DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11638#0232
ZIO
TRAVELS IN UPPER
lows it, into languor and a consumption, and
leads him to the grave. It is said that the women
take care to make ready this horrid repast at cer-
tain periods of the moon, during which it ought,
in their opinion, to produce more certain effects:
those of this poison are terrible indeed. The
symptoms are nearly the same as in the scurvy.
The body dries up ; all the limbs become exces-
sively feeble ; the gums rot, the teeth are loosen-
ed ; the beard and the hair fall off: in a word,
after having dragged out a tedious and painful life
for a twelvemonth, and sometimes longer, the
wretched victim expires in the midst of sufferings.
No remedy is known for so many horrors; it is
even asserted that nothing is able to alleviate
them.
This leads me on by a natural transition to
mention some remarks, which the practice of
physic in Egypt enabled me to make. I have ob-
served that it is not easy to purge its robust inha-
bitants. Their stomach, accustomed to digest
bread badly baked, acrid and raw vegetables, and
other gross and unwholesome nourishment, is not
easily affected by purgative medicines. Doses
which in Europe would occasion the most violent
super-purgations, glide harmlessly over their iron
stomachs. I have seen eight grains of very strong-
tartar emetic produce no other effect than some
slight
TRAVELS IN UPPER
lows it, into languor and a consumption, and
leads him to the grave. It is said that the women
take care to make ready this horrid repast at cer-
tain periods of the moon, during which it ought,
in their opinion, to produce more certain effects:
those of this poison are terrible indeed. The
symptoms are nearly the same as in the scurvy.
The body dries up ; all the limbs become exces-
sively feeble ; the gums rot, the teeth are loosen-
ed ; the beard and the hair fall off: in a word,
after having dragged out a tedious and painful life
for a twelvemonth, and sometimes longer, the
wretched victim expires in the midst of sufferings.
No remedy is known for so many horrors; it is
even asserted that nothing is able to alleviate
them.
This leads me on by a natural transition to
mention some remarks, which the practice of
physic in Egypt enabled me to make. I have ob-
served that it is not easy to purge its robust inha-
bitants. Their stomach, accustomed to digest
bread badly baked, acrid and raw vegetables, and
other gross and unwholesome nourishment, is not
easily affected by purgative medicines. Doses
which in Europe would occasion the most violent
super-purgations, glide harmlessly over their iron
stomachs. I have seen eight grains of very strong-
tartar emetic produce no other effect than some
slight