Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. 113
heart, the blood issued, but of a darker colour than that contained
in the delicate pulmonary cells The liver, which was of a darkish
hue, was somewhat large in proportion to the size of the animal;
and the gall bladder was filled with bile of a dark green colour.
Only one common strait gut was perceptible.
Several small round
substances, nearly of the size of a vetch, and of a deep yellow co-
lour, lay connected together in the lower part of the abdomen; as
did also two lobes, similar to the lungs of an animal. These were
likewise of a deep yellow, or orange-colour, and were nearly of
the size of a small Windsor bean. It is evident, from this account
of the conformation of the animal, that those who cherished the
old error of its existing upon air, must have been very inaccurate ob-
servers.
The camelions were very numerous in the camp, and frequently
entered the tents in search of their
prey.
We were informed on the 5th, by our dragoman, that the Ma-
melukes encamped at Jaffa had lost about eight hundred men,
cither by the plague or by desertion ; and that the greater part of
those commanded by Ibrahim Bey had fallen victims to disease.
On the following day we were thrown into a considerable degree
of alarm by a report made by another of the dragomen, or inter-
preters, who told us, that he had discovered the seis (groom) lead-
ing a pestiferous subject into our camp. This information proved
to be well founded; and the subject in question was instantly
removed.
A detachment of Arnauts, about a thousand in number, joined
the camp on the 7th, having been conveyed to Jaffa by sea. Reports
were in circulation that the French had landed new reinforcements
of troops in Egypt.
The transport, having on board Captain Lacy, who was somewhat
recovered from his indisposition, returned to Jaffa on the 8th.
that it was the determination of the Ca-
brought intelligence
pitan Pacha,
Alexandria.
and of Sir Sydney Smith, to renew the blockade of
On the 10th, a letter, dated at El-Arish, was received from Ma-
jor F/etc/u-r, who had had an attack of fever, and was dangerously
ill. The transport was in consequence ordered to proceed to El-
Arish, to bring him back. About this time Osman Bey, a Mameluke
chief, died of the plague at Jaffa; as did also Fuze/ Pacha ',
one of the cachefs.
( >5)