The Sun.
London, England, 1803-04-29 00:00:00

BRITISH' REVIEW.

ATTEMPT TO INVESTIGATE THE CAUSE OF THE
EGYPTIAN OPHTHALMIA; WITH OBSERVATIONS
ON IT, NATURE AND DIFFERENT MODES OF CURE.
BY GEORGE POWER, ASSISTANT SURGEON TO THE
TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT OF FOOT, OR ROYAL
WELCH FUSILIERS.

To E disorder which furnishes the subjed of this
useful TraCt has committed such ravages upon the
British Troops who so nobly signalized their
prowess in the country where it prevails, that we
are glad to find a man of such knowledge and obser_
. yation as Mr. Pow ett apply his attention to the
sobjeet. The Author examines with candour all
that has been said on the subjeCt by other Writers,
and gives an account of the modes of cure recommend-
ed by those Writers, as well as the methods prac-
tised by the Natives. Finally, he • describes the
treatment adopted by himself, and which he found
most efficacious in- the removal of this dangerous
malady.
The following passage states the general causes
of the disorder. We shall probably take a Clime
opportunity 4 resuming our notice of a work which,
though brief, is sufficiently intelligent, and must
be very interesting to our Medical Readers.
" As the immense quantities of animal and vege-
table substances which abound in Egypt, when aa-
ea upon by great heat and moisture, cannot fail to
pass into putrefaaive fermentation; putrid efiluvi
must there assume the highest possible degree of. ma..
: the deleterious effeCts of which upon the
human body are so obvious, even to persons not
versed in the medical art, that any arguments fur
its proof or illustration will he unnecessary.
" It fortunately, however, happens for the inha.
birants of Egypt, that these effluvia, so destrudive
to hoinan lite, become susceptible of new changes,
whilst buoyant in the atmosphere,. by spon:aneous
'decomposition, whereby their component 'parts, be-
coming disengaged, are eichar reduced to their first
principles, or, by taking a new arrangement, form
compounds, by combination with other substances
in the atmosphere, to which they hve a greater
affinity. Thus the earthly and saline substances
that abound in the Egyptian atmosphere ate pro-
cluced, whilst the swarms of insects that are propa-
gated, probably teud to correCt the putrescence of
the' air by a passive as well as an adive agency,
which it is not necessary here to insist upon. •
" These substances, however, whilst suspended
in the air become new though less destruCtive causes
of disease.

" The ammoniacal trod fixed alkaline salts, either
in :r nascent state, or combined with different acids,
whilst floating in the wind or deposited with the
dews, may tend to occasion an ulceration of the
lances, together with a peeling of the skin from
the face and hands ; and. from their pungency must
be peculiarly destrudive to the eyes.
" The argillaceous and calcareous earths which
abound in the atmosphere, either in a separate state,
or combined .with sulphuric or carbonic acid, and
which were supposed by the French surgeons to be
peculiarly destruftive to the eyes, may also be thus
accounted for.

" Myriads of .muskitoes, with their troublesome
buzzing, produce debility by preventing sleep; at
the same - time that their vencinotp bites, by con.
stantly irritating the surface of the body, occasion
fever, nor unfrequently accompanied.with symptoms
of a mu delirium, or some. sensation which it is not
possible to express by any other term : whilst, pro-
bably, ihe.ova, or excrementitious matter of these
animals, if deposited in the eyes, the mouth, or
even On' the surface of the body, rntrst materially
atfed the organ vision, and contribute to pro-
duce an ulceration of the faucet, as well as those
iehorous blotches• on the skin denominated by the
natives Scrpcgts' breath.

. finally,
4\ao as all these causes may be supposed
to at tvbUst collelively buoyant in- the gazeous
solvent, as well .as. when reduced to the more active
state of individual miastni, we may be allowed to
coawrize the.whole of this concentrated colluvics of
toni-and pestilent vapours under the generic term
PuTit ours,"

The Ticket, No. r9+3, drawn yesterday a Prize
of Twenty thousand. Pounds, was sold at Messrs.
HAZARD, BURNT, and Co.'s Office, Royal Ex-
change, in one Kill, our Fourth, one Eighth, and
two sixteenth Shares ; at which Office No. 18016,
a Prize of 20,030!. and Nu. 3E413, a Prize of
to,oool. were also sold in Share.i ; and No. 308, a
Prize of zo,oool. in a whole Ticket.

Numerous and surprising are the symptoms of
that inveterate and dreadtul disease, Lite Scurvy;
and it is evident, that no person who has reason to
believe that he is afreaed with the least taint of the
scurvy, shduld rest, until-by the proper use of me-
dicine it has been cmpletely;suhducd. The rapidity
with which this disorder- rages, when once it has
entered the constitution, is truly astonishing, the
patient is therefore guarded against thinking lightly
of his danger, because the symptoms may perhaps
appear to him to be trifling ;' and those who have
begun a course of the Anti-Impetiginei, which is
a medicine calculated to cleanse the blood of 'its
impurity, are strongly recommended to persist in
the use of it, until every vestige of the complaint
has been completely eradicated. The scurvy is so
universal a distemper, that no part is free from its
rage ; the chyle, the blo:):1 and the lymph; are all
tainted therewith. The use of the Anti.lmpeti-
gines is therefore sometimes obliged to be continuid
for some time to root out the distirder.