Excerpt from Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences, Vol. 42

From Alexandria the epidemic seems to have spread to Cairo. On July 5th it was announced that 118 deaths were due to the dis ease, 107 of them being children, while in Cairo the epidemic was stationary. On the 12th the deaths in Alexandria had fallen to 55 in the day, and the disease was declining in Cairo and the surround ing villages.

It is worthy of remark, that during the course of the epidemic in Alexandria, the city was visited by a violent wind-storm from the south called chamsin. This wind began to blow on June 24th, and continued until July 6th. It is said to be extremely oppressive in its character, and it was believed to intensify the epidemic. Thus, on the first day after the occurrence of this wind the mortality rose from 183 to 193, on the next day to 208, and on the next to 214; then it began to fall day by day as follows - from 214 to 209, from 209 to 197, and from 197 to 196; then there was a sudden rise to 228, with a fall next day to 176, and on the following day to 118; rising once more - viz., on June 6th, to 132, and on the following day, being the last of the wind to 142. The reader will see from these figures that, however striking the view might appear to an Alexandrian that this depressing south wind has to do with the flue tuations of the disease, it is not a view which is very tenable. It is an almost common error into which people who live on the site of an epidemic fall, to connect any and every atmospheric phenomenon with the prevailing disorder. Too often, however, such supposed con nexion is mythical; and that it was mythical in the present instance is, we think, proved not only by the figures, but by the further intel ligence which the telegraphic despatch of July 8th brought to us. Sufficient was stated to indicate that causes sufficiently local were at work to account for all that was observed, independently of this particular southern wind. It was found that the disease made little way in the European portions of the town, and that the better class Europeans escaped almost altogether. The malady spread amongst the Arabs, who dwelt, we are told, in dwellings of the most loath some character, which were shared equally by man and beast. At the same time, the food of these people was deficient in quantity and bad in quality; while, owing to the excessive heat and the low state of the river Nile, the water they had to drink was actually putrid. These terrible evils were greatly exaggerated by personal uncleanli ness and by superstitious indifference to disease and even to death. Lastly, the independent nature of the disease, apart from the idea of the south wind, is proved by the circumstance that the disorder, attacking scarcely at all the European portions of the town, spread with great rapidity in the native villages of the Delta and in the towns of Tanta, Dhamanhur, Mansura, and Zagazig. Of course, the south wind would affect all alike, European and native; but the one class escaped while the othelr suffered.

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