At Length The Fever Gave Way To
Careful Attendance, And My Arab Patients And Florian Were Also In
A Fair Way Towards Recovery.
The plagues of Egypt were upon us;
the common house-flies were in billions, in addition to the
cattle-tormentor.
Our donkeys would not graze, but stood day and
night in the dense smoke of fires, made of sticks and green
grass, for protection.
The plague of boils broke out, and every one was attacked more or
less severely. Then came a plague of which Moses must have been
ignorant, or he would surely have inflicted it upon Pharaoh. This
was a species of itch, which affected all ages and both sexes
equally; it attacked all parts of the body, but principally the
extremities. The irritation was beyond description; small
vesicles rose above the skin, containing a watery fluid, which,
upon bursting, appeared to spread the disease. The Arabs had no
control over this malady, which they called "coorash," and the
whole country was scratching. The popular belief attributed the
disease to the water of the Atbara at this particular season:
although a horrible plague, I do not believe it to have any
connexion with the well-known itch or "scabies" of Europe.
I adopted a remedy that I had found a specific for mange in dogs,
and this treatment became equally successful in cases of coorash.
Gunpowder, with the addition of one-fourth of sulphur, made into
a soft paste with water, and then formed into an ointment with
fat:
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