But In The Old Days Of Idolatry, The Hygienic And
Prophylactic Practices Alluded To By Herodotus, The Greater Cleanliness
Of The People, And The Attention Paid To The Canals And Drainage,
Probably Prevented This Malarious Disease Becoming The Scourge Which It
Is Now.
The similarity of the soil and the climate of Egypt to those of
Upper Sind, and the prevalence of the complaint in both countries,
assist us in investigating the predisposing causes.
These are, the
nitrous and pungent nature of the soil-what the old Greek calls "acrid
matter exuding from the earth,"-and the sudden transition from extreme
dryness to excessive damp checking the invisible perspiration of the
circumorbital parts, and flying to an organ which is already weakened
by the fierce glare of the sun, and the fine dust raised by the Khamsin
or the Chaliho. Glare and dust alone, seldom cause eye disease.
Everyone knows that ophthalmia is unknown in the Desert, and the people
of Al-Hijaz, who live in an atmosphere of blaze and sand, seldom lose
their sight. The Egyptian usually catches ophthalmia in his childhood.
It begins with simple conjunctivitis, caused by constitutional
predisposition, exposure, diet, and allowing the eye to be covered with
swarms of flies. He neglects the early symptoms, and cares the less for
being a Cyclops, as the infirmity will most probably exempt him from
military service. Presently the sane organ becomes affected
sympathetically. As before, simple disease of the conjunctiva passes
into purulent ophthalmia. The man, after waiting a while, will go to
the doctor and show a large cicatrix in each eye, the result of an
ulcerated cornea.
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