses of the inhabitants of the town.
The destruction of the human species in the province of Suse was
considerably greater than elsewhere; Terodant, formerly the metropolis
of a kingdom, but now that of Suse, lost, when the infection was
at its height, about eight hundred each day: the ruined, but still
extensive city of Marocco,[149] lost one thousand each day; the
populous cities of Old and New Fas diminished in population twelve
or fifteen hundred each day,[150] insomuch, that in these extensive
cities, the mortality was so great, that the living having not time
to bury the dead, the bodies were deposited or thrown altogether
into large holes, which, when nearly full, were covered over with
earth. All regulations in matters of sepulture before observed were
now no longer regarded; things sacred and things prophane had now
lost their distinction, and universal despair pervaded mankind. Young,
healthy, and robust persons of full stamina, were, for the most part,
attacked first, then women and children, and lastly, thin, sickly,
emaciated, and old people.
After this violent and deadly calamity had subsided, we beheld
general alteration in the fortunes and circumstances of men; we
saw persons who before the plague were common labourers, now in
possession of thousands, and keeping horses without knowing how
to ride them. Parties of this description were met wherever we
went, and the men of family called them in derision (el wurata)
the inheritors.[151] Provisions also became extremely cheap and
abundant; the flocks and herds had been left in the fields, and
there was now no one to own them; and the propensity to plunder,
so notoriously attached to the character of the Arab, as well as to
the Shelluh and Moor, was superseded by a conscientious regard to
justice, originating from a continual apprehension of dissolution,
and that the El khere,[152] as the plague was now called, was a
judgment of the Omnipotent on the disobedience of man, and that it
behoved every individual to amend his conduct, as a preparation to
his departure for paradise.
The expense of labour at the same time encreased enormously,[153]
and never was equality in the human species more conspicuous than
at this time; when corn was to be ground, or bread baked, both were
performed in the houses of the affluent, and prepared by themselves,
for the very few people whom the plague had spared, were insufficient
to administer to the wants of the rich and independant, and they were
accordingly compelled to work for themselves, performing personally
the menial offices of their respective families.
The country being now depopulated, and much of the territory without
owners, vast tribes of Arabs emigrated from their abodes in the
interior of Sahara, and took possession of the country contiguous to
the river Draha, as well as many districts in Suse; and, in short,
settling themselves, and pitching their tents wherever they found
a fertile country with little or no population.
The symptoms of this plague varied in different patients, the variety
of age and constitution gave it a like variety of appearance and
character. Those who enjoyed perfect health were suddenly seized
with head-aches and inflammations; the tongue and throat became of a
vivid red, the breath was drawn with difficulty, and was succeeded
by sneezing and hoarseness; when once settled in the stomach, it
excited vomitings of black bile, attended with excessive torture,
weakness, hiccough, and convulsion. Some were seized with sudden
shivering, or delirium, and had a sensation of such intense inward
heat, that they threw off their clothes, and would have walked about
naked in quest of water wherein to plunge themselves. Cold water was
eagerly resorted to by the unwary and imprudent, and proved fatal
to those who indulged in its momentary relief. Some had one, two,
or more buboes, which formed themselves, and became often as large
as a walnut, in the course of a day; others had a similar number of
carbuncles; others had both buboes and carbuncles, which generally
appeared in the groin, under the arm, or near the breast. Those who
were affected[154] with a shivering, having no buboe, carbuncle,
spots, or any other exterior disfiguration, were invariably carried
off in less than twenty-four hours, and the body of the deceased
became quickly putrified, so that it was indispensably necessary to
bury it a few hours after dissolution. It is remarkable, that the
birds of the air fled away from the abode of men, for none were to
be seen during this calamitous period; the hyænas, on the contrary,
visited the cemeteries, and sought the dead bodies to devour them. I
recommended Mr. Baldwin’s[155] invaluable remedy of olive oil,
applied according to his directions; several Jews, and some Mooselmin,
were induced to try it, and I was afterwards visited by many, to
whom I had recommended it, and had given them written directions in
Arabic how to apply it: and I do not know any instance of its failing
when persevered in, even after the infection had manifested itself.
I have no doubt but the epidemy which made its appearance at Cadiz,
and all along the southern shores of Spain, immediately as the plague
was subsiding in West Barbary, was the same disorder with the one
above described, suffering, after its passage to a Christian country,
some variation, originating from the different modes of living,
and other circumstances; for nothing can be more opposite than the
food, dress, customs, and manners of Mohammedans and Christians,
notwithstanding the approximation of Spain to Marocco. We have been
credibly informed, that it was communicated originally to Spain,
by two infected persons, who went from Tangier to Estapona, a small
village on the opposite shore; who, after eluding the vigilance of
the guards, reached Cadiz. We have also been assured that it was
communicated by some infected persons who landed in Spain, from a
vessel that had loaded produce at L’araiche in West Barbary. Another
account was, that a Spanish privateer, which had occasion to land
its crew for the purpose of procuring water in some part of West
Barbary, caught the infection from communicating with the natives,
and afterwards proceeding to Cadiz, spread it in that town and the
adjacent country.
It should be observed, for the information of those who may be
desirous of investigating the nature of this extraordinary distemper,
that, from its character and its symptoms, approximating to the
peculiar plague, which (according to the before mentioned Arabic
record) ravaged and depopulated West Barbary four centuries since,
the Arabs and Moors were of opinion it would subside after the first
year, and not appear again the next, as the Egyptian plague does;
and agreeably to this opinion, it did not re-appear the second
year: neither did St. John’s day, or that season, affect its
virulence; but about that period there prevails along the coast
of West Barbary a trade wind, which beginning to blow in the month
of May, continues throughout the months of June, July, and August,
with little intermission. It was apprehended that the influence of
this trade wind, added to the superstitious opinion of the plague
ceasing on St. John’s day, would stop, or at least sensibly diminish
the mortality; but no such thing happened, the wind did set in, as
it invariably does, about St. John’s day; the disorder, however,
encreased at that period, rather than diminished. Some persons were of
opinion, that the infection maintained its virulence till the last;
that the decrease of mortality did not originate from a decrease of
the _miasma_, but from a decrease of population, and a consequent
want of subjects to prey upon; and this indeed is a plausible idea;
but admitting it to be just, how are we to account for the almost
invariable fatality of the disorder, when at its height, and the
comparative innocence of it when on the decline? for _then_, the
chance to those who had it, was, that they would recover and survive
the malady.
The old men seemed to indulge in a superstitious tradition, that
when this peculiar kind of epidemy attacks a country, it does not
return or continue for three or more years, but disappears altogether
(after the first year), and is followed the seventh year by contagious
rheums and expectoration, the violence of which lasts from three
to seven days, but is not fatal. Whether this opinion be in general
founded in truth I cannot determine; but in the spring of the year
1806, which was the seventh year from the appearance of the plague
at Fas in 1799, a species of influenza pervaded the whole country;
the patient going to bed well, and on rising in the morning, a thick
phlegm was expectorated, accompanied by a distressing rheum, or cold
in the head, with a cough, which quickly reduced those affected to
extreme weakness, but was seldom fatal, continuing from three to seven
days, with more or less violence, and then gradually disappearing.
During the plague at Mogodor, the European merchants shut themselves
up in their respective houses, as is the practice in the Levant;
I did not take this precaution, but occasionally rode out to take
exercise on horseback. Riding one day out of the town, I met the
Governor’s brother, who asked me where I was going, when every
other European was shut up? “To the garden,” I answered. “And
are you not aware that the garden and the adjacent country is full
of (Genii) departed souls, who are busy in smiting with the plague
every one they meet?” I could not help smiling, but told him,
that I trusted to God only, who would not allow any of the Genii
to smite me unless it were his sovereign will, and that if it were,
he could effect it without the aid of Genii. On my return to town in
the evening, the sandy beach, from the town-gate to the sanctuary of
Seedi Mogodole,[156] was covered with biers. My daily observations
convinced me that the epidemy was not caught by approach, unless that
approach was accompanied by an inhaling of the breath, or by touching
the infected person; I therefore had a separation made across the
gallery, inside of my house, between the kitchen and dining parlour,
of the width of three feet, which is sufficiently wide to prevent
the inhaling the breath of a person. From this partition or table
of separation I took the dishes, and after dinner returned them to
the same place, suffering none of the servants to come near me; and
in the office and counting-house, I had a partition made to prevent
the too near approach of any person who might call on business;
and this precaution I firmly believe to be all that is necessary,
added to that of receiving money through vinegar, and taking care
not to touch or smell infectious substances.
Fear had an extraordinary effect in disposing the body to receive
the infection; and those who were subject thereto, invariably caught
the malady, which was for the most part fatal. At the breaking out
of the plague at Mogodor, there were two medical men, an Italian and
a Frenchman, the latter, a man of science, a great botanist, and of
an acute discrimination; they, however, did not remain, but took the
first opportunity of leaving the place for Teneriffe, so that the
few Europeans had no expectation of any medical assistance except
that of the natives. Plaisters of gum ammoniacum, and the juice of
the leaves of the opuntia, or kermuse ensarrah, i.e. prickly pear,
were universally applied to the carbuncles, as well as the buboes,
which quickly brought them to maturity: many of the people of property
took copious draughts of coffee and Peruvian bark. The _Vinaigre de
quatre voleurs_ was used by many, also camphor, smoking tobacco,
or fumigations of gum Sandrac; straw was also burned by some, who
were of opinion, that any thing which produced abundance of smoke,
was sufficient to purify the air of pestilential effluvia.
During the existence of the plague, I had been in the chambers of
men on their death-bed: I had had Europeans at my table, who were
infected, as well as Moors, who actually had buboes on them; I took no
other precaution than that of separation, carefully avoiding to touch
the hand, or inhale the breath; and, notwithstanding what may have
been said, I am decidedly of opinion that the plague, at least this
peculiar species of it, is not produced by any infectious principle
in the atmosphere, but caught solely by touching infected substances,
or inhaling the breath of those who are diseased; and that it must
not be confounded with the common plague of Egypt, or Constantinople,
being a malady of a much more desperate and destructive kind. It has
been said, by persons who have discussed the nature and character
of the plague, that the cultivation of a country, the draining of
the lands, and other agricultural improvements, tend to eradicate or
diminish it; but at the same time, we have seen countries depopulated
where there was no morass, or stagnate water for many days journey,
nor even a tree to impede the current of air, or a town, nor any
thing but encampments of Arabs, who procured water from wells
of a great depth, and inhabited plains so extensive and uniform,
that they resemble the sea, and are so similar in appearance after,
as well as before sun-rise, that if 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 of this
distemper, hoping that the medical reader will pardon any inaccuracy
originating from my not being a professional man.
CASE I.—One afternoon, I went into the kitchen, and saw the cook
making the bread; he appeared in good health and spirits; I afterwards
went into the adjoining parlour, and took up a book to read; in
half an hour the same man came to the door of 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. The next morning he sent his
wife out on an errand, and got out of bed, and came to the gate half
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 well; he accordingly returned to his
apartments, but expired that evening, and before day-break his body
was in such a deplorable state, that his feet were putrefied. His
wife, by attending on him, caught the infection, having a carbuncle,
and also buboes, and was confined two months before she recovered.
CASE II.—L’Hage Hamed O Bryhim, the old governor of Mogodor,
had twelve 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 of washing the body, he never himself caught
the infection; he lived some years afterwards, and out of the whole
household, consisting of wives, 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 of two musket balls fired at him, one
in each thigh; 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 if shot,
biles or buboes formed, and on suppurating, discharged a fœtid black
pus: a (jimmera) carbuncle on the joint of the arm near the elbow
was full of thin ichor, contained in an elevated skin, surrounded by
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 fully
re-established. It was an observation founded on daily experience,
during the prevalence of this disorder, that those who were attacked
with a nausea at the stomach, and a subsequent vomitting of green
or yellow bile, recovered after suffering in various degrees, and
that those who were affected with giddiness, or delirium, followed
by a discharge or vomiting of black bile, invariably died after
lingering one, two, or three days, their bodies being covered with
small black spots similar to grains of gun-powder: in this state,
however, they possessed their intellects, and spoke rationally till
their dissolution.
When the constitution was not disposed, or had not vigour enough
to throw the miasma to the surface in the form of biles, buboes,
carbuncles, or blackish spots, the virulence is supposed to have
operated inwardly, or on the vital parts, and the patient died in
less than twenty-four hours, without any exterior disfiguration.
CASE IV.—It was reported that the Sultan had the plague twice during
the season, as many others had; so that the idea of its attacking
like the small-pox, a person but once in his life, is refuted: the
Sultan was cured by large doses of Peruvian bark frequently repeated,
and it was said that he found such infinite benefit from it, that he
advised his brothers never to travel without having a good supply. The
Emperor, since the plague, always has by him a sufficient quantity
of quill bark to supply his emergency.
CASE V.—H. L. was smitten with the plague, which affected him by
a pain similar to that of a long needle (as he expressed himself)
repeatedly plunged into his groin. In an hour or two afterwards, a
(jimmera) carbuncle appeared in the groin, which continued enlarging
three days, at the expiration of which period he could neither support
the pain, nor conceal his sensations; he laid himself down on a
couch; an Arabian doctor, applied to the carbuncles the testicles
of a ram cut in half, whilst the vital warmth was still in them;
the carbuncle on the third day was encreased to the size of a small
orange; the beforementioned remedy was daily applied during thirty
days, after which he resorted to cataplasms of the juice of the
(opuntia) prickly pear-tree, (feshook) gum ammoniac, and (zite el
aud) oil of olives, of each one-third: this was intended to promote
suppuration, which was soon effected; there remained after the
suppuration a large vacuity, which was daily filled with fine hemp
dipped in honey; by means of this application the wound filled up,
and the whole was well in thirty-nine days.
CASE VI.—El H——t——e, a trading Jew of Mogodor, was sorely afflicted;
he called upon me, and requested some remedy; I advised him to use oil
of olives, and having Mr. Baldwin’s mode of administering it,[157] I
transcribed it in the Arabic language, and gave it to him; he followed
the prescription, and assured me, about six weeks afterwards, (that
with the blessing of God) he had preserved his life by that remedy
only; he said, that after having been anointed with oil, his skin
became harsh and dry like the scales of a fish, but that in half an
hour more, a profuse perspiration came on, and continued for another
half hour, after which he experienced relief: this he repeated forty
days, when he was quite recovered.
CASE VII.—Moh——m’d ben A—— fell suddenly down in the street; he was
conveyed home; three carbuncles and five buboes appeared soon after in
his groin, under the joint of his knee, and arm-pits, and inside the
elbow; he died in three hours after the attack.
CASE VIII.—L. R. was suddenly smitten with this dreadful calamity,
whilst looking over some Marocco leather; he fell instantaneously;
afterwards, when he had recovered his senses, he described the
sensation as that of the pricking of needles, at every part wherein
the carbuncles afterwards appeared: he died the same day in defiance
of medicine.
CASE IX.—Mr. Pacifico, a merchant, was attacked, and felt a pricking
pain down the inside of the thick part of the thigh, near the sinews;
he was obliged to go to bed. I visited him the next day, and was
going to approach him, but he exclaimed, “Do not come near me,
for although I know I have not the prevailing distemper, yet your
friends, if you touch me, may persuade you otherwise, and that
might alarm you; I shall, I hope, be well in a few days.” I took
the hint of Don Pedro de Victoria, a Spanish gentleman, who was in
the room, who offering me a sagar, I smoked it, and then departed;
the next day the patient died. He was attended during his illness
by the philanthropic Monsieur Soubremont, who did not stir from his
bed-side till he expired; but after exposing himself in this manner,
escaped the infection, which proceeded undoubtedly from his constantly
having a pipe in his mouth.
CASE X.—Two of the principal Jews of the town giving themselves up,
and having no hope, were willing to employ the remainder of their
lives in affording assistance to the dying and the dead, by washing
the bodies and interring them; this business they performed during
thirty or forty days, during all which time they were not attacked:
when the plague had nearly subsided, and they began again to cherish
hopes of surviving the calamity, they were both smitten, but after
a few days illness recovered, and are now living.
From this last case, as well as from many others similar, but too
numerous here to recapitulate, it appears that the human constitution
requires a certain miasma, to prepare it to receive the pestilential
infection.
_General Observation._—When the carbuncles or buboes appeared to
have a blackish rim round their base, the case of that patient was
desperate, and invariably fatal. Sometimes the whole body was covered
with black spots like partridge-shot; such patients always fell
victims to the disorder, and those who felt the blow internally,
shewing no external disfiguration, did not survive more than a
few hours.
The plague, which appears necessary to carry off the overplus
of encreasing population, visits this country about once in every
twenty years: the last visitation was in 1799 and 1800, being more
fatal than any ever before known.
The Mohammedans never postpone burying their dead more than
twenty-four hours; in summer it would be offensive to keep them
longer, for which reason they often inter the body a few hours
after death; they first wash it, then lay it on a wooden tray,
without any coffin, but covered with a shroud of cotton cloth; it
is thus borne to the grave by four men, followed by the relations
and friends of the deceased, chaunting, (La Allah illa Allah wa
Mohammed rassul Allah.) There is no God but _the true_ God, and
Mohammed is his prophet. The body is deposited in the grave with the
head towards Mecca, each of the two extremities of the sepulchre
being marked by an upright stone. It is unlawful to take fees at
an interment, the bier belongs to the (Jamâ) mosque, and is used,
free of expense, by those who apply for it. The cemetery is a piece
of ground _uninclosed_, attached to some sanctuary, outside of the
town, for the Mohammedans do not allow the dead to be buried among
the habitations of the living, or in towns; they highly venerate the
burying-places, and, whenever they pass them, pray for the deceased.
_Diseases._—The inhabitants of this country, besides the plague
already described, are subject to many loathsome and distressing
diseases.
Many of the cities and towns of Marocco are visited yearly by
malignant epidemies, which the natives call fruit-fevers; they
originate from their indulgence in fruit, which abounds throughout
this fertile garden of the world. The fruits deemed most febrile
are musk-melons, apricots, and all unripe stone fruits. _Alpinus,
de Medicina Egyptiorum_, says, “Autumno grassantur febres
pestilentiales multæ quæ subdole invadunt, et sæpe medicum et
ægrum decipiunt.”
_Jedrie (Small-pox)._—Inoculation for this disease appears to have
been known in this country long before we were acquainted with it in
Europe. The Arabs of the Desert make the incision for inoculation
with a sharp flint. Horses and cattle are very much subject to the
jedrie: this disease is much dreaded by the natives; the patient
is advised to breathe in the open air. The fatality of this disease
may proceed, in a great measure, from the thickness of the skin of
the Arabs, always exposed to the sun and air, which, preventing the
effort which nature makes to throw the morbid matter to the surface,
tends to throw it back into the circulation of the blood.
_Mjinen_ and _Baldness._—Children are frequently affected with
baldness; and the falling sickness is a common disease; the women are
particularly subject to it; they call it _m’jinen_, i.e. possessed
with a spirit.
_Head-ache, Bowel Complaints, and Rheumatism._—The head-ache is
common, but it is only temporary, arising generally from a suddenst
oppage of perspiration, and goes off again on using exercise, which,
in this hot climate, immediately causes perspiration. The stomach is
often relaxed with the heat, and becomes extremely painful, this they
improperly call (Ujah el Kulleb) the heart ache. They are frequently
complaining of gripings, and universal weakness, which are probably
caused by the water they continually drink; they complain also of
(Ujah el Adem) the bone-ache, rheumatism, which is often occasioned
by their being accustomed to sit on the ground without shoes.
_(Bu Telleese) Nyctalopia._—This ophthalmic disease is little known
in the northern provinces; but in Suse and Sahara it prevails. A
defect of vision comes on at dusk, but without pain; the patient
is deprived of sight, so that he cannot see distinctly, even with
the assistance of candles. During my residence at Agadeer, in the
quality of agent for the _ci-devant_ States General of the United
Provinces, a cousin of mine was dreadfully afflicted with this
troublesome disease, losing his sight at evening, and continuing in
that state till the rising sun. A _Deleim Arab_, a famous physician,
communicated to me a sovereign remedy, which being extremely simple,
I had not sufficient faith in his prescription to give it a trial,
till reflecting that the simplicity of the remedy was such as to
preclude the possibility of its being injurious: it was therefore
applied inwardly; and twelve hours afterwards, to my astonishment,
the boy’s eyes were perfectly well, and continued so during
twenty-one days, when I again had recourse to the same remedy,
and it effected a cure, on one administration, during thirty days,
when it again attacked him; the remedy was again applied with the
same beneficial effect as before.
_Ulcers and eruptions._—Schirrous ulcers, and other eruptions,
frequently break out on their limbs and bodies from the heated state
of the blood, which is increased by their constant and extravagant
use of stimulants; for whenever they sit down to meat, the first
enquiry is (Wosh Skune) Is it stimulating? if it be not, they will
not touch it, be it ever so good and palatable. These eruptions
often turn to leprous affections.
_The Venereal Disease._—The most general disorder, however, is the
venereal disease, which is said to have been unknown among them,
till the period when Ferdinand King of Castille expelled the Jews
from Spain, who coming over to Marocco, and suffering the Africans
to cohabit with their wives and daughters, the whole empire was,
as it were, _inoculated_ with the dreadful distemper; they call it
_the great disease_,[158] or _the woman’s disorder_; and it has now
spread itself into so many varieties, that, I am persuaded, there is
scarcely a Moor in Barbary who has not more or less of the virus in
his blood; they have no effectual remedy for it; they know nothing of
the specific mercury, but usually follow a course of vegetable diet
for forty days, drinking during that time decoctions of sarsaparilla,
which afford them a temporary relief. The heat of the climate
keeping up a constant perspiration, those who have this disorder,
do not suffer so much from it as persons do in Europe; and this,
added to their abstaining in general from wine, and all fermented
liquors, may be the cause of their being enabled to drag through
life without undergoing a radical cure, though they are occasionally
afflicted with aches and pains till their dissolution. From repeated
infection, and extreme negligence, we sometimes see noseless faces,
no remedy having been administered to exterminate the infection;
ulcers, particularly on the legs, are so common, that one scarcely
sees a Moor without them. I have heard many of them complain, that
they had never enjoyed health or tranquillity since they were first
infected. If any European surgeon happen to prescribe the specific
remedy, they generally, from some inaccuracy of interpretation,
want of confidence, or other cause, neglect to follow the necessary
regimen; this aggravates the symptoms, and they then discontinue
the medicine, from a presumption of its inefficacy; it has even
been asserted that mercury does not incorporate with the blood,
but passes off with the fæces, producing no salutary effect. In
cases of gonnorrhœa they apply, locally, (the Hendal) coloquinth,
which (assisted with tisanes and diuretics) is attended with most
beneficial effects.
The Bashaw Hayanie, an old man of 100 years of age, who governed
Suse and Agadeer part of the time when I was established there
(and who was a favourite of the Emperor Muley Ismael) has assured
me, that by compelling the Bukarie blacks to carry burdens up the
mountain to the town of Agadeer, in the heat of the day, they have
been cured of this disease. If this be true, it can be attributed
only to the profuse perspiration induced by violent exercise in a
hot country. The constant and general use of the warm bath may also
tend to assuage the virulence of this enemy to the human constitution.
_Leprosy._—Leprosy, called Jeddem, is very prevalent in Barbary;
people affected with it are common in the province of Haha, where oil
argannick is much used, which, when not properly prepared, is said
to heat the blood.[159] The lepers of Haha are seen in parties of
ten or twenty together, and approach travellers to beg charity. In
the city of Marocco there is a separate quarter, outside of the
walls, inhabited by lepers only. In passing through this place,
I observed that its inhabitants were not generally disfigured in
personal appearance; the women, when young, are extremely handsome;
some few have a livid, spotted, or cracked skin: they are sometimes
flushed in the face, and at others pale: when they appear abroad,
they assist their complexion with (el akker) rouge, and (el kahol)
lead ore, with which latter they blacken their eye-lashes and eye
brows, and puncture the chin from the tip to the middle of the lower
lip; but this practice, which they think increases their beauty,
rather disfigures them.
Leprosy being considered epidemical, those who are affected with it
are obliged to wear a badge of distinction whenever they leave their
habitations, so that a straw hat, with a very wide brim, tied on in
a particular manner, is the signal for persons not to approach the
wearer; the lepers are seen in various parts of Barbary, sitting on
the ground with a wooden bowl before them, begging; and in this way
they collect sometimes a considerable sum for such a country: they
intermarry with each other; and although the whole system is said
to be contaminated, yet they seldom discover any external marks of
disease, except those before-mentioned, and generally a paucity or
total want of eye-brows. On any change of weather, and particularly
if the sky be overcast, and the air damp, they will be seen sitting
round a fire, warming their bones, as they term it, for they ache
all over till the weather resumes its wonted salubrity.
_Elephantiasis and Hydrocele._—Persons affected with the
elephantiasis, dropsy, and hydrocele, are frequently met with,
particularly about Tangier, the water of which is said to occasion the
latter; and those who are recently affected with it, affirm, that it
leaves them on removing from the place.[160] During my stay once at
Tangier, after travelling through the country, I observed one of my
servants labouring under the disorder; on speaking to him about it,
and regretting that there was no physician to afford him relief,
he laughed, and made light of it, saying he hoped I would not stay
long in Tangier, as it was occasioned by the water of the place, and
would leave him as soon as we departed; which was actually the case,
for two days after our departure it had almost entirely subsided. The
elephantiasis has been thought a species of leprosy, for it desiccates
the epidermis of the legs, which swell and appear rugous.
_(El Murrar) Bile._—This is a very general disease, as well as all
those which proceed from a too copious secretion of bile. The Jews,
and the Mohammedans who are not scrupulous, use brandy made from
raisins or figs to remove the bilious sensation, which operates as
an anodyne. Senna, rhubarb, and succotrine aloes, mixed with honey,
are administered with temporary success.
_(Bu Saffra) Jaundice._—Men, as well as horses, having the jaundice,
are punctured with a hot iron, through the skin, at the joints. I
have seen both cured in six or seven days by this operation.
_(Tunia) Tape-worm._—This is a disease to which the people are
particularly subject; they take large quantities of (El Assel ou
Assheh) honey and worm-seed, which produces beneficial effects. The
children are generally afflicted with this disease; the eyes appear
hollow, with a whiteness of the adjacent skin.
_(Bu Wasir), Hæmorrhoides._—This disease is very general;
refrigerants are applied for its cure internally, and an unguent,
composed of oil of almonds, and the juice of the opuntia, or
prickly-pear tree.
_Hydrophobia_ is entirely unknown in West Barbary, which is the more
extraordinary, as dogs abound every where, are frequently destitute
of water, and suffer intolerably from heat and exposure to the sun.
_Hernia._—Cases of hernia are sometimes met with, though not so
frequently as in Europe.
They have no effectual remedy for any of the before mentioned
diseases; their whole materia medica consists, with little
exception, of herbs and other vegetables, from their knowledge
of the medical virtues of which much might be learned by European
physicians. Bleeding is a general remedy for various complaints;
the healthy let blood once a year. Scarification on the forehead,
at the back of the head, below the root of the hair, on the loins,
the breast, and the legs is generally practised in cases of violent
head-ache proceeding from an obstructed perspiration.
The classification of remedies among the Arabs is remarkably simple,
the two grand divisions are refrigerants and heating medicines:
they quote some ancient Arabian, who says,
Shrub Dim Wine produces blood.
El Ham el Ham Meat produces flesh.
Khubs Adem Bread produces bone.
U el bakee makan But all other things produce no good.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 147: See the Author’s observations, in a letter to
Mr. Willis, in Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1805.]
[Footnote 148: See page 105.]
[Footnote 149: I have been informed that there are still at Marocco,
apartments wherein the dead were placed; and that after the whole
family was swept away the doors were built up, and remain so to
this day.]
[Footnote 150: There died, during the whole of the above periods,
in the city of Marocco, 50,000; in Fas, 65,000; in Mogodor, 4,500;
and in Saffy, 5,000; in all 124,500 souls!]
[Footnote 151: Des gens parvenues, as the French express it;
or upstarts.]
[Footnote 152: The good, or benediction.]
[Footnote 153: At this time I received from Marocco a caravan of
many camel loads of beeswax, in serrons containing 200 lbs. each;
I sent for workmen to place them one upon another, and they demanded
one dollar per serron for so moving them.]
[Footnote 154: M’drob is an idiom in the Arabic language
somewhat difficult to render into English; it is well known that
the Mohammedans are predestinarians, and that they believe in the
existence of spirits, devils, &c. their idea of the plague is,
that it is a good or blessing sent from God to clear the world of a
superfluous population—that no medicine or precaution can cure or
prevent it; that every one who is to be a victim to it is (mktube)
recorded in the Book of Fate; that there are certain Genii who
preside over the fate of men, and who sometimes discover themselves
in various forms, having often legs similar to those of fowls; that
these Genii are armed with arrows: that when a person is attacked
by the plague, which is called in Arabic l’amer, or the destiny
or decree, he is shot by one of these Genii, and the sensation of
the invisible wound is similar to that from a musquet-ball; hence
the universal application of M’drob to a person afflicted with the
plague, i.e. he is shot; and if he die, ufah ameruh, his destiny is
completed or terminated (in this world). I scarcely ever yet saw
the Mooselmin who did not affirm that he had at some time of his
life seen these Genii, and they often appear, they say, in rivers.]
[Footnote 155: Late British Consul in Egypt.]
[Footnote 156: A sanctuary a mile south-east of the town of Mogodor,
from whence the town receives its name.]
[Footnote 157: Mr. Baldwin observed, that whilst the plague ravaged
Egypt, the dealers in oil were not affected with the epidemy, and he
accordingly recommended people to anoint themselves with oil every
day as a remedy.]
[Footnote 158: In Arabic, el murd el kabeer, or el murd En’sâh.]
[Footnote 159: See page 138.]
[Footnote 160: I mention this, from its being the popular, and
generally received opinion of the natives only; the case of my
servant would, indeed, seem to favour such an opinion, but his cure
was probably owing to other causes.]