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

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HISTORICAL JOURNAL
the temerity to inoculate himself in the arms with recent matter
taken from the bubo of a pestiferous patient.* and likewise rubbed
the same matter upon different parts of his body. Not content
with endangering his own life, he wrapt his Arab servant in the
The disease was
bedding of an individual lately dead of plague.
fully produced upon himself, and buboes formed. He died, I believe
the fourth day from attack. The Arab fled. I had endea-
voured to discourage him from pursuing this dangerous opinion,
that the plague was not contagious, the contrary appearing so ma-
nifest to me upon a variety of occasions.
To corroborate this latter opinion, I have to relate some few
facts. A.pelice, the property of a Turk who died from plague,
was given to another, who, without fear or thought, put it on
his back, caught the infection, and quickly died. In this way this
pelice might have passed into the hands of twenty more, with the
same apathy and fatal effects.
A gunner of artillery belonging to the military mission entered
the tent of a pestiferous patient, contrary to orders; supported
t)\e shoulders of the patient, while he took drink; immediately
caught the infection, and died at the end of five days, with buboes
and symptoms of plague. Fide case of gunner Cowden,
page 373.
I received information from the Imperial Consul and others at
Cairo, that in 1801, a vessel arrived at Jhulac from Upper Egypt,
laden with senna. The crew related to the consul, that they had
lost two men after twenty-four hours illness, which report, from
all the accounts he could collect, induced him to believe the disease
to have been plague. He made known the circumstance, and the
necessity there was for the vessel to be put under quarantine, pre-
viously to her departure for Upper Egypt. His laudable advice
was neglected, although he had been a resident in Egypt forty
years. On the arrival of the vessel at the place of destination in
Upper Egypt, only one of the crew was alive to relate the dismal
story; the rest had fallen victims to the plague on their passage.
This unfortunate man transported with him the seeds of the dis-
ease to his home, where he soon died, and many others likewise.
We met, even among the Turks, with some individuals who
believed in, and were aware of, the contagious property of plague.
* Sir Robert Wilson s?.ys, this was dene to try the effects of inoculation, as in small-
pox, and to ascertain whether it would produce a^milder disease.