Larrey departed with the Egyptian campaign in 1798. Following the victory at the Battle of Abukir, he established a medical school for army physicians in Cairo. Many of his patients at the time were affacted by ophthalmy, a disease known in Europe since the Crusades, which Larrey studied and wrote about in his memoirs. He improved the transportation of wounded soldiers through the use of dromedaries, with two chests attached to each side of their hump to carry the wounded, instead of horses of difficult movement in the desert. He was wounded during the Siege of Acre. Larrey returned to France in October 1801.