Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

THE FALL OF THE DELTA AND THE ARABIAN JIHAD237caught bubonic plague, which takes several days to incubate. If so, they werecontracting it from fleas, to which they were exposed in bordellos or in filthy,crowded, rat-infested apartments. Plague bacteria can also live in the soil. Theonset of pneumonic plague, an infection of the lungs, can come quickly, even ina matter of hours, and the disease can also be spread by aerosol transmission,that is, through inhaling droplets of moisture in the breath of an infected person.Since Lavalette in his account of Renaud’s illness did not mention thebuboes or inflammatory swelling of the lymph gland characteristic of bubonicplague, the symptoms he reported would be most consistent with the pneumonicform of the disease, caught by the French from their Egyptian paramoursor from the coughing of infected fellow soldiers. The French troops, not havingbeen exposed to Egypt’s endemic illnesses, had no antibodies to protect themfrom these exotic maladies.The news that French troops were falling ill in Alexandria, Lavalettelamented, had encouraged the Bedouin outside the city to renew their attacks.The pastoralists had the advantage of being relatively impervious to epidemics,because they lived isolated from dense human habitation and away from diseasevectors such as rats. They typically had good intelligence on epidemic outbreaksin cities and took advantage of weakened populations to loot them. Kléber, thenat Damietta making preparations for the Syria campaign, received from Bonapartea note that revealed the ways in which the onset of the disease affectedthose plans. He forwarded Bonaparte’s comments to the divisional chief physician:“The letters sent to me from Mansura cause me to fear that the 2nd LightInfantry may be so infected with the contagious disease that it may be dangerousto put it in line with the other demi-brigades. Compose a detailed report of thesituation of that demi-brigade and if you judge that it can transmit the contagiousmalady that torments it to other corps, you can send it back to Mansura.” 32The increasing reluctance of the physicians to expose themselves to stricken soldiersfurther demoralized them. Physicians who treated the stricken were at thattime immured with them, and those who thought the disease contagious viewedthis procedure as a death sentence. Alarmed, the commander in chief intervenedforcefully. “Bonaparte learned that at Alexandria the chief of pharmacy, Boyer,had refused to care for those stricken by plague. He immediately issued anorder: ‘Boyer will be dressed as a woman and promenaded on an ass in the citywith a sign saying, “He does not deserve to be a French citizen, he fears death.”He will then be imprisoned and sent back to France.’” 33