The natural history of Aleppo and parts adjacent

A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY of ALEPPO, AND THE PARTS ADJACENT. — PART I.

Haleb, or, as we call it, Aleppo, the present metropolis of Syria⁠[1], though greatly inferior to the cities of Constantinople and Cairo in extent, number of inhabitants, riches, and perhaps several other circumstances, yet, in respect to buildings, yields to none in the Turkish empire.

This city and suburbs stand on eight small hills or eminences, none of them considerable, except that in the middle of the place, on which the castle is erected. This mount is of a conic form, and seems, in a great measure, to be artificial, and raised with the earth thrown up out of a broad deep ditch that surrounds it. The suburbs, called Sheih il Arab, to the N. N. E. are next in height to this, and those to the W. S. W. are much lower than the parts adjacent, and than any other parts of the city.

An old wall not a little decayed, and a broad ditch now in most places turned into gardens, surround the city, the circumference of which is about three miles and an half; but, including the suburbs, which are chiefly to the North East, the whole may be about seven miles⁠[2].

The houses, are composed of apartments, on each of the sides, of a square court all of stone, and consist of a ground floor which is generally arched, and an upper story which is flat on the top, and either terraced with hard plaister, or paved with stone. Their ceilings are of wood neatly painted, and sometimes gilded, as are also the window-shutters, the pannels of some of their rooms, and the cupboard doors, of which they have a great number: these, taken together, have a very agreeable effect. Over the doors and windows within the houses of the Turks, are inscribed passages out of the Koran, or verses either of their own composition, or taken from some of their most celebrated poets. The Christians generally borrow theirs from scripture.

In all their houses the court yard is neatly paved, and, for the most part, has a bason with a jet d’eau in the middle, on one or both sides of which, a small spot is left unpaved for a sort of garden, which often does not exceed a yard or two square; the verdure, however, which is here produced, together with the addition of a few flowers in pots, and the fountains playing, would be a very agreeable sight to the passenger, if there were openings to the street through which these might be discovered, but they are entirely shut up with double doors so contrived, as that, when open, one cannot look into the court yard; and there are no windows to the street, except a very few in their upper rooms; so that nothing is to be seen but dead walls, which make their streets appear very disagreeable to Europeans.

Most of the better sort of houses have an arched alcove within this court open to the north, and opposite to the fountain; the pavement of this alcove is raised about a foot and an half above that of the yard, to serve for a divan⁠[3]. Between this and the fountain the pavement is generally laid out in mosaic work, with various coloured marble; as is also the floor of a large hall with a cupola roof, which commonly has a fountain in the middle, and is almost the only tolerably cool room in their houses during the summer.

The people of fashion have in the outer court but one or two rooms below stairs for themselves, the rest are for servants and stabling; the pavement of this is but rough, as their horses stand there all the summer, except a few hours in the middle of the day. Above stairs is a colonade, if not round the whole court, at least fronting the west, off from which are their rooms and kiosks⁠[4]; these latter are a sort of wooden divans, that project a little way from the other part of the building, and hang over the street; they are raised about one foot and an half higher, than the floor of the room, to which they are quite open, and, by having windows in front and on each side, there is a great draught of air, which makes them cool in the summer, the advantage chiefly intended by them. Beyond this court is another, containing the womens apartments, built much in the same manner that I have described the other houses; some few of them have a tolerable garden, in which, as well as in the outer yard, there is generally a tall cypress tree.

The mosques in Aleppo are numerous, and some few of them magnificent; before each is a square area, in the middle of which, is a fountain for the appointed ablutions before prayers, and behind some of the larger mosques there is a little garden.

Besides these open spaces there are many large khanes or (as most travellers call them) caravan seraijs, consisting of a capacious square, on all sides of which are built on the ground floor a number of rooms, used occasionally for stables, warehouses, or chambers. Above stairs a colonade occupies the four sides, to which opens a number of small rooms, wherein the merchants, as well strangers as natives, transact most of their business.

The streets are generally narrow, but, however, are well paved, and kept remarkably clean.

The market places, called here bazars, are properly, long, covered, narrow streets, on each side of which are a number of small shops just sufficient to hold the tradesman (and perhaps one or two more) with all the commodities he deals in about him, the buyer being obliged to stand without. Each separate branch of business has a particular bazar allotted them, and these, as well as the streets, are all locked up an hour and an half after sunset, and many of them earlier, which is a great security from house-breakers. It deserves to be remembered, how odd soever it may appear, that though their doors are mostly cased with iron, yet their locks are made of wood.

In the suburbs, to the eastward, are their slaughter-houses, in a very airy place, with a large open field before them. The tanners have a khane, where they work, in the south west part of the town near the river.

To the southward, just without the walls in the suburbs, they burn lime; and a little way further is a small village, where they make ropes and catgut, which last manufacture is, at some seasons, extremely offensive.

In Mesherka, which is part of the suburbs on the opposite side of the river to the westward, is a glass-house, where they make a coarse kind of white glass, but they work only a few months in the winter, the greatest part of this manufacture being brought from a village called Armenass, about thirty-five miles to the westward, from whence also they bring the sand used in their glass-house at Aleppo.

The city is supplied with very good water from some springs near the banks of the river at Heylan, about five miles to the north north east, which is conveyed from thence by an aquæduct, and distributed to the different parts of the town by earthen pipes. There is a tradition, that this aquæduct was the work of the empress Helena, and that from her the springs took their present name: this water is sufficient for the necessary purposes of drinking, cookery, &c. Besides this, almost every house has a well, but the water of these, being brackish, is only employed for washing their court yards, and filling the reservoirs for their fountains.

The fuel, used in their houses, is wood and charcoal; for heating their bagnios, they burn the dung of animals, leaves of plants, parings of fruit, and such like, which they employ people to gather and dry for that purpose.

The markets are well supplied with provisions, of which we shall have occasion to give a more particular account.

For at least four or five miles round Aleppo, the ground is very stony and uneven, having a number of small eminences, most of which are as high as any part of the city. From the west south west to the north west by west, this sort of country continues for at least twenty miles, with a number of small fertile plains interspersed. To the northward and southward, after about six or seven miles, the country is level and not stony. To the eastward a vast plain commences, which, though it is called the desart, yet for a great many miles beyond Aleppo, affords a fine fertile soil.

In clear weather, the top of mount Cassius, bearing west by south, and part of the mountains, called Amanus, are to be seen from several places in the city; but, as the nearest of these, viz. that part of Amanus, which stretches to the eastward and approaches to Killis, is at least thirty miles distant from Aleppo, they can be supposed to have but very little influence upon the air of the place, any more than a small conical rocky hill, called Sheih Barakat, at about twenty miles to the west by north, and a narrow chain of low rocky hills, usually named the Black Mountains, to the south south east, at about ten miles distance.

The river Coic⁠[5] (if a stream scarce six or eight yards wide deserves that name) passes along the western part of the city within a few yards of the walls, and barely serves to water a narrow slip of gardens upon its banks, reaching from about five miles north to about three miles south of the town. Besides these gardens, there are a few more near a village called Bab Allah, about two miles to the north-east, which are supplied by the aquæduct.

The rising-grounds above the gardens, to which the water cannot be conveyed, are in some places laid out in vineyards interspersed with olive, fig, and pistachio trees, as are also many spots to the eastward, where there are no gardens.

Inconsiderable as this stream and these gardens may appear, yet they contain almost the only water and trees that are to be met with for twenty or thirty miles round, for the villages are all destitute of trees, and most of them only supplied with water by what rain they can save in cisterns.

The latitude of Aleppo, as fixed by a French mathematician who was there in the year 1753, is thirty-six degrees twelve minutes N. latitude, which, though some minutes different from the observations of others, yet is probably the most exact, as he was not only a man of eminence in his profession, but was also furnished with the best instruments, an advantage which perhaps the other observators had not. The longitude is said to be 37 D. 40 M. east from London. Its distance from the sea, in a direct line is about sixty miles, and its height from thence is considerable, but not yet accurately ascertained.

Having thus finished what was thought necessary concerning the situation of Aleppo, with respect to the parts adjacent, let us now take a general view of the face of the country throughout Syria.

The coast in general is bordered by very high mountains, except near Seleucia, and there from mount Pieria to mount Cassius, which is ten or fifteen miles, is quite level, leaving a passage for the river Orontes to empty itself into the Mediterranean. Those mountains are covered with trees, shrubs, and a number of plants; so that, different from the plains, they retain their verdure all the summer. As they abound with springs these collect into little rivulets, and in a few places on that side next the sea rivers, which plentifully irrigate the plains that are between them and the sea. Behind them, on the land side, are generally extensive plains which receive great benefit from the streams that descend from the mountains, nigh to which they are well cloathed with myrtle, oleander, and other shrubs. The opposite boundaries of those plains are for the most part low, barren, rocky hills, and behind them other large plains, which though they have no water but the rain which falls in the winter, yet are exceeding fertile; and this is not improbably occasioned by the quantity of soil which must necessarily be washed down into them from the surrounding little rocky hills, by the violent rains of the winter. This intermixture of rocky eminencies and plains reaches within land about sixty or seventy miles, after which the country is generally level, from what I have been told, all the way to Bassorah, and is properly Arabia Deserta.

In all Syria there is but one river, (the Orontes) that having its rise on the land side of the high mountains, finds its way to the sea; the rest, which indeed are but few and inconsiderable, being soon absorbed by the thirsty plains through which they run, more especially as they receive but very few supplies in their passage: and even the Orontes, though it be swelled by a number of little brooks from the high mountains behind which it runs, and derives a farther supply from the lake of Antioch, yet seems as considerable a great many miles above Antioch, as where it empties itself into the Mediterranean.

The seasons in this country, generally speaking, are exceeding regular, particularly at Aleppo, where the air is usually very healthy, and so pure and free from damps that all the inhabitants, of what rank soever, sup and sleep in their court-yards, or upon the house tops, exposed to the open air, from the end of May to the middle of September, without suffering any inconveniency from it. However, as I shall hereafter have occasion to be more particular on this subject, I will at present only mention in general the changes of the seasons as they appear to our senses.

The natives reckon the severity, of the winter to last but forty days, which they call Maarbanie, beginning from the twelfth of December, and ending the twentieth of January; and in fact this computation comes near the truth. The air, during this time, is excessively piercing, particularly to strangers, even though they are but just come from a cold climate. In the thirteen years that I resided there, it happened not above three times that the ice was of sufficient strength to bear a man, and that too with caution, and only in a situation where the sun-beams never reached it. The snow, excepting three years, never lay above a day, and even in the depth of winter, when the sun shines out and there is no wind, it is warm, nay sometimes almost hot, in the open air. Narcissus’s are in flower during the whole of this weather, and hyacinths and violets at the latest appear before it is quite over.

As February advances, the fields which were partly green before, now by the springing up of the later grain become entirely covered with an agreeable verdure, and though the trees continue in their leafless wintery state till the end of this month, or the beginning of March, yet the almond, when latest, being in blossom before the middle of February, and quickly succeeded by the apricot, peach, &c. gives the gardens an agreeable appearance. The spring now becomes extremely pleasant, and has no defect but its short duration, for as March brings it on with rapidity, so April advances with like haste towards summer, and the gay livery that the fields wore in those two months, and indeed most of the winter, fades before the middle of May; and before the end of this month the whole country puts on so parched and barren an aspect, that one would scarce think it was capable of producing any thing but the very few robust plants which still have vigour enough to resist the extreme heats. From this time not so much as one refreshing shower falls, and scarce a friendly cloud appears to shelter us from the excessive heat of the sun till about the middle of September, when generally a little rain falling, either in Aleppo, or the neighbourhood, refreshes the air greatly.

From these first rains till the second, an interval of at least between twenty and thirty days, the weather is temperate, serene, and extremely delightful, and if the rains have been at all plentiful, though but of a few hours duration, the country soon assumes a new face; after the second rains the weather becomes variable, and winter approaches by degrees, not with so swift a pace as the summer, for the greater part of the trees retain their leaves till the middle of November; the most delicate never make fires till about the end of this month, and some few pass the whole winter without them.

It is seldom that Aleppo is troubled with very hard gales of wind; the coldest winds in the winter are those that blow from between the north west and the east, and the nearer they approach to the last-mentioned point, the colder they are during winter and part of the spring. But from the beginning of May to the end of September, the winds blowing from the very same points bring with them a degree and kind of heat which one would imagine came out of an oven, and which, when it blows hard, will affect metals within the houses, such as locks of room doors, nearly as much as if they had been exposed to the rays of the sun; yet it is remarkable that water kept in jars is much cooler at this time than when a cool westerly wind blows. In this season the only remedy is to shut all the doors and windows, for though these winds do not kill as the sumyel, (which are much of the same nature) do on the desart, yet they are extremely troublesome, causing a languor and difficulty in respiration to most people. Many summers pass without any of these winds, and, during my stay, in no summer have there been more than four or five days of them; for though the easterly and northerly winds reign most in the winter, yet providence has wisely ordered it that the westerly winds are the most frequent in the summer, without which, considering the intense heat of the sun’s rays, and the reflection from a bare rocky tract of ground, and from the white stone walls of the houses, the country would scarcely be habitable.

Where the town is situated it is, as most of the other rising grounds, rocky, and the soil just round it a white light earth, very stoney, and not fertile; but in most other parts of the country, the soil is a redish, or sometimes blackish light mold, and produces the fruits of the earth in great abundance.

A considerable part of the country lies uncultivated, from the tyranny of their government, the insecurity of property, and the consequent indolence of the inhabitants; but very little is allowed to lie fallow with a view to culture, nor do they use much manure.

They begin to plough about the latter end of September, and sow their earliest wheat about the middle of October. The frosts are never severe enough to prevent their ploughing all the winter, so that they continue to sow all sorts of grain to the end of January, and barley sometimes after the middle of February. No harrow is used, but the ground is ploughed a second time after it is sown, in order to cover the grain; in some places where the soil is a little sandy they plough but once, and that is after sowing. The plough is so light, that a man of a moderate strength may easily carry it with one hand: a little cow, or at most two, and sometimes only an ass, is sufficient to draw it in ploughing, and one man both drives and holds it with so much ease that he generally smokes his pipe at the same time.

Besides Turkey wheat, barley, and cotton⁠[6], they sow in the fields, cicers⁠[7], lentils⁠[8], beans⁠[9], chickling⁠[10], small vetch⁠[11], sesamum, ricinus, hemp, a green kidney bean⁠[12], called by the natives mash, and much eat; musk melon⁠[13] water melon⁠[14], a small sort of cucumber called ajour, fennel-flower⁠[15], fœnugreek⁠[16], bastard-saffron⁠[17], Turkey millet.

About Aleppo they sow no oats, their horses being all fed with barley; but near Antioch, and on the coast of Syria, I have seen some few fields of them.

Near the city tobacco⁠[18] is planted in the gardens only, but in the villages about ten or fifteen miles off a large quantity is planted in the fields, and all the hills from Shogre to Latachia produce such plenty of this vegetable that it makes no inconsiderable branch of trade, particularly with Egypt.

The harvest commences with the barley about the beginning of May, and that, as well as the wheat, is generally all reaped by the twentieth of the same month. The more wet the spring the later the harvest and the more plentiful the crop. As soon as it is cut down, or rather pluck’d up, (for this is their more usual way) it is carried to some neighbouring spot of hard even ground, and there dislodged from its hulk by a machine like a sledge, which runs upon two or three rollers, drawn by horses, cows, or asses. In these rollers are fixed low iron wheels, notched like the teeth of a law, and pretty sharp, at once cutting the straw and separating the grain.

Their granaries are even at this day subterraneous grottos, the entry to which is by a small hole or opening like a well, often in the high way, and as they are commonly left open when empty, they make it not a little dangerous riding near the villages in the night.

The cotton is not gathered till October, and such spots as are sown with it yield a pleasant verdure when every thing else seems to be burnt up. In the neighbourhood of Aleppo there is no great quantity.

The olives produced about the city are, as I apprehend, very little more than sufficient for pickling for the use of the inhabitants. But at Edlib, about thirty miles to the south west, and the other villages near it, they have large plantations affording yearly abundance of oil, with which, and the ashes brought by the Arabs from the desart, a very considerable quantity of soap is annually made, some at Aleppo, but the greatest part at Edlib.

When proper care is taken, the oil is very good, but as the people of the country are not nice in their taste, they are less disposed to be attentive about it.

The ricinus furnishes an oil which serves the common people for burning in their lamps, and from the sesamum an oil likewise is extracted called seerage, consumed chiefly by the Jews.

The vineyards round the city produce several sorts of tolerably good grapes, sufficient for the supply of the markets. I need scarce mention that the Turks make no wine, but the Christians and Jews are allowed to make sufficient for their own use, upon payment of a certain tax; and the grapes for this purpose, as well as raisins, are all brought from some distance. Their white wines are palatable, but thin and poor, and seldom keep sound above a year. The red wine is deep-coloured, strong, and heady, without any flavour, and much sooner produces sleep or stupidity than mirth and elevation of spirits.

From the raisins, usually mixed with a few aniseeds, they draw an ardent spirit, which they stile arrack, and of this the Christians and Jews drink pretty liberally.

The inspissated juice of the grape⁠[19], called here dibbs, is brought to the city in skins, and sold in the publick markets; it has much the appearance of coarse honey, is of a sweet taste, and in great use among the people of all sorts.

Though use seems the chief thing consulted in the laying out of their gardens (except in a few where they have small summer-houses) and they have not either fine walks, or any sort of ornament, yet, after what has been said of the country, it will be easily imagined how agreeable their verdure and shade must be in the hot weather, and consequently how much they must be resorted to at that season. But this is not the only refreshment they afford the inhabitants, for the markets are from them plentifully supplied with several sorts of fruits, pot-herbs, roots, and sallading; though, as they are obliged to use a great deal of water (which they raise with the Persian wheel) it must be owned that their fruits in general have very little flavour, nor do they often stay till they are ripe before they gather them. The following are all the variety here produced.

Cherries three sorts; the common red cherry⁠[20], the white heart cherry⁠[21], and Visnia cherry⁠[22]; apricots two sorts, one of which has a sweet kernel, and is an exceeding good fruit, they ingraft it upon the almond, and reckon its delicacy proceeds from that particular circumstance⁠[23]. Peaches but indifferent⁠[24]; several sorts of plumbs⁠[25]; cornelian cherry⁠[26]; two or three sorts of apples, but very bad⁠[27]; some indifferent good pears⁠[28]; quinces⁠[29]; pomegranates of three sorts, sweet, sour, and another between both⁠[30]; almonds⁠[31]; black mulberries⁠[32]; white mulberries in great abundance; with the leaves of this tree the silk-worms are fed⁠[33]; walnuts⁠[34]; figs⁠[35] of four kinds; hazel-nuts⁠[36], the kernels of which they parch and eat between meals. Pistachio nuts⁠[37], of a very good quality, and of which a considerable quantity is yearly sent to Europe; jujubs⁠[38]; olive⁠[39]; sumach, used much as a relisher in many of their dishes⁠[40]; one tree only of St. John’s bread⁠[41], is to be found in the gardens, though it is very common on the coast, and the fruit sold in the bazars at Aleppo.

These trees are all standards planted promiscuously, and very little obliged to culture. In some places they are thrown together in thickets, in others they form inclosures for the beds of garden-stuff, in which inclosures are also found the plane tree⁠[42], white poplar⁠[43], common white willow⁠[44]; another willow that bears a sweet-scented flower, called by the natives baan, from whence they distill a simple cordial water much used⁠[45]. Horn-beam⁠[46], a very few oaks⁠[47], ash⁠[48], lilac⁠[49], bead tree⁠[50], a very few of the nettle trees⁠[51], oleaster⁠[52], tamarisk⁠[53], turpentine tree⁠[54], a very few medlars⁠[55], elder⁠[56], roses of various kinds⁠[57], thorn⁠[58], balaustine tree⁠[59], forming on the whole a wild and irregular but agreeable prospect. The cypress trees⁠[60] are generally planted nigh the house; the black-berry⁠[61] also grows wild all over the gardens. They have neither goosberries nor currants now, though in Rawolf’s time there seems to have been a few.

The pot-herbs, &c. produced by the gardens will be best ranged according to the seasons in which they are most plentiful, in order to give a clear idea of the food of the inhabitants in the different seasons, for which reason also I shall here take the liberty to mention several that have been already enumerated.

From the beginning of November to the end of March, cabbage⁠[62], spinnage⁠[63], endive⁠[64], radishes of two sorts⁠[65], turnips⁠[66], beet⁠[67], carrot⁠[68], are in great plenty; collyflowers⁠[69] make their appearance towards the end of January, are in great abundance in February and part of March, by the end of which month they become scarce. April and May produce lettuces of different kinds⁠[70], beans⁠[71], truffles⁠[72], artichoaks⁠[73], which are very small, and chiefly eat by the natives when very young, so as when stew’d they eat the whole; and pease⁠[74].

The two last-mentioned remain in season all the month of June. Purslane⁠[75], and cucumbers⁠[76] come in season also in May, and are in plenty till the end of July; in September and October the latter are again brought to market in great abundance, and towards the end of this last mentioned month the young ones are gathered for pickling.

The months of June, July, and August produce musk melons⁠[77] in great abundance; and a small cucumber called ajoor, which is often extremely bitter. To these, in the month of July, are added water melons⁠[78], which we have in great perfection; Jews mallows⁠[79]; kidney beans⁠[80]; adders cucumbers⁠[81]; Syrian mallow⁠[82]; lupines⁠[83]; as also several kinds of gourds⁠[84]; three species of mad apples⁠[85], called by the natives badinjan; which remain all September, and the latter as far as the middle of November, making the principal part of the food of the inhabitants during the months of July, August, September, and October; and they are so fond of them, that they preserve them various ways, so as to afford occasionally a dish through the whole year. Squash⁠[86] comes in towards the end of September, and continues all the year. The orange-shaped pumpion⁠[87] we have more common in the summer-months. They have none of the colocassia at Aleppo, but great quantities at Tripoli; where the shopkeepers use the leaves (as Rawolf mentions of Aleppo) instead of paper, for putting up their wares.

The few following are to be met with at all seasons; parsley⁠[88], cress⁠[89], mint⁠[90], onions⁠[91], and garlick⁠[92]; which though they come last in the list, yet they are far from being the least in use or esteem among the natives.

In the gardens they also cultivate carraway⁠[93], coriander⁠[94], dill⁠[95], cypress canes⁠[96], and common reed⁠[97], both much used by the manufacturers of silk and cotton stuffs, by way of reels, &c.

Besides what have been already mentioned, which are produced by culture, the fields afford the bugloss⁠[98], mallow⁠[99], and asparagus⁠[100], which they use as pot-herbs; the capper⁠[101], which they pickle; the dandelion⁠[102], and water cresses⁠[103], used in sallading; and the summer savory⁠[104], which, dried and powdered, and mixed with salt, they call zater, and often eat as a relisher with bread, serving many of the natives by way of breakfast in the winter-season; also the Spanish nut⁠[105]; and a species of hartwort⁠[106], called by them secacul; both which they eat crude.

In their little gardens they cultivate, besides the roses already mentioned, the Dutch hundred-leaf rose⁠[107]; monthly rose⁠[108], which, by proper management, flowers about ten months in the year; a few plants of the passion flower⁠[109]; and several kinds of jasmin⁠[110]: oleander⁠[111], and myrtle⁠[112], grow plentifully in all the water’d parts of Syria, but here only by culture. Henna⁠[113] is kept in pots, and preserved with great care from the inclemency of the winter, being much esteemed on account of its sweet-scented flowers; Spanish broom⁠[114], vervain mallow⁠[115], night-shade⁠[116], winter cherry⁠[117]; and abundance of flowers, several of which have been brought there by the Europeans, and of which they are very fond, the women in particular, who decorate their head-dress with them: of these the chief are the ranunculus and anemony, carnation, hyacinth, narcissus, violet, tuberose⁠[118], African marigold⁠[119], lupines, sow-bread, Indian bellflower⁠[120], marvel of Peru⁠[121], columbine, stock-gelliflower. They also raise in these little gardens Guinea pepper⁠[122], which they use as a pickle; and love apples⁠[123], which are but little ate by any of the natives, except the Jews; rosemary⁠[124], basil⁠[125], flower gentle⁠[126], female balsamine⁠[127], musk scabious, rue⁠[128], wormwood⁠[129]. The common Seville orange⁠[130], the sweet Seville orange⁠[131], China orange⁠[132], common lemon⁠[133], sweet lemon⁠[134], and citron⁠[135], are also with care preserved here by the natives, for they will not bear a severe winter in Aleppo; though they are in great abundance at Byas, Latachia, Tripoly, and other places on the coast of Syria; from whence the city is plentifully supplied with these fruits.

Neither my time, nor knowledge in botany, even though assisted by my brother, who had a great deal more of both, were equal to the task of making a compleat list of all the plants growing round Aleppo; but though several may have been omitted, great care has been taken that none should be inserted in the following account but what have been determined with as much accuracy as possible.⁠[136] It may not be improper to observe, that the plants in general are of a much humbler growth here than in most other parts.

Several plants have been already mentioned as flowering early in the year, as hyacinth⁠[137], daffodil⁠[138], tulip⁠[139], and violet⁠[140]; but the Spanish nut is what may be called the harbinger of the spring, and esteemed so by the natives, who are fond of its roots, which are sold at this season in the publick streets in great quantities; and from this time the botanizing season commences. Towards the middle of February the banks of the river are covered with a small cranesbill⁠[141]; and about the same place is found the daizy⁠[142], mentioned by Rawolf. To these are quickly joined a profusion of plants, but chiefly in the gardens and low grounds, meadow saffron⁠[143]; flower-de-luce several species⁠[144], bulbous flower-de-luce⁠[145], snow drop⁠[146], ox eye⁠[147], marigold⁠[148], archangel⁠[149], fumitory⁠[150], shepherds purse⁠[151], dandelion⁠[152], hypecoon⁠[153], grape hyacinth⁠[154], saffron⁠[155], great variety of crowfoot⁠[156], particularly one species (ranuncul. vern. rotundifol. minor), that generally covers all the marshy parts of the gardens.

As the spring advances, the following come on with surprising rapidity. Madder⁠[157], cleavers⁠[158], periwinkle⁠[159], plantain⁠[160], androsace⁠[161], burnet⁠[162], speedwell of many species⁠[163], wake robin⁠[164] several species, dragons⁠[165], several kinds of toad flax⁠[166], clary⁠[167], sow bread⁠[168], which near Aleppo is chiefly cultivated in their little gardens, but very common on the mountains; various sorts of clarey⁠[169], three species of charlock⁠[170], Mithridate mustard⁠[171], bastard Mithridate mustard⁠[172], stock-gellyflower⁠[173], dames violet⁠[174] four species, wild radish⁠[175], two species of chickweed⁠[176], four kinds of mouse-ear⁠[177], house-leek⁠[178], caltrops⁠[179], two species of anemony⁠[180], parsley⁠[181], petty madder⁠[182], hartwort⁠[183], shepherds needle⁠[184], clove-gellyflower⁠[185], various species of garlick⁠[186], bindweed two kinds⁠[187], spurges several species⁠[188], horehound⁠[189], field Basil⁠[190], treacle-mustard⁠[191], woad⁠[192], hemlock⁠[193], water parsnip⁠[194], navel-wort⁠[195], brank ursine⁠[196], gold of pleasure⁠[197], flix-weed⁠[198], horned wild cumin⁠[199], sweet fern⁠[200], bastard parsley⁠[201], shrub hartwort⁠[202], scorching carrot⁠[203].

And towards the middle of April the country is in its full bloom, the verdure of the fields being beautifully variegated by poppies⁠[204], bellflower⁠[205], gromel⁠[206], comfrey⁠[207], mullein⁠[208], sage⁠[209], rocket⁠[210], hedge-mustard⁠[211], mustard⁠[212], horned poppy⁠[213], great variety of campions⁠[214], pimpernel⁠[215], figwort⁠[216], berry bearing chickweed⁠[217], flax⁠[218], corn-flag⁠[219], lilly daffodil⁠[220], larkspur⁠[221], bugloss⁠[222], ladies bed-straw⁠[223], birthwort⁠[224], ironwort⁠[225], skull-cap⁠[226], trifoil⁠[227], melilot⁠[228], calves snout⁠[229], Moldavian balm⁠[230], medick⁠[231], rest harrow⁠[232], goats rue⁠[233], bastard rocket⁠[234], kidney vetch⁠[235], corn sallet⁠[236], two species of satyrion⁠[237], knapweed⁠[238], hatchet vetch⁠[239], columbine⁠[240], scabious⁠[241]. Nor are the stoney, uncultivated rising grounds without their plants; as thyme⁠[242], vipers buglos⁠[243], ground pine⁠[244], cress⁠[245], common whitlow grass⁠[246], madwort⁠[247], eryngo⁠[248], St. Foin several species⁠[249], birds foot⁠[250], horse-shoe vetch⁠[251], birds foot trefoil⁠[252], moon trefoil⁠[253], vetch several kinds⁠[254], milk vetch⁠[255], betony⁠[256], knapweed⁠[257].

Among the rank herbage in the gardens are found at this season, borage⁠[258], German madwort⁠[259], hounds tongue⁠[260], broom rape⁠[261], mint⁠[262], rush⁠[263], balm⁠[264], thyme⁠[265], vervain⁠[266], dittander⁠[267], hollyhock⁠[268], cinquefoil⁠[269], lilly⁠[270], burdock⁠[271], but in small quantity; mug-wort⁠[272]. But among the plants that adorn the fields at this season, no one is more conspicuous or common than the lion-leaf⁠[273]: nor should we here omit a beautiful species of henbane⁠[274], with a strong musk smell; which seems to be the hyosciamus rubello flore, C. B. P. 169. though the peculiarity of its smell I do not find has been mentioned.

As the heats come on, the few following plants being of a hardier nature, are the only ones that are capable of resisting them. Wild or Syrian rue⁠[275], bean capers⁠[276], capers⁠[277], which grow in plenty on the tops of old houses; kings spear⁠[278] several species; a variety of stars of Bethlem⁠[279], liquorice⁠[280], night-shade⁠[281], fennel⁠[282], blessed thistle⁠[283], wild cucumber⁠[284]. Nothing now remains of the spring-plants in the open fields.

Of the plants that belong to the summer, except the following, al hagy⁠[285], a very low kind of acacia⁠[286], goats thorn⁠[287], kali⁠[288], several species of thistles⁠[289], and the gundelia⁠[290], the greatest part are to be found under the shade, or nigh the little channels where the water runs in the gardens. Molucca balm⁠[291], base horehound⁠[292], bastard horehound⁠[293], dwarf oleander⁠[294], ricinoides⁠[295], thorn apple⁠[296], turnsole⁠[297], leadwort⁠[298], pimpernel⁠[299], teasel⁠[300]. After the first rains in the autumn, the fields every where throw out the autumnal lilly daffodil; and the few plants which had stood the summer now glow with fresh vigour.

Besides what plants have been already enumerated, the country produces the camomile-like ox-eye⁠[301], sneezwort⁠[302], yarrow⁠[303], cats foot⁠[304], fleabane⁠[305], several sorts of grass⁠[306], ragweed⁠[307], stinking orach⁠[308], wild orach⁠[309], vipers grass⁠[310], ox-eye⁠[311], May weed⁠[312], corn marigold⁠[313], goats beard⁠[314], Achilles’s yarrow⁠[315], American night-shade⁠[316], chickling⁠[317], chickling vetch⁠[318], French honeysuckle⁠[319], fever-few⁠[320], chamomile⁠[321], hemp⁠[322], sharp-pointed dock⁠[323], bloodwort⁠[324], pellitory of the wall⁠[325], true maiden-hair⁠[326], nettle⁠[327], starry hawkweed succory⁠[328], groundsell⁠[329]. The weeping willow⁠[330] should likewise have been mentioned before, which is very common in the gardens.

And the river affords plenty of the yellow water-lilly⁠[331], from whence the natives distil a cordial-water much used by them.

I never travelled through Syria, either with a botanical view, or at the proper season; so that I cannot pretend to give any tolerable account of the plants growing at any distance from Aleppo. The few, however, that came to my knowledge, I shall just mention. On the mountains grow several sorts of oaks, pines, myrtle, juniper, bay, St. John’s bread, kermes, azarole, the fruit of which is brought to market in the autumn; and the andrachne in such plenty, that it affords nigh one half of the wood used for fuel in Aleppo. The shining red of its bark, together with the beauty of its flowers and fruit, will, I doubt not, make it esteemed as a valuable acquisition to the British gardens, if it agree with our climate, which the thriving condition of several plants raised here seems to promise. The bindweed⁠[332], from whence the Aleppo scammony of the shops is procured, does not grow near the city, but chiefly on the mountains. This drug is the inspissated milky juice that flows from the root by incision; and each produces but a very small quantity. As the plant grows wild, it is the property of any one that will take the trouble to look for it, which is the employment of some peasants at the proper season; and having collected what they can of the milky liquor, they carry it to the nearest village of any note, where there are always some traders (chiefly Jews) ready to purchase it of them; and these people generally mix it with wheat flour, sand, ashes, &c. so that at present very little is brought quite pure to market at Aleppo. It does not appear that any thing it is adulterated with increases its violence in operating; on the contrary, the purer the scammony, the smaller I have always found the dose: so that the notion of its being mixed with the juice of the spurge seems without foundation. However, the proportion of the heterogeneous substances mixed with it being various, renders the dose of the medicine as found in the shops very uncertain, and so occasions its being seldomer prescribed than so safe and efficacious a purgative otherwise deserves. For further particulars relating to this plant, see Medical Observations and Inquiries, Vol. I.—At the bottom of the page is a catalogue of such other plants as have come within my observation on the mountains, and in other parts of Syria⁠[333].

There are no metals found any where near Aleppo, or, so far as I know of, in all Syria; though some of the rocky hills from their appearance seem to contain an iron ore. Nigh to Antioch a few garnets are picked up, but of an inferior quality.

The soil has been already mentioned. They have scarce any clay; and, what they do meet with, has so little tenacity, that it is with difficulty they can form a very ordinary sort of bricks; which, as well as the water-jars they make of it, frequently fall to pieces of themselves. The potters clay, of which the holes of their pipes are made, is brought from Damascus and Sidon.

About six hours from Aleppo is found a sort of fullers earth, called by the natives bayloon, which is often used in the bagnio instead of soap, and particularly by the women for cleansing their hair; for which purpose it is kept in balls, made up with rose-leaves, to give it an agreeable smell. I may add, that a good deal of it is ate by longing women, and such as have a depraved appetite from a chlorosis.

For common buildings they make use of a white gritty stone, every where plenty about the town; and is very proper for the purpose, as it is easily cut, and grows hard afterwards. For the gateways, pillars, and pavements of their best buildings, they employ a yellow marble, which is capable of a tolerable polish, and is likewise the produce of this country. This is often intermixed with a red, white, and coarse black marble in their buildings, by way of ornament. None of the three last mentioned are found in the neighbourhood of Aleppo; being brought, the first from Damascus; the second, either from Italy, or extracted from old buildings, chiefly about Antioch; and the last, both from Damascus and Killis. When they are in want of the red, they can dye the yellow marble of Aleppo, so as to have much the same appearance, by rubbing it over with oil, and then putting it into a moderately-hot oven for some hours. The slight partition-walls are built of a coarse sort of chalk, of which there is abundance to the northward of the city.

Lime-stone is met with in plenty near the city, affording them good cement for their buildings; which they carry on with great ease and dexterity, and generally without any scaffolding. A few hours distance is found the gypsum in small quantities, of which their plaister of Paris is made. This is chiefly used in cementing the earthen pipes employed in carrying water, and for a few other purposes about their best buildings.

About eighteen miles south-east from Aleppo, is a large plain, which we generally call the Valley of Salt, bounded with low, rocky hills, so as to form a kind of natural bason, which keep in the rains descending from them, together with the water derived from a few springs in the neighbourhood, and cause the whole to be entirely covered with water in the winter. The extent and evenness of the surface, however, prevents this water from collecting to any great depth; so that it is soon evaporated by the summer’s heat, and leaves a cake of salt in some places not less than half an inch thick, but it is more or less in proportion to the quantity of rain that falls in the winter; and with this crust the whole inclosed plain is covered. The soil of this plain is a stiff clay, and strongly impregnated with salt; but I could not discover that the springs above mentioned had any taste communicated by this mineral.

In the month of August a number of people are employed in gathering this salt; which is of a good quality, and in quantity proves sufficient to supply all this part of the country.

What few black cattle they have near the city, are chiefly used for the plough, or drawing water for the gardens. The greatest part of those employed for this purpose are very large, with remarkably long legs, and a gaunt belly, such as we often see on antique intaglios. The other cattle of this species are small, and all in general have very short horns.

The Turks or Jews scarce ever eat beef, and it is but of late that the Christians have begun to be fond of it; so that what is killed is chiefly for the Europeans, who have it tolerably good at all seasons, but best in summer, as the natives to this day religiously observe the ancient custom of allowing the oxen employed in separating the corn from the straw to eat what they please.

In some parts of Syria there are abundance of buffaloes, but near Aleppo very few, and these chiefly kept for milk. Mutton is plentiful, fat, and good the whole year, except a few weeks in the spring, and makes by far the greater part of the animal food of all ranks of people. Lamb is also to be had in every season, but in greatest plenty in February, March, and April.

They have two sorts of sheep in the neighbourhood of Aleppo: the one called Beduin sheep, which differ in no respect from the larger kinds of sheep in Britain, except that their tails are somewhat longer and thicker: the others are those often mentioned by travellers on account of their extraordinary tails; and this species is by much the most numerous. This tail is very broad and large, terminating in a small appendix that turns back upon it. It is of a substance between fat and marrow; and is not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and also often used instead of butter. A common sheep of this sort, without the head, feet, skin, and entrails, weighs about twelve or fourteen Aleppo rotoloes⁠[334], of which the tail is usually three rotoloes or upwards; but such as are of the largest breed, and have been fattened, will sometimes weigh above thirty rotoloes, and the tails of these ten; a thing to some scarce credible. These very large sheep being about Aleppo kept up in yards, are in no danger of injuring their tails; but in some other places, where they feed in the fields, the shepherds are obliged to fix a piece of thin board to the under part of the tail, to prevent its being torn by bushes, thistles, &c. as it is not covered underneath with thick wool like the upper part; and some have small wheels, to facilitate the dragging of this board after them; whence, with a little exaggeration, the story of having carts to carry their tails.

This thin skin on the under part of the tail is much used by the natives for pains and swellings of all sorts, being applied warm to the part affected, and allowed to remain on till it stinks abominably; and as they are very often applied to the head and abdomen in fevers, this last circumstance makes them prove generally detrimental: and indeed I have seldom, if ever, seen much benefit received by their application, except in some old rheumatic pains.

They have also two kinds of goats; one that differs little from the common sort in Britain; the other as remarkable for the length of its ears, as the sheep above mentioned for the largeness of their tails. The size of the animal is somewhat larger than ours; but their ears are often a foot long, and broad in proportion. They are chiefly kept for their milk, of which they yield no inconsiderable quantity; and it is sweet, and well-tasted. Great numbers of them are brought to the city about the beginning of April, and are drove through the streets every morning, and their milk sold as they pass, till September. The other part of the year they are generally supplied with cows milk, such as it is; for as they are commonly kept at the gardens, and fed with their refuse, the milk generally tastes so strong of garlick or cabbage leaves, as to be very disagreeable. Besides the milk of the goats, their kids add some part to the diet of the inhabitants, a few being killed in the spring and autumn.

Butter and cheese, both of which are bad, are made indiscriminately of the milk from cows, buffaloes, sheep, or goats: and the city is supplied with these things, as well as with cattle of all kinds, by the Arabs, Rushwans, or Turkmen; all of whom place their wealth, or at least derive their subsistence from those animals, and travel about the country with their flocks, much in the same way as the patriarchs did of old.

Leban⁠[335] is brought in great plenty to the city during the winter and spring, and is a favourite dish with the inhabitants.

The country round Aleppo abounds with antelopes; which are of two sorts: that which is called the mountain antelope is the most beautiful; its back and neck are of a dark brown colour: the antelope of the plain is not either so swift or well-made, and is of a much lighter colour. Both sorts afford no small diversion to the sportsmen; but are so extremely fleet, that the greyhounds, though very good, can seldom take them without the assistance of a falcon, unless in soft deep ground. In the sporting season they are lean, but have a good flavour. In the summer, when fat, they may vie even with our venison in England. But this is to be understood of such as are caught abroad, for those that have been fattened in the houses are not so delicious. From this account it will easily be conceived, that such dainties only make their appearance at the tables of the Europeans, and a few of the more considerable Turks.

Hares are in great plenty, and also afford good sport; but the natives are not fond of them, except the Arabs, whose method of dressing them is particular, and said to be very good. They dig a hole in the earth, which they fill with such light brushwood as they can pick up, and set it on fire: when thoroughly lighted, the hare, the flue, the entrails, and all together just as it was taken, is thrown into it; and, after the flame has ceased, they cover the hole up with the loose earth that had been dug out of it, and which at first had been laid round the verge of the fire, so as to grow hot: thus it is left till they judge it to be sufficiently roasted, when throwing a quantity of salt over it, they eat it without any further dressing.

A few tame rabbits are kept in the city, chiefly for the tables of the Europeans; and now and then a wild hog is brought from abroad, which, though seldom fat, yet is esteemed by us, as it is a rarity.

The country also affords a few porcupines, which are sometimes, though seldom, ate by the Europeans; and land-turtle and frogs in great abundance, which furnish a dish for the Franks of the Romish religion, and for many of the native Christians, in their lents.

These are the animals which are commonly dressed for food by the inhabitants of Aleppo; for the camel, though reckoned a delicious morsel by the Arabs, makes no part of their diet. This creature, however, is of the utmost consequence to them in transporting from place to place every thing for which they have occasion; there being no such thing as a wheel-carriage in all this part of the country, except a very clumsy machine, now and then used for bringing large pillars, or other stones of great weight, from the quarry.

There are four sorts of camels known here, viz. the Turkman camel, the Arab camel, the dromedary, and the camel with two bunches on its back.

The Turkman camel is much stronger, larger, more woolly or hairy, and of a darker colour, than any of the others. Their common load is 160 rotoloes, or 800 pounds; but sometimes it carries much more. This animal cannot bear heat, and therefore they never work it in the months of June, July, and August.

The Arab camel is much smaller than the former, of a lighter colour, and not so hairy. This seldom carries above 100 rotoloes, but can bear the heat and thirst much better than the Turkman; nor is there any need that the Arab camel be fed with barleyflour and chopp’d straw; for the dry thistles, and other plants which grow on the desart, are almost all it requires, and it feeds as it goes along with its burthen. I remember an instance, where, in a caravan from Bussorah, the camels which were of this sort travelled without water for fifteen days; but the quantity they drank as soon as they could come at any, proved fatal to many of them.

The dromedary, by all I could ever discover, is nothing but a high breed of the Arab camel. The only distinction observed is, that it is of a lighter and handsomer make; and, instead of the solemn walk to which the others are accustomed, it paces, and is generally esteemed to go as far in one day as the others do in three.

The camel with two bunches on its back is of Persian breed, and, except a few that come in the caravans from Bagdad and Bussorah, is but seldom seen here. The only distinction between it and the Arab camel seems to be its having two bunches, whereas the other sorts have but one.

In mentioning their beasts of burthen, the ass ought not to be omitted: of which they have two sorts; one very large, with remarkably long ears; the other small, and much like ours in England; both of no contemptible use in carrying all lighter burdens to and from the parts adjacent to the city.

Formerly this part of the country was famous for fine horses; and though many good ones are still bred here, it may be said they are much degenerated. Those of the Arab breed are slight, and not very handsome, but esteemed for their fleetness. The Turkman horses are larger, of a stronger make, and more sightly appearance; and therefore more valued by the people of fashion among the Turks, whose large furniture does not show to advantage upon a small horse. They are for the most part very well broke, and particularly taught to go off in full speed at once, and stop as quickly; so that in the space of a few yards the rider can lay them out at full stretch, and stop and turn them. Far the greater part are stone-horses, but in general not vicious; and it is observed of most of their animals, that they are exceeding gentle and familiar with the human species.

Among the rocky hills there are hyænas; but they are not so large as those which are found in the mountains⁠[336].

If this animal could formerly imitate the human voice, and learn some of the shepherds names, so as to call them out and devour them, as some writers have reported, it is more than they do at present, being, so far as I can learn, fonder of the flocks than of the shepherd. However, though they will not attack men but in their own defence, or through excess of hunger; yet they still retain the character of robbing sepulchres when they have an opportunity.

Wolves and foxes are found in the champaign, but smaller than those in Europe; and jackalls are in so great plenty about the gardens, that they pass in numbers like a pack of hounds in full cry every evening, giving not only disturbance by their noise, but making free with the poultry and other provisions, if very good care is not taken to keep them out of their reach.

I might be excused from mentioning their dogs, which abound in the streets without any owner, were it not that I think it worth observing, that though they live upon the most putrid substances, have but little water, and in so excessive hot a climate as this is in the summer, yet no instance has been known of any of them running mad. Their wolves however seem to be subject to madness; for the rusticks talk much of an animal called a sheeb, which they imagine to be generated between a wolf and a dog; but, from their description of it, viz. that it is so like a wolf as not to be distinguished from it; that it attacks every person or animal that comes in its way, all of whom die raving mad, &c. I think it would appear that this animal is no other than a mad wolf.

Their greyhounds are of a very light, slender make, and remarkably fleet. Their ears are longer than ours in Britain, and, as well as their tail, covered with a long, soft hair, which adds very much to their beauty.

Though Mount Taurus, near to Maraash, gives shelter to the ounce, and some few tygers are found in most of the high mountains, the lion on the Euphrates between Bagdad and Bussorah, and the jerboa on the desart, and perhaps on examination many other animals in the same places; yet my present purpose only comprehending the parts adjacent to Aleppo, what I have already said on this subject may perhaps be thought sufficient.

As to reptiles, insects, &c. time would not permit me to be minute; so that I shall just mention such as are hurtful or of use to the inhabitants, and a few of those that are most commonly met with. Of the first sort are the serpents of various kinds, with which the country abounds, many of them of the most venomous nature; but as they all fly from man, and the barrenness of the fields in summer, the only season in which they are abroad, prevents either their being surprised, or people’s treading upon them undesignedly, no great number of accidents happen. In the houses there are often found large white snakes; but I never knew any one bit by them. The scolopendra and scorpion however very often sting the natives in their houses, causing pain for several hours, but attended with no farther bad consequences.

Of the noxious kind may well be reckoned the locust, which sometimes arrive in such incredible multitudes, that it would appear fabulous to relate, destroying the whole of the verdure where-ever they pass: but though there are always in the spring and summer some of two or three different species to be met with about Aleppo, yet none of these destructive flights of them appeared during my stay there. It may not be amiss to mention that the Arabs eat this insect when fresh, and also salt them up as a delicacy.

Of insects for use, we have only the bee, which produces excellent honey, and the silk-worm, now sufficiently known all over Europe, as well as the method of managing them in order to procure the silk; of which there is but very little made nigh Aleppo: though that being the market to which it is brought from all parts of Syria, great quantities are sent from thence yearly to Britain.

Various sorts of lizards are found in great abundance over the whole country, and in the gardens a few tree-frogs⁠[337]. It is worth observing, that toads are scarce ever seen here, though common enough upon the coast.

The view with which these sheets were composed, it is hoped, will sufficiently apologize for beginning the account of the feathered tribe with such as are used for food by the inhabitants. Of domestic fowls, they have in their markets, the dunghill cock and hen⁠[338]; the Bagdad fowl which is of a large breed; the rumkin⁠[339], or cock and hen without rumps; the turkey⁠[340], goose⁠[341], and duck⁠[342]. Of game there are on the river in winter, the water hen⁠[343], water rail⁠[344], wild goose⁠[345], plenty of common wild duck and mallard⁠[346], several kinds of widgeon⁠[347], coot⁠[348], spoon-bill⁠[349], and various sorts of teal⁠[350], with which the tables of the Europeans are plentifully supplied, and some ate also by the natives.

In the winter there are also plenty of wood-cocks⁠[351]; spring and autumn produce abundance of quails⁠[352] and rails⁠[353]. In the last mentioned season the witwall⁠[354] and becca figos are both in season, and (the last in particular) esteemed as delicacies.

In the months of May and June great numbers of a bird, called by the natives kata (which are also to be met with at all seasons, though not in so great plenty), are brought to market, and much ate by them; but their flesh is so black, hard, and dry, that the Europeans never touch them. As this bird has not as yet been described, a figure and description of it are annexed⁠[355]. Other game in the neighbourhood are, the bustard⁠[356] of two kinds; red-legg’d partridge⁠[357]; frankolin⁠[358], the flesh of which is delicious, but this bird is not to be met with at less than a day’s journey from the city; common sky-lark⁠[359], wood-lark⁠[360], crested lark⁠[361], calandra⁠[362]; hortulanes⁠[363], and citrils⁠[364], chiefly ate by the French; snipe⁠[365], gird or jack snipe⁠[366], song-thrush⁠[367], wind-thrush⁠[368], turtle-dove⁠[369]; a brown-coloured dove, which builds in the windows, &c. of the houses in the city; and another much like it, only speckled on the neck and pinions, which is very common when the corn is ripe, but disappears as soon as that is reaped; wild pigeon, wood pigeon⁠[370]. They have also variety of tame pigeons, and particularly the carrier⁠[371], formerly made use of by the Europeans for conveying expeditiously the news of a ship’s arrival at Scanderoon; but this practice has been disused for many years. The pigeon thus employed was one that had young at Aleppo. Upon enquiring into their method of training them, some asserted, that they were sent down to Scanderoon in an open cage, and, as soon as let go there, would fly directly to Aleppo. But I am more apt to believe what others affirmed, that the bird was brought to this by first letting it return from shorter distances on the Scanderoon road. All agree, that if the pigeon had been a fortnight at Scanderoon, it was not afterwards to be trusted to fly back, lest it should have forgot its young, and consequently not be so eager to get home. A small piece of paper, with the ship’s name, day of arrival, and what else material could be contained in a very narrow compass, was fixed so as to be under the wing, to prevent its being destroyed by wet. They also used to bathe their feet in vinegar, with a view to keeping them cool, so as they might not settle to drink or wash themselves, which would have destroyed the paper. And I have heard an English gentleman, who remembered that practice, say, that he has known them arrive in two hours and an half.

Shooting, as a sport, is rarely followed by any of the natives, though many practise it to gain a livelihood; but the diversions of coursing and hawking are in great esteem among the people of fashion. They have both in great perfection; but the latter exceeds any thing of the kind that I have ever met with. The falcons bred for taking hares and antelopes are the Baraban and Sefy, both large falcons; and, though caught wild, they train them in a few days to fly at their prey.

For antelope-hawking, they chuse such of these hawks as they find to be fierce, and eager to seize their prey; and they are taught to fix upon the cheek of the animal, which retards its motion, so that the greyhounds come in.

Though the falcons used for hare-hawking will sometimes, when very hungry, strike the hare dead at once; yet for this sport they prefer such as are not disposed to fix upon the animal, but who, by repeated buffetting on the head with their pounces (rising in the air between each blow), retard the hare, till an ordinary greyhound can come up and seize it.

For bird-hawking, they use a large falcon, with long legs, somewhat like the goshawk, which they call espeer; and two smaller falcons, stiled the one zanous, and the other shaheen. This latter must be taken out of the nest, for when old they cannot be trained, and is so fierce that it will fly at any thing. If there were not several gentlemen now in England who can attest it, I should scarce venture to mention, that with the shaheen, which is about the size of a pigeon, they often take the largest eagles, of which in this country there are plenty. They formerly were trained to seize the eagle under the wing: and so depriving him of the use of that part, they fell to the ground together: but their present method, as I am informed, is to seize him on the back between the two wings, which has the same effect, but brings him down more slowly, and so gives the falconer time to come in to his hawk’s assistance; in which if he is not very expeditious, the hawk is in either case speedily destroyed.

They have also a small hawk, which they train to fly at quails; it much resembles the spar-hawk.

Besides those already mentioned for food and sport, the country produces the black vulture⁠[372], some few pelicans⁠[373], the kestrel⁠[374], white stork⁠[375], black stork⁠[376], great eagle-owl⁠[377], several other kinds of smaller owls, the crane⁠[378]; another beautiful sort of crane⁠[379], called by the natives querky, which they have often tame in their houses or court-yards; the common heron⁠[380], the flamingo⁠[381] at some seasons, the cormorant⁠[382], the stone curlew⁠[383], the raven⁠[384], the Royston crow⁠[385], the common or carrion crow⁠[386], the jackdaw⁠[387], the magpye⁠[388], the night raven⁠[389], the starling⁠[390], the common blackbird⁠[391]; a kind of jay, whose feathers are beautifully variegated with blue, green, and a sort of brown; as also in the summer the locust bird⁠[392].

The black caps⁠[393], a sort of gull, are in great numbers about the city all the winter, and so tame that the women call them from the terraces, throwing up pieces of bread, which these birds catch in the air. The house-swallow⁠[394], martin⁠[395], and swift⁠[396], of which, besides the common, there is one with a white belly, come about the end of February; and having hatched their young, disappear about the end of July. The swallow returns again the beginning of October, but stays not above a fortnight. The hopooe⁠[397] and bee-eater⁠[398] come in the spring, and remain all the summer and autumn.

Of small birds the following are what I have observed. The house-sparrow⁠[399], the chaffinch⁠[400], the goldfinch⁠[401], the common linnet⁠[402], the field-fare⁠[403], the white water-wagtail⁠[404], the cuckow⁠[405], the king-fisher⁠[406], the greater spotted wood-pecker⁠[407], the stone-chatter⁠[408], the wren⁠[409], a Brasilian bird a-kin to the king-fisher⁠[410], green plover⁠[411], grey plover⁠[412]; and abundance of nightingales⁠[413], which not only afford much pleasure by their song in the gardens, but are also kept tame in the houses, and let out at a small rate to divert such as chuse it in the city; so that no entertainments are made in the spring without a concert of these birds.

There are also several other birds, which I could not determine from any books I had, and my occasions did not allow me to preserve; besides which I doubt not there are many others which escaped my searches: so that I can only add a remarkable sort of bittern⁠[414], and a bird somewhat like a lapwing⁠[415], with a remarkable spur in its pinnion: the figure and description of both which are annexed.

From the Euphrates and Orontes in the winter, particularly the Lent of the Christians, are brought a sufficient quantity of fish for their consumption; but the Turks seldom eat any: and indeed most of them taste so muddy, that they are disagreeable.

The different kinds that I have observed are carp⁠[416], Mystus Niloticus Bellonii⁠[417], barbel⁠[418], nasus⁠[419], tœnia cornuta Schonfeldii⁠[420], eel⁠[421]; and there are likewise some other sorts that I had not an opportunity of examining; but none are in such abundance as what are called the black fish, with which the markets are plentifully supplied from the entrance of the winter till the beginning of March; when they are esteemed out of season. As this fish, to the best of my knowledge, is of a genus not yet described, a figure and description of it are inserted⁠[422].

Besides the fish which we have mentioned, most of those that are found in the Aleppo river, are likewise brought from abroad, and known in town by the same names.

The sheat fish⁠[423] is also sometimes to be met with, and is caught in a lake near Marash.

I did not imagine, from the appearance of the river Coic, or indeed from what is commonly met with at the tables of the inhabitants, that our list of fish caught there would have swelled to any thing worth mentioning; and yet, upon examination, they were found to amount to no less than seventeen, and even some of these not yet described. They are in general very small, occasioned in part by the assiduous industry of the fishermen; for at Hylan, and the Fountain of Fish, where they remain unmolested, they grow to larger sizes, though very rarely so large as in other parts of the world.

The loche⁠[424] is the most common; the barbel is less than those brought from abroad. The bleak⁠[425] is known by two names; that is, there are two sorts of fish that appear to agree in every characteristic with the bleak, which nevertheless are esteemed different; the first called mirmeed, seven or eight inches long; the second, tiftaf, is not above one and a half or two inches, and, they say, never exceeds. Chub⁠[426] are plenty; roches⁠[427] seldom large; gudgeons⁠[428] of three sorts; the first is much spotted on the back, and called tuckle; the second, kureety, has fewer spots; the third, kalloor, scarce any, and is smaller than the other two. The mugilis⁠[429] I am less certain of than the rest, but yet it agrees tolerably well with the description; dace⁠[430], carassius⁠[431], the phoxinus⁠[432]; also a fish called by the natives simak il inglese⁠[433], from a corruption, I suppose, of anguilla, as it has been commonly imagined to be a kind of eel; though, upon examination, it is found to be a genus hitherto undescribed; and two species of mystus⁠[434]⁠[435]: of which three, as I have met with nothing like them in other authors, I have given descriptions and drawings. There are also, on the banks of the river, crabs in abundance, which are much eat by the native Christians, and which often furnish the tables of the Europeans with a delicate dish.

The inhabitants of Aleppo, though of different religions, yet seem to be much the same people. I wish I could say that those who profess Christianity were better than their neighbours. The number of souls in the city and suburbs is computed at about 235,000, of whom 200,000 are Turks, 30,000 Christians, and 5000 Jews⁠[436]. Of the Christians, the greater number, are Greeks; next to them the Armenians, then the Syrians, and lastly the Maronites; each of whom have a church in the suburbs called Judida; in which quarter, and parts adjacent, most of them reside. The language generally spoke is vulgar Arabic. The Turks of condition use the Turkish. Most of the Armenians can speak Armenian, some few Syrians understand Syriac, and many of the Jews Hebrew; but scarce one of the Greeks understand a word of Greek, either ancient or modern.

The people in general are of a middle stature, rather lean than fat, indifferently well made, but not either vigorous or active. Those of the city are of a fair complexion; but the peasants, and such as are obliged to be much abroad in the sun, are swarthy. Their hair is commonly black, or of a dark chesnut-colour; and it is very rare to see any other than black eyes amongst them. Both sexes are tolerably handsome when young; but the beard soon disfigures the men; and the women, as they come early to maturity⁠[437], fade also as soon, and in general look old by the time they reach thirty. The greater part of the women are married from the age of fourteen to eighteen, and often sooner. The tender passion of love can have very little share in promoting matrimony among them, for the young folks never see one another till the ceremony is performed. A slender waist, far from being admired, is, on the contrary, rather looked on as a deformity in the ladies of this country; so that they do all they can to make themselves plump and lusty.

The men are girt very tight round the middle with a sash. The womens girdles are not only very slight and narrow, but loosely put on; which, with the warmth of the climate, and frequent use of the bagnio, is probably one principal reason why their labours are much easier than those in Britain; the most delicate being seldom confined above ten or twelve days, and those of the villages are rarely hindered from going about their usual employments the next day. Women of all conditions suckle their own children, and seldom wean them, till either the mother is again with child, or they arrive at the age of three, and sometimes four years.

The people of distinction in Aleppo may justly be esteemed courteous and polite, if allowance is made for that superiority which the Mohammedan religion teaches those who profess it to assume over all who are of another faith. And as this prejudice is observed to encrease among the people in proportion to their vicinity to Mecha, the natives of Aleppo have still a much greater proportion than those of Constantinople, Smyrna, and other parts at a greater distance; though, even here, it has greatly declined within these few years, insomuch that several bashaws have conferred many public honours and civilities on the Europeans, that formerly would have caused great popular discontent. As to the common people, an affected gravity, with some share of dissimulation, is too much their characteristic. And though few in the world are more given to harsh language and quarrelling, yet none are less guilty of fighting. One can seldom pass a few yards in the street without being witness to some noisy broil; yet in many years you may perhaps never see one blow struck, except the person who gives it is very well assured that it will not be returned. But though they are so prone to anger upon the most trifling occasions, yet no people in the universe can be more calm when it is their interest so to be. This, I am sorry to say, is but too generally a true representation: but it would be very ungrateful, as well as unjust in me, not to acknowledge that there are many amongst them of all sects who deserve a much better character, and whom I know, from repeated experience, to be persons of the utmost honour and integrity.

Their usual bread is of wheat flour, not well fermented, made into thin flat cakes ill-baked, and for the most part ate soon after it comes out of the oven. The better sort have small loaves of a finer flour, well fermented, and well baked. Besides these, there are a variety of rusks and biscuits, most of which are either strowed on the top with the seeds of sesamum or fennel-flower. The Europeans have very good bread, baked in the French manner.

Coffee made very strong, and without either sugar or milk, is a refreshment in very high esteem with every body; and a dish of it, preceded by a little wet sweet-meat (commonly conserve of red roses, acidulated with lemon-juice), and a pipe of tobacco, is the usual entertainment at a visit. If they have a mind to use less ceremony, the sweet-meat is omitted; and, if they would shew an extraordinary degree of respect, they add sherbet, (some syrup, chiefly that of lemons, mixed with water) a sprinkling of rose or other sweet-scented water, and the perfume, with aloes-wood, which is brought last, and serves as a sign that it is time for the stranger to take his leave. This is looked upon as an entertainment sufficient for the greatest men in the country, only that such have a piece of embroidered or flowered silk thrown over their knee when they drink the coffee and sherbet: and if it is a visit of ceremony from a bashaw, or other person in power, a fine horse, sometimes with furniture, or some such valuable present, is made him at his departure. People of inferior rank (or even others, if they have any favour to ask) commonly bring a small present (a flower is frequently thought sufficient) when they visit.

Tobacco is smoked to excess by all the men, and many of the women. Even the labourers or handicraft-tradesmen have constantly a pipe in their mouths, if they can afford it. Those pipes are made of the twig of a rose-bush, cherry-tree, &c. bored for that purpose: those of the better sort are five or six feet long, and adorned with silver. The bole is of clay, and often changed; but the pipes themselves last for years. Many who are in easy circumstances have lately adopted the Persian manner of smoking the nargeery⁠[438]; which is an instrument so constructed, that the smoke of the tobacco passes through the water before it comes into the mouth. The method of drawing it is different from that of a pipe; and a good part of the smoke seems to descend some way into the breast. The Persian tobacco is what they use in this instrument, which has an agreeable flavour; attended with this further advantage, that, when smoked in this way, neither the taste or smell of it remain after washing the mouth.

The vulgar, in imitation of their superiors, have at the coffee-houses an ordinary instrument of the same construction: in this they use the common tobacco, wetted a little with dibbs and water, or an infusion of raisins, adding at times sheera⁠[439], to make it intoxicating; and they will draw in such vast quantities of smoke, that when they throw it out again at the mouth and nostrils, it appears surprising where they found room to contain it.

Opium is not of so high esteem with the inhabitants of Aleppo as at Constantinople, and some other places; nor could I ever find the taking it so general a practice in Turky as is commonly apprehended, being chiefly practised only by debauchees. They who take it to excess are commonly stiled teriaky; and the Theriac. Andromach. is called in Turkish teriack, which perhaps may countenance a conjecture that this was the original form they used it in. At present they not only use it in that form, but have various other electuaries or confections wherein it is mixed with aromatics. Some few use it pure; and the greatest quantity I ever knew taken was three drachms in twenty-four hours. The immediate effects that I observed it to have upon such as were addicted to it was, that their spirits were exhilarated, and, from a dosing, depressed state which they fell into after passing the usual time of taking their dose, they became quite alert. The consequences of a long use of it are, that they soon look old and besotted, like such as in Europe have ruined their constitutions by hard drinking. And it may be considered as point of fact, that they but seldom live to a good old age: though they are rarely carried off by dropsies, or such other diseases, the usual consequences of hard drinking amongst us; but rather having first lost their memory, and most of their intellectual faculties, they decline, in all appearance, in the same way as those who sink under the weight of years.

In Aleppo there are a number of public bagnios, which are frequented by people of all sects and conditions, except those of a very high rank, who have mostly baths in their own houses. The first entrance in the public bagnio is a large, lofty room; in the middle of which is a fountain, with a bason, which serves for washing the linen, that hangs upon lines at a considerable height all over the room. In this first apartment are broad benches, where they dress and undress; and the air is here not at all influenced by the heat of the bath, except it be just at the door, by which you pass into a small room, which is pretty warm, and from thence into a larger very hot. About the sides of these two rooms are placed round stone-basons, of about two feet and a half diameter, with two cocks, one of hot, and the other of cold water; so that you may temper it according to your own pleasure, and there are copper-bowls for you to lave it upon your body. In the corners of the inner room there are small retiring-chambers; in one of which there is frequently a cistern of warm water, about four feet deep, and large enough for bathing the whole body. All these rooms are surmounted by cupolas; and the inner receive their light from small openings in their domes, which are covered with glasses. The outer room receives its light, not only from the lanthorn of its dome, but also from windows. Some few bagnios are solely for the men, others are appropriated to the women only; yet the generality of them admit both sexes, though at different times; that is, the men in the forenoon, and women in the afternoon.

When a man goes into the hot room, the first thing he does is to apply the dewa⁠[440], (or medicine for taking off the hair), to the pubis and armpits. This is suffered to remain till the hair is quite loose, and then must be immediately washed clean away with great care. After this, one of the servants of the bagnio begins with chaffing, or kneading violently, first the tops of the shoulders, and then by degrees the whole body. When he comes to the hand, he pulls the joints of the fingers, so as to make each crack separately; then laying the person on his back, with his arms across his breast, he raises him forcibly by the back part of the neck, so as to make the greatest part of the vertebræ crack. He then chaffs the back a little more, and, throwing a quantity of warm water over the whole body, rubs him hard with a bag made of a fort of coarse camelot, which is drawn over the servant’s hand, for some time. He is next rubbed over with a soap-lather; and the whole being washed clean off, he puts one towel round his middle, another round his head, and perhaps a third over his shoulders; in which manner he goes out to the great room, where he generally smokes a pipe, drinks coffee, and perhaps eats some fruit, before he dresses.

The women having the additional trouble of combing and washing, as well as unplaiting and plaiting their hair, besides very frequently that of a number of children to wash, remain generally in the hot room for a considerable time; but refresh themselves at intervals, by going out into the other rooms, where they smoke, converse, and drink coffee, with one or other of the various parties that are commonly there. Every company of two or three are attended by an old woman, whose business it is to rub and wash them; but do not chaff and crack their joints as the men, and their bag for rubbing is much finer. They also use the dewa.

Each company, generally speaking, has its collation, which they eat in the middle room before dressing: and as the bagnio is the principal place where they have an opportunity of showing their fine cloaths, seeing a number of company, or enjoying the freedom of conversation, though with their own sex only, it is not to be wondered that they are very fond of it, though their entertainment may not be so elegant as Europeans might expect.

The first time a woman of the country (whether Christian, Turk, or Jew) goes to the bagnio after child-bearing, she must have what they call the shdood; which is thus performed. She is set down in one of the washing-places of the inner room, and the midwife rubs her over with a composition of ginger, pepper, nutmegs, and other spices, made into a sort of ointment, or rather electuary, with honey. In this manner she sits for some time, the other women in the mean while singing and warbling with their voices in a particular tone, which is their usual way of rejoicing in this country. After this the lady is washed clean, and the ceremony finished. This they imagine strengthens them, and prevents a great many disorders that would otherwise ensue after delivery; and they use it also after recovery from any very severe fit of sickness.

The people here have no notion of the benefit of exercise, either for the preservation of health, or curing diseases; and it is with reluctance that they use much, either for business or pleasure. To walk or ride to the gardens once or twice a-week at the proper seasons, is as much as most of them do for the last mentioned purpose; and the other is different, according to the nature of their employments.

The people of condition, and their dependents, should however be excepted in some instances, they being commonly very active on horseback, and in sporting, or the jareed⁠[441], using very violent exercise. This however is but seldom, and hardly compensates for the time they spend in that indolent indulgence, of lolling on their divans, which is the way the generality pass much the greatest part of their time.

As they have no coaches, persons of condition ride on horseback in the city, with a number of servants walking before them, according to their rank; which, though it may not be so convenient in bad weather, has certainly a more manly, if not a grander appearance, than our coaches. The ladies, even of the greatest figure, are obliged to walk on foot, both in the city, and when they go to any garden, if it is but at a moderate distance. In longer journies, the women of rank are carried by mules in a litter, close covered up; and those of inferior condition on these occasions are commonly stowed one on each side of a mule, in a sort of covered cradles.

Most of the natives go to bed in good time, and rise early in the morning. They sleep in their drawers, and at least one or two waistcoats, and some of them in winter in their furs. Their bed consists of a matrass laid on the floor, and over this a sheet (in winter a carpet, or some such woollen covering), the other sheet being sowed to the quilt. A divan-cushion often serves for a bolster and pillow; though some have a bolster and pillow as we have. When the time for repose draws nigh, they sit down on this matrass, and smoke their pipe, till they find themselves sleepy; then they lay themselves down, and leave their women or servants to cover them when asleep; and many of the people of fashion are lulled to rest by soft music, or stories told out of the Arabian Nights Entertainment, or some other book of the same kind, which their women are taught to repeat for this purpose. If they happen to wake in the night, they sit up, fill their pipe, have a dish of coffee made, and sometimes, especially in the long winter-nights, eat some of their sweet pastry, and so sit till they drop asleep again. In the summer their beds are made in their court-yard, or on the house-top; in the winter they chuse for their bed-chamber the smallest and lowest-roofed room on the ground-floor. There is always a lamp burning, and often one or two pans of charcoal; which sometimes proves of bad consequence even to them, and would certainly suffocate such as have not been accustomed to this bad practice.

The coffee-houses are only frequented by the vulgar. The masters of these houses have often, for the entertainment of their customers, a concert of music, a story-teller, and, in time of Ramadan particularly, an obscene, low kind of puppet-show, and sometimes tumblers and jugglers; and these, properly speaking, are all their public diversions.

Their amusements within doors are playing at chess, in which they are very expert, and a fort of backgammon, both borrowed from the Persians; draughts, mankala, tabuduk, and the play of the ring, as they call it, which is what the great men often amuse themselves with in the winter-evenings. It consists merely in guessing what coffee-cup, out of a number that are placed on a large salver, the ring is hid under. They have several engaged in the play on each side; and the parties that win have the privilege of blacking the faces of their antagonists, putting fools caps on their heads, and making them stand before them while they sing extempore songs in their own praise, and in derision of the losers. But it is only their servants, or ordinary people, that they treat in this manner; and some of these, especially if they have any turn to buffoonry, are always of the party on purpose.

Though some Christians have learned of the Europeans to play for money; yet these games are only used by the Turks for amusement, and chiefly to pass the long winter-evenings. Sometimes, ’tis true, they will go so far as to play for an entertainment.

Dancing is not, as in Europe, reckoned an accomplishment for people of fashion, and is scarce practised, even among the vulgar, but by such as make a trade of it. Their dexterity does not consist in agility, but chiefly in the motion of the arms and body, putting themselves in different attitudes, many of which (particularly of the women) are none of the most decent. Their manner is not ill described by Juvenal⁠[442].

At their festivals they have also wrestlers as a part of their entertainment. They have still a resemblance to the athletæ of the ancients, in anointing their naked bodies, having nothing on but a pair of breeches, and strut and vaunt so much at their entry as seems to promise great matters; but they make but very sorry figures in their performance.

I should not omit among their amusements to mention buffoons, who are the constant attendants at all merry-makings, and without whom their mirth and conversation would soon languish, or conclude.

The music of the country is of two sorts; one for the field, the other for the chamber. The first makes part of the retinue of the bashaws, and other great military officers, and is used also in their garrisons. It consists of a sort of hautboy⁠[443], shorter, but shriller than ours; trumpets⁠[444], cymbals⁠[445], large drums⁠[446], the upper head of which is beat upon with a heavy drum-stick, the lower with a small switch. A vizir-bashaw has nine of these large drums, while a bashaw of two tails has but eight, the distinction by which the music of one may be known from that of the other. Besides these, they have small drums⁠[447], beat after the manner of our kettle-drums. This music at a distance has a tolerable good effect.

Their chamber-music consists of a dulcimer⁠[448], guittar⁠[449], dervises flute⁠[450], blown in a very particular manner; Arab fiddle⁠[451], a couple of small drums, and the diff⁠[452], which serves chiefly to beat time to the voice, the worst of all their music; for they bellow so hideously, that it spoils what without it would be in some degree harmonious. This diff is a hoop, (sometimes with pieces of brass fixed in it to make a jingling) over which a piece of parchment is distended. It is beat with the fingers, and is the true tympanum of the ancients; as appears from its figure in several relievos, representing the orgies of Bacchus, and rites of Cybele. It is worth observing, that, according to Juvenal, the Romans had this instrument first from hence⁠[453]. They also have a kind of flute, like the ancient syrinx; but it is not much used among them, there being but few that can play upon it.

Besides the above mentioned instruments, they have likewise a sort of bagpipe, which numbers of idle fellows play upon round the skirts of the town, making it a pretence to ask a present of such as pass.

Though they understand the different measures in music, and have names for them; yet they have no method of writing the notes. They learn entirely by the ear; yet it is observable, that when several persons play together they keep time very exactly. They have neither bass, nor other different parts in music, all playing the same.

The print annexed represents a Turkish concert, drawn from the life; in which care has been taken also to show, through a window, the inner court-yard of a house, with the little garden, fountain, &c. and through another is seen part of a mosque, with the minaret, from whence the imaums call the people to prayers. The dress of the performers also show the different kinds wore by the ordinary people, according to their sect, &c. The first, who beats the diff, represents that of an ordinary Turk; the next a slovenly ordinary Christian; the middle figure is a Dervise; the fourth is a Christian of a middle rank, playing upon the Arab fiddle. What is peculiar in his dress, is, that the sash of the turbant is strip’d with, blue, and his slippers red. The last is an ordinary fellow, beating the small drums with his fingers, as they often do, instead of drumsticks. His head-dress is such as is worn by many Janizaries, and commonly by the Arabgarlees, a race of Armenians, who attend upon the Europeans.

Whatever figure the inhabitants of this country made formerly in literature, they are at present very ignorant. Many bashaws, and even farmers of the customs, and considerable merchants, cannot either read or write. It must be observed, however, that their youth of late years are better taught than formerly; though, even at this time, their education seldom extends farther than just to read a little of the Koran, and write a common letter, except such as are bred to the law or divinity, which are closely allied in this country. The professors of both usually pretend likewise to some skill in physic. In the time I lived there, only one inhabitant of the place understood enough of astronomy to be able to calculate the time of an eclipse; for which he was looked upon as a very extraordinary person. Numbers there are who imagine they understand judicial astrology, in which the natives have great faith: but it would take up too much time even so much as to mention their various superstitions in this and many other respects.

In the city there are a great number of colleges, but very little taught in them; they being generally built by such as have raised great estates by oppression, and other bad means, and are intended by the founders, partly as an atonement for their wickedness, and partly to secure an estate in the family, their descendents being commonly appointed curators of these endowments, and seldom fail to apply to their own private use what seemed intended for public benefit; and thus the school soon runs to decay. Many of these have a sort of library belonging to them, and a few private men among the learned have some books; but these are very rarely good for much, and are kept more through vanity, than for any use they either make of them themselves, or suffer to be made of them by others.

Though the Turks are predestinarians, they are taught however to believe, that tho’ God has afflicted mankind with diseases; yet he has sent them also the remedies, and they are therefore to use the proper means for their recovery: so that practitioners in physic are here well esteemed, and very numerous. These are chiefly native Christians, and a few Jews. The Turks seldom make this their profession. Not one of the natives, however, of any sect is allowed to practise without a licence from the Hakeem Bashee; but a few sequins are sufficient to procure this to the most ignorant; and such most of them are egregiously, for they have no colleges in which any branch of physic is taught: and as the present constitution of their government renders the dissection of human bodies impracticable, and that of brutes is a thing of which they never think, they have a very imperfect idea of the situation of the parts, or their functions.

Of the use of chemistry in medicine they are totally ignorant; but now and then one amongst them just acquires a smattering enough of alchemy to beggar his family by it.

Many of them are brought up under masters who live by the profession of physic; but these are seldom capable of teaching them much; and, to conceal their own ignorance the more effectually, they commonly pretend to a number of secrets not to be disclosed: so that such of them as know any thing, must obtain it by their own reading and observation. But to the latter they are seldom much indebted, as they look upon whatever they find in any book as an established fact, and not to be by them contradicted, however opposite it may appear to their own experience.

The books they have amongst them are some of the Arabian writers; Ebensina in particular, whose authority is indisputable with them. They have likewise some translations of Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, and a few other ancient Greek writers. But their copies are in general miserably incorrect. Hence it may easily be seen, that the state of physic among the natives in this country, as well as every other science, is at a very low ebb, and that it is far from being in a way of improvement.

But, ignorant as they are in regard to physic, they are great matters in temporising, and know how to suit a plausible theory to the patient’s way of thinking; in doing which they scruple not to quote the authority of Hippocrates, Galen, and Ebensina, in support of opinions the most ridiculous and absurd.

It is from the pulse alone that they pretend, and are expected to discover all diseases, and also pregnancy: from their confidence in which last they are daily the death of numbers of infants, by persuading the women that their complaints are from obstructions, and giving them medicines accordingly; while many others, under real diseases, are amused with the hopes of pregnancy till past recovery.

Their practice is very trifling in most cases, and commonly adapted rather to suit the opinion of the sick, and those about them, than the cure of the disease. While they apprehend the sick to be in no danger, they attend close, and give quantities of medicines; but, as soon as they think they are in danger, they do not go near them unless sent for, and then give no medicines, but advise the relations to use some trifling things; for which indeed they have some reason, for commonly the last medicine taken is held to be the cause of the patient’s death.

What has been said with regard to practitioners in physic, relates solely to the natives; for the Europeans, of whom there are several, practise in their own way, and are greatly respected by the inhabitants; though, partly to save their money, and partly from a notion of their giving violent medicines, they seldom apply to them, till they have tried their own doctors to no purpose.

Though their bards are the last mentioned, yet they are far from being the least worthy of notice; for at times a poetical genius shows himself among them, and produces some things which they greatly esteem.

A particular description of their dress, as it would be foreign to my purpose, so it would carry me beyond my proposed limits. Some tolerable idea of it may be gathered from Plate XIV. XV. and XVI.⁠[454]. All that I shall say, therefore, on this head is, that, notwithstanding their peculiar attachment to ancient customs, they are of late become not a little extravagant in this article. And though their fashions do not alter so quick as in Europe, yet they do alter, and that not seldom. Such of their singularities, however, in respect to dress and ornament, as seem more immediately to regard their health, it may be proper to mention.

Some of the old men dye their beards, and the old women their hair, of a red colour, with henna, which gives them a very whimsical appearance; and many of the men dye their beards black, to conceal their age⁠[455].

Few of the women paint, except among the Jews, and such as are common prostitutes; but they generally black their eye-brows, or rather make artificial ones, with a certain composition which they call hattat⁠[456]. This practice, however, is daily declining.

Upon a principle of strengthening the sight, as well as an ornament, it is become a general practice among the women, to black the inside of their eye-lids, by applying a powder called ismed⁠[457]. Their method of doing it is by a cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a common probe. This they wet with water, in order that the powder may stick to it; and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the eye-lids upon it, and so drawing it through between them, it blacks the inside, leaving a narrow black rim all round the edge. This is sometimes practised by the men, but is then regarded as foppish.

Another singular method of adorning themselves the women have, which is, by dying their feet and hands with henna; which is brought in great quantities from Egypt, chiefly for that purpose, as the practice is general amongst all sects and conditions. The common way is only to dye the tips of the fingers and toes, and some few spots upon the hands and feet, and leave them of a dirty yellow colour, the natural tincture from the henna, which to a European looks very disagreeable. But the more polite manner is to have the greatest part of the hands and feet stained in form of roses, and various figures, and the dye made of a very dark green⁠[458]. This however, after some days, begins to change, and at last looks as nasty as the other.

The women in some of the villages, and all the Arabs and Chinganas⁠[459], wear a large silver or gold ring through the external cartilage of their right nostril. I have seen some of at least an inch and an half diameter. It is usual for these people likewise, by way of ornament, to mark their under-lip, and sometimes their breasts and arms with a blue colour. This is done by pricking the part all over with a needle, and then rubbing it with a certain powder, which leaves a distinct and indelible mark, like that which one so often sees among the sailors and common people in England.

With respect to the people in general, these remarks may be sufficient. But as, in their manner of living, the Turks differ from the Christians, and the Jews from both, it may not be improper to take a view of each.

To begin with the Turks, who are the most numerous; such as can afford, and dare show it, live well, and are far from being the abstemious people that many imagine them to be. As soon as they get up in the morning, they breakfast on fried eggs, cheese, honey, leban, &c. About eleven o’clock in the forenoon in winter, and rather earlier in summer, they dine. Their table is round, and as well as their dishes, is made either of copper tinned, or for bashaws, and other persons of high distinction, of silver. It is placed upon a stool about a foot or fourteen inches high. A piece of red cloth, cut in a round form, is spread upon the divan under the table, to prevent that from being soiled; and a long piece of silk-stuff is laid round, to cover the knees of such as sit at the table, which has no covering but the victuals. Pickles, sallads, small basons of leban, bread, and spoons, are disposed in proper order round the edges. The middle is for the dishes, which (among the great people) are brought in one by one; and, after each person has ate a little, they are changed. Their fingers serve them for knives and forks; but for liquids they are obliged to have spoons, which are made of wood, horn, or tortoise-shell, for silver or gold is not permitted them for that purpose by their religion. The first dish is generally a sort of broth, or soup⁠[460], and the last pilaw. The intermediate dishes, which, generally speaking, are numerous, consist of mutton cut into small pieces, and roasted⁠[461], or stewed with herbs and cicers⁠[462]; stewed pigeons, fowls, or other birds, which are commonly stuffed with rice and spices. A whole lamb, stuffed with rice, almonds, raisins, pistaches, &c. and stewed, is a favourite dish with them⁠[463]. Rice, and minced meat, wrapped up in vine-leaves⁠[464], beet, endive, borrage, &c. or stuffed into cucumbers⁠[465], mad apples⁠[466] (badinjans), gourds, quinces, &c. and stewed, they are very fond of, and call mahshee, in Turkish dolmah, with the name of the enveloping vegetable added, as badinjan mahshee, &c. Pastry, both with meat, and of the sweet or fruit kind, they would make very well, if the badness of their butter did not spoil them. A large pilaw, with a dish of sweet starch⁠[467], which they sometimes eat with it, comes last, excepting the khushaf; which is a very thin syrup, with currans, raisins, dried apricots, pistaches, slices of pears, apples, or the like, swimming in it; and of this each person takes a large spoonful, with spoons brought in with it on purpose, and finishes the repast. Water is their liquor at table, and after dinner they drink coffee. Almost all their dishes are either greasy with fat, or butter pretty high-seasoned with salt and spices; many of them made sour with verjuice, pomegranate, or lemon-juice; and onions and garlick often complete the seasoning.

They sup early, that is, about five o’clock in the winter, and six in the summer, in much the same manner that they dine; and in winter, as they often visit one another, and sit up late, they have a collation of kennafy⁠[468], or other sweet dishes.

In the summer their breakfast commonly consists of fruits; and, besides dinner and supper, they often, within the compass of the day, eat water-melons, cucumbers, and other fruits, according to the season.

It is to be observed, that they are not so regular in their times of eating as the Europeans: and though it should happen that they are but just rose from table, they cannot withstand the invitation of another company, but sit down and eat again with them.

The common people have no such variety as has been before described. Bread, dibbs, leban, butter, rice, and a very little mutton, make the chief of their food in the winter; as rice, bread, cheese, and fruits, do in the summer. Their principal meal is in the evening, when they return to their families from the exercise of their respective occupations.

Through the whole of the month of Ramadan⁠[469], they fast from the dawn of day till sunset, and do not either eat or smoke: but, as soon as the sun is down, they eat a hearty meal; and, such as can afford to sleep in the day, keep eating and drinking the greatest part of the night, living more luxuriously than at other times, and generally spending as much money in that one, as in any other two months in the year: but the poor labourers, or those whose business calls them abroad in the day, suffer a great deal during this fast, more especially when it happens in the summer.

Though wine and spirits are only drank by the irreligious and licentious among the Turks, yet the number of these is more than what from appearance one would apprehend: for as these liquors are prohibited by their religion, they chiefly drink in secret at their gardens, or privately in the night; and, if they once begin, they generally drink to great excess whenever they can come at liquor.

By their religion they are obliged to wash before their prayers, which are five times in the twenty-four hours⁠[470], and also every time they ease nature. As they eat chiefly with their fingers, they are likewise under a necessity to wash after every meal, and the more cleanly do it before meals also. Besides, every time they cohabit with their women, they must go to the bagnio before they can say their prayers; so that they are almost all day long dabbling in water.

Though by law, or rather from an implied toleration⁠[471], they are allowed four wives, and as many concubines, or more properly female-slaves, as they can or care to maintain; yet as they are obliged to pay money for their wives, few of any rank have more than two; the poorer sort have seldom more than one, and hardly ever a concubine. Those of middling circumstances rarely exceed three or four; though some I have known, of greater opulence, have kept forty, exclusive of those employed in the menial offices of the family. It may appear strange how such a number should agree tolerably well together; and in fact the master of the family hath very frequently enough to do to keep the peace among them. But if we consider, that they are accustomed from their infancy to a servile obedience, that the husband can at pleasure divorce his wife without assigning any cause, and sell such of his slaves as he has had no children by, it will not appear so extraordinary that they live together in a tolerable degree of harmony. On the other hand, the wife has also a check upon him; for if he divorces his wife, it is attended with expence, as he must not only lose all the money she at first cost him, but there is generally a sum equal to that stipulated by the contract, to be paid in case he should at any time divorce her.

In this country marriages are commonly brought about by the ladies: and the mothers, in order to find out a proper wife for their sons, take all opportunities of introducing themselves into company where they expect to have a sight of a young woman who may be disengaged; and, when they have met with one they think will be agreeable, they propose to the mother a match between her and the young man. This puts the family upon enquiring into his character and circumstances; and, if matters are likely to be adjusted, she is formally demanded of her parents by the father, the price is fixed that he is to pay for her, and a licence is procured from the kadè, for such a person to marry such a woman: each of the young folks then appoint a proxy, who meet with the imaum, and several of the male relations; and, after witnesses have been examined to prove those are the proxies regularly appointed, he asks the one, If he is willing to buy the bride for such a sum of money? and the other, If he is satisfied with the sum? To which having received answers in the affirmative, he joins their hands; and the money being paid, the bargain is concluded with a prayer out of the Koran.

The bridegroom is at liberty after this to take his bride home whenever he thinks proper; and the day being fixed, he sends a message to her family, acquainting them with it. The money which he paid for her, is laid out in furniture for one chamber, and cloaths and jewels, or gold ornaments for the bride, whose father makes some addition, according to his circumstances, which are sent with great pomp to the bridegroom’s house three days before the wedding. He invites, at the same time, all his friends and acquaintance, and, if a man in power, a great many others, for all who are invited send presents, whether they think proper to go or not. Rejoicings are made, and a sort of open house, is kept for several days preceding the wedding. The women, on the day appointed, go from the bridegroom’s to the bride’s house, and bring her home to his, accompanied by her mother, and other female relations, where each sex make merry in separate apartments till night. The men then dress the bridegroom, and give notice to the women; upon which he is introduced into the court-yard of the womens apartment, and there met by his own female relations, who dance and sing before him to the stair’s foot of the bride’s apartment, who is brought half way down stairs to receive him, being veil’d with a piece of red gause, and often, if young, especially her forehead and cheeks covered with leaf-gold, cut into various forms. When he has conducted her up stairs, they are left to themselves⁠[472].

They have a few black slaves, which are commonly brought from Æthiopia, by way of Cairo; but the greater part of their slaves are white, being mostly furnished from Georgia, or such as are taken in war; and the beauty of a male-slave enhances the value as much as it does that of a female, occasioned by the frequency among them of a crime not to be named. When I mention their slaves, it will not be amiss to observe, that they are generally very well treated, and, provided they behave as they ought, very often marry their masters daughters, and inherit their whole fortunes.

The Turks of Aleppo being very jealous, keep their women as much at home as they can; so that it is but seldom they are allowed to visit each other. Necessity however obliges the husband to suffer them to go often to the bagnio, and Mondays and Thursdays are a sort of licenced days for them to visit the tombs of their deceased relations; which furnishing them with an opportunity of walking abroad in the gardens or fields, they have so contrived, that almost every Thursday in the spring bears the name of some particular sheih⁠[473], whose tomb they must visit on that day. By this means the greatest part of the Turkish women of the city get abroad to breathe the fresh air at such seasons, unless confined (as is not uncommon) to their houses by order of the bashaw, and so deprived even of that little freedom which custom had procured them from their husbands. When the women go abroad, they wear white veils, so managed that nothing appears but their eyes, and a small part of the nose. They are usually in large companies, and have always either an old woman or a young lad for a guard.

The haram, or women’s apartment, among the people of fashion, is guarded by a black eunuch, or young boy. And though necessity obliges many of the inferior people to trust their wives out of doors, yet some are locked up till the husbands return; so that the utmost care in that way is taken among them to prevent a breach of the marriage-vow. But where there are no ties of love or virtue, one may easily conceive that others prove ineffectual; and how far affection has place among them, may be guessed from what has been already mentioned in regard to choice: or at least when to this is added, that it is a kind of reproach among them to be thought fond of their women, or to shew them much tenderness or respect; the best of them being only treated as upper servants, and often abused and drove about by the very eunuchs or boys bought or hired to look after them.

When a Turk dies, the women immediately fall a shrieking, (a practice followed by all the natives) and continue so to do till the body is buried; which however is dispatched as soon as possible, for they never keep it longer than is absolutely necessary for acquainting the relations who live in town. The first thing done is to wash the corpse upon a large table, which every hara⁠[474] has for this purpose: they next stop all the natural passages with cotton, to prevent any moisture from oozing out, as this would render the body unclean; then wrapping it up in a clean cotton-cloth, they lay it in a kind of coffin, much in the form of ours, only that the lid rises with a ledge in the middle, and at the head there is a wooden battoon, about a foot long, that stands up, on which the proper head-dress of the deceased is placed, if a man; but if a woman, it is not her head-dress, but an old-fashioned one, flat on top like a trencher, and over it is thrown a handkerchief. The middle part of the pall is composed of a small piece of the old covering of the holy house at Mecca, the rest of it being of no particular colour or stuff. Over the pall are laid some of the deceased’s best cloaths.

When the corpse is carried out, a number of sheihs, with their tattered banners, walk first, next come the male-friends, and after them the corpse, carried with the head foremost, upon mens shoulders. The bearers are relieved very often, for every passenger thinks it meritorious to lend some little help on such solemn occasions. The nearest male-relations immediately follow, and the women close the procession with dreadful shrieks, while the men all the way are singing prayers out of the Koran. Thus they proceed to a mosque; where the bier is set down in the court-yard, and a service said by the imaum: after which it is carried on in the same order as before to the burying-place; of which there is but one that is public within the city, the others being all abroad in the fields.

The graves lie east and west, and are lined with stone. The corpse is taken out of the bier, and put in a posture between sitting and lying on the right-side, with the head to the westward, so that the face may be to the south, that is, towards Mecca; a small portion of earth being put behind the body to keep it steady, the grave is covered with long stones, which go across, and prevent the earth they put over from falling in upon the corpse. The imaum throws on the first handful of earth, saying at the same time a prayer for the soul of the deceased⁠[475], and exhorting such as hear him to be mindful of their end. After him every one present throws also a handful of earth, saying, God be merciful unto the deceased person. This done, the grave is filled up. At each end of their graves is set up a stone, upon which are commonly wrote some prayers, and the name of the person there interred. Some have the upper part of the head-stone cut into the form of turbant for a man, or an old-fashioned sort of head-dress if a woman; and as they never open the old graves in less than seven years, or seldom so soon, their cemetaries occupy a very considerable space round the city.

The nearest relations go to pray at the grave on the third, seventh, and fortieth days, as also that day twelve-month, after the person’s decease; and on every one of those days a quantity of victuals is dressed, and given to the poor. The women go to the tomb every Monday or Thursday, and carry some flowers or green leaves to dress it with. They make a great shew of grief, often expostulating heavily with the dead person, “Why he should leave them, when they had done every thing in their power to make life agreeable to him?” This, however, by the men is looked upon as a kind of impiety; and, if over-heard, they are chid severely for it: and I must say the men generally set them a good example in this respect, by a patient acquiescence in the loss of their nearest relations, and indeed shew a firm and steady fortitude under every other kind of misfortune.

The men wear no mourning; but the women put on their gravest-coloured cloaths, and the head-dress is of a dark brick-dust colour. They also lay aside their jewels, and other pieces of female finery, for the space of twelve months, if they mourn for their husband, and six months if for their father. These periods, however, they do not observe very strictly. But before the widow marries again, she must mourn forty days for her deceased husband, without going out of the house, or speaking to any person more than what is absolutely necessary; and this prohibition extends even to her nearest relations. This term of forty days does not commence from the demise or burial; but, on the contrary, is rarely observed till several months after.

It would not only be foreign to my present purpose, but also superfluous, to mention any thing particular, either in respect to their religion or government, especially as the reader may have recourse to such pieces as expressly treat of these subjects. I shall only say in regard to the first, that they are very exact observers of their times of prayer, and other exterior forms; but practise very little the other duties enjoined by it, if you except giving alms to the poor, (of whom there are great numbers in Aleppo) and hospitality to strangers; which last they practise in a very eminent degree. I remember once, in conversation with the muftee, who is a jocose old man, he told me that he had a favour to beg of me, which was, that, when I returned to England, I would not misrepresent the Mohammedan faith, by giving an account of it from what I had seen in the practice of the Moslems. But, says he, if you will take just the reverse of what you see daily practised by us, you will be pretty near the truth. I shall not however take the liberty to say that they are quite so bad as he represented them.

Their military governors, as vizir-bashaws, &c. are not now composed of slaves, or sons of Christians, as they were formerly; but are either favourites of the Grand Signor, or such as will purchase their places at the highest rate, for the best bidder generally carries it; and as they pay large sums to the Port, and the legal income of their government is not sufficient for a quarter of their expences, they are suffered to fleece the people: and though they make some false pretence for it, and often have the cause formally tried before the kady; yet the veil is so thin, that it evidently appears, that sic volo sic jubeo is the only plea for seizing a man’s whole fortune, and sometimes depriving him of life also. However, they are far from being so cruel as they were formerly.

As to their civil magistrates, or kadys, money goes a great way with them in their determination of lawsuits, and witnesses may be always had for a trifle to prove any thing that is desired. However, there is one good thing, that ought not to be forgot, which is, their quick decision of the causes that come before them. It ought likewise to be mentioned in their praise, that they will commonly accept of less money to determine a suit in favour of the person who has right on his side, than of him who is in the wrong. The expence of a suit, which is 10 per cent. upon the sum demanded, is paid to the judge by the person who carries his cause; which is one great encouragement to bad men to make false demands on such as they are at enmity with, as it costs them nothing, and the innocent man must pay, and that too in proportion to the weight of the injury intended him. Some kadys, however, when the thing is very apparent, accept of a smaller sum than they are intitled to; but the false accuser is never punished.

The common punishment for slight offences is beating the soles of the feet with small sticks; and sometimes, when they would punish more severely, they beat also the back and buttocks; which last is the way in which they chastise the Janizaries and women.

For capital crimes, if the offender is a Janizary, he is strangled; not in the way generally imagined, but by putting a cord twice round their neck, and with a piece of stick twisting it in the nature of a tournequet. Other criminals are hanged, beheaded, or impaled, according to the caprice of the bashaw. After all their executions, the body remains exposed for at least three suns.

It is a mistaken notion, that such as have been at Mecca may commit crimes with impunity, since, according to their law, they cannot be put to death. Their being hadgys doth not intitle them to any privilege of that nature; and, even on the road to and from Mecca, such of the pilgrims as commit crimes are punished as in other places; there being not only a bashaw, but a kady, in the caravan on purpose to try them; and numbers are executed every year on their journey, as well returning as on the road thither.

The Emeers, or relations of Mohammed, distinguished by a green sash round their heads, instead of the white wore by the other Moslems, have indeed a privilege of being tried and punished by the Nakeeb, an Effendy appointed on purpose to preside over them. However, the bashaws, when they please, break through this custom. They have a much greater benefit, by their being exempted from paying any part of the expences of the city; which, since the great decrease of trade from the disturbances in Persia, and the ruin of many of the villages by their own bad government, falls very heavy upon the people; for they are daily less able to pay, and the demands of the governors rather encrease. The Christians, by the contentions between such as have become Roman Catholics, and others that remain of the old churches, furnish the governors with numerous pretences of extorting large sums of money from them; so that it is not extraordinary that their ruin should be the farthest advanced.

The Christians, except in their Lent or fast-days, eat much in the same manner as the Turks; only we must observe, that they do not introduce either the shorba or pilaw so frequently at their tables. They eat more burgle⁠[476], and less rice, and frequently use oil where the Turks use butter. The Turkish hushaf is supplied by wine or spirits; of which many of them drink pretty liberally.

On their fast-days, the number of which is very considerable⁠[477], their chief subsistence is a few pot-herbs, roots, and pulse, dressed with oil, which is seldom good. Fish is not always to be had, nor allowed by the greatest part of them in their great Lent before Easter. Pickled green olives, or black (ripe) ones salted, make a considerable part of their food at such times.

In keeping their fasts, they are generally very exact, or rather rigorous. However, if a physician declares their life to be in danger, the Greeks, Syrians, and Maronites, will often break their fast; but the Armenians are for the most part so very strict, that not even the preservation of life is sufficient to prevail with them to interrupt it so much as for a day. Most of them (Armenians) in the great Lent do not so much as eat oil.

The Christian women are as closely veiled, though in a different manner, as Turkish women are, when they go abroad, which the better sort seldom do but to church, the bagnio, their physicians, or now and then to visit a relation. Some few of them permit their wives, perhaps twice or thrice a-year, to go to the gardens; and others, though the gardens are not a mile from their house, never saw one in their lives.

Most of them are contracted while children by their parents. There being nothing very material in the ceremonies of the different sects, I shall give the description of a Maronite wedding, which will serve as a specimen of all the rest.

After the bride has been demanded, the relations of the bridegroom are invited to an entertainment at the house of the bride’s father, in order to consult with her relations (for the young folks themselves have no vote in such affairs, nor are ever seen) concerning the proper day for celebrating the wedding; and it is almost always agreed on for that day fortnight. On the appointed day, in the afternoon, they again go to the bride’s house; and, having supped there, return to that of the bridegroom, who hitherto has not appeared, though some little enquiry has been made after him; for he is by custom obliged to hide himself, or at least is not to be found without a seemingly strict search. When he is brought out, dressed in his worst cloaths, great noise and rejoicings are then made on the finding him; and he and the bride’s man, after being led several times round the court yard in a noisy procession, are carried into a room, where their wedding-cloaths are laid out in form. A priest says a long prayer over them; and, being dressed, they are led back into the court-yard with the same ceremony as before.

At midnight, or a few hours later, the relations, accompanied by all that have been invited to the wedding, men and women, return once more to the house where the bride is, in procession, each carrying a candle, and music playing before them. When they come to the door, it is shut upon them; and when they knock, and demand the bride, they are refused admittance. Upon this ensues a mock-fight, but the bridegroom’s party always prevails. The women then go to the bride’s chamber, lead her out veiled quite over, and in the like procession carry her to the bridegroom’s; but not more than one or two of her sisters, or nearest female-relations, must accompany her. She is there set down at the upper end of the room among the women, continues veiled with a red gause; and must sit like a statue, neither moving nor speaking on any account, except rising to every person that comes into the room, which is notified to her by one of the women who sits by her constantly, for she must not open her eyes. The rest of the night is spent by each sex in their separate apartments in noisy mirth, eating fruits and sweet-meats, there being no want of wine and arrack. Some few retire to rest.

The next day, about nine in the morning, the bishop or priest comes to perform the ceremony. Before he enters the womens apartment, all the women are veiled. The bride stands covered entirely, and supported by two women, the bride’s maid standing by to keep the veil well adjusted. The bridegroom is dressed in a gaudy robe, and, going in with the bishop, is placed on the bride’s left-hand, with his bride’s man by him. After a short service, the bishop puts a crown, first on the bridegroom’s head; after which the bride, bride’s man and maid, are crowned in the same manner. He next joins the hands of the bride and bridegroom; and, after some longer service, puts a ring on the bridegroom’s finger, and delivers another to the bride’s maid to be put upon that of the bride. Near the conclusion of the service, he ties round the bridegroom’s neck a piece of tape or ribbon; to take off which a priest comes in the afternoon. The ceremony being finished, the bridegroom, and all the men, retire again to their proper apartment, where they drink coffee, and sit very gravely while the bishop remains, which is not long; for dinner being served up immediately for him, and a few select people of the company, he soon dines, and takes his leave; and he is scarcely gone a few yards from the house, before their noisy mirth begins. Great quantities of victuals are dressed, and several tables covered, both for dinner and supper; and there is usually a profusion of tobacco, coffee, wine, and arrack.

About eleven or twelve at night, the bridegroom is led in procession to the bride’s chamber, where he presents her with a glass of wine, in which she drinks to him, and he returns the compliment: after this he is carried back again with the same ceremony.

The music, during the whole of the time, continues to play, buffoons and other of their diversions are going forward, and the house is usually full of company till next day in the afternoon, when they take their leave, all but a few intimate friends, who sup with the bridegroom, and about midnight leave him heartily fatigued to retire to the bride’s chamber.

All those that have been invited to the wedding send presents; and, for several days after the marriage is consummated, quantities of flowers are sent to the bride by all the women of their acquaintance.

On that day seven-night the wedding was celebrated, the bride’s relations are allowed to come and visit her, and an entertainment is provided for them.

It is not reputed decent, in this country, for a bride to speak to any person for at least a month (the Armenians extend this to a year), excepting a few words to her husband; and there is generally a very strict charge given them by the old women about this, and particularly not to talk to him too soon.

Few women are allowed to sit at table with their husbands, but wait upon them as servants; and in general they are not much better treated than I have described those of the Turks to be. Though they have no guards upon their apartments, yet the people of fashion are never suffered to appear unveiled before men, except they are their servants, near relations, priests, or physicians. The Maronites are the least strict in this respect; and some of them will appear before particular strangers, and are even admitted to sit at table with their husbands. Their confinement, however, does not proceed from jealousy in respect to their conduct, so much as from the fear of bad consequences, should a Turk see and take a liking to any of them.

The Christians are carried to the grave on an open bier; and besides many appointed days, when the relations go to the sepulchre, and have mass said, and send victuals to the church and poor, many of the women go every day for the first year, and every great holiday afterwards.

The Jews have their synagogue within the city, in Bahsyta, near Garden-Gate, and they live all in that quarter. Many of their houses are upon the city-wall; and the ditch being there turned into gardens, makes their situation agreeable, but not so healthy. The houses of other Jews have their court-yards mostly several feet below the level of the street; which, with the natural nastiness of the people, contributes towards rendering their dwellings very offensive.

As most of their time during their festivals is employed in the exercise of their religion, on the greatest part of them, they cannot dress victuals; and as it is not lawful for them to eat or drink but of such things as have been managed in a different way from what they find among the Christians or Turks, they have no great opportunities of committing excesses; so that they may with justice be pronounced the most abstemious people in Aleppo.

It having been agreed, for the benefit of the poor of this religion, that meat shall be sold amongst them at an under-price, and the deficiency made good out of the public stock, the managers take care that their markets shall be very ill supplied, so that sometimes they are for several days without a bit of mutton. This is the reason why they eat more poultry, and the poorer sort chiefly herbs, roots, and pulse, dressed with oil expressed from the sesamum, than most other people.

Six days⁠[478] in the year they fast from about two hours before sunset, till the next evening after the sun is down. All of them attempt once in their lives to fast from Saturday night at sunset, till the Friday following at the same hour. Some hold out two, some three, others four days, and a few complete it; but there are several who perish in the attempt.

Except the particular ceremonies which their religion obliges them to observe, it would be only repeating a great deal of what has been already said to give an account of their weddings. Amongst the latter, the most remarkable is, that the bride’s eye-lids are fastened together with gum; and, if I remember right, the bridegroom is the person that opens them at an appointed time.

Their dead are carried to the grave on a covered bier. They have certain days, wherein they go to the sepulchres; and the women, like those of other sects, often go there to howl and cry over their dead relations.

The Europeans, or Franks⁠[479] (as they are generally called), residing in Aleppo, are chiefly English and French; of the former at present⁠[480], besides the consul, chaplain, cancellier, or chancellor, physician, and cheaux⁠[481], there are ten merchants. The French have a consul, and other officers, as mentioned, and their druggomen⁠[482] are likewise of their own nation. The number of those in quality of merchants and clerks is nigh double that of the English. Besides which they have many of a lower class, who are married to natives of the country, or others of a mixed race: the number of whom in the Levant was become so considerable, and likely to be so troublesome, that the French King, not many years ago, issued an edict, ordering all such as were married to return home, and prohibiting any others from marrying without his licence, which has greatly diminished their number. Under the French protection are likewise the Roman Catholic convents, of which there are in the city no less than three⁠[483], and a college of Jesuits. The Dutch have a consul residing here, but no other person of that country. There are also a few Venetian merchants, and some Italian Jews.

The major part of the Europeans live in khanes in the principal quarter of the city. The ground-floor serves for their warehouses, the upper story is fitted up for their dwellings, by building between the pillars of the colonade, which forms a long corridore; opening on which are a number of rooms, so that they much resemble cloisters; and as they are unmarried, and their communication with the people of the country is almost solely on account of trade, their way of life also not a little resembles the monastic. It was formerly customary for all, or most of them, to wear the Turkish habit, retaining only the hat and wig by way of distinction; but of late years the far greater part have continued in their proper dress.

The Italian Jews, who are mostly married, and such of the French above mentioned as have families, must be excepted, as they have houses after the manner of the natives, and conform more to their customs than the other Europeans.

As to provisions, it has been already mentioned what the place affords, and those are dressed after the European manner. The evening being the chief time of entertaining their friends, they eat more animal food for supper than is customary in Britain. In respect to drink they are exceeding moderate: their common draught at table is a dry white wine, and Provence red wine. In summer, the English generally before dinner and supper drink a draught of weak punch; which is found so very refreshing, that now the greater part of the other Europeans, several of the Christians (and I might add some Turks), follow their example.

All the English, and some of the others, keep horses, and ride out for an hour or two of an afternoon three or four times a-week. On Saturdays, and often on Wednesday likewise, they dine abroad under a tent in the spring and autumn, and during the good weather in the winter; the month of April, and part of May, they generally live at the gardens near Baballah; and in the heat of summer, in the room of the tent, they dine at the gardens. Such as love hunting or hawking, usually go abroad twice a-week, after the second rains, till the weather grows too warm in the spring; and there is game for such as love shooting at the same seasons, as also plenty of quails spring and autumn.

From the above account it would appear that the English in particular use a good deal of exercise: but it ought to be considered, that, if we except a little walk in an evening on the house-top, what has been mentioned is the whole they take; the greatest part of their time besides being spent in the compting-house, or in reading; so that they are rather sedentary than active.

Though, from what has been said of the people of this country in general, their character may not appear the most amiable; yet the Europeans have no reason to complain of their behaviour. Their capitulations with the Port prevents their being any way subject to the oppressions of the government; and the bashaws, and the people of distinction, usually treating the consuls with civility and respect, others of course follow their example; so that we live among them in great security in the city, and can travel abroad unmolested by Arabs or Curds, where the natives dare not venture, though defended by a much greater force. This is owing partly to a small annual present sent to the Prince of the Arabs, and the civil treatment that the Curds sometimes meet with at Scanderoon, and partly to our travelling with no more money than what is absolutely necessary for our expences; so that they would get but little by us. And besides, an insult of this nature would be made a pretence by the Turkish government for chastising them severely: whereas, if they rob a native, they generally, in money and horse-furniture, find a good booty; and, unless he happens to be a person in power, he dares not complain, as he would run the risk of being fleeced of as much more by the very person who should procure him redress.

The epidemic diseases which prevail most in Aleppo, are continual fevers, various species of intermittents and remittents, dysenteries, catarrhal fevers, quinsies, rheumatisms, pleurisies, and peripneumonies; to which may be added the plague. During the extreme heats an anomalous fever, sometimes with, at others without a diarrhœa or dysentery, is exceeding frequent among very young children; and in August and September the ophthalmia, which is not very rare, even in other months, is so common that in most years at least one sixth of the inhabitants are more or less afflicted with it⁠[484].

Though the continual fevers of the spring are often attended with worse symptoms, in appearance, than those of the autumn, yet in general they are not so dangerous. The former discover themselves sometimes about the beginning of January, though more frequently about the vernal equinox, and disappear in June: the latter sometimes begin in June, but more commonly in July; by the autumnal equinox they come to their height, and generally go off by the beginning of December. The intermittents and dysenteries commence and finish exactly at the same seasons as the autumnal continual fever, and the spring intermittents follow the course of the continual fever of that season.

General inflammatory fevers, catarrhal fevers, rheumatisms, quinsies, pleurisies, and peripneumonies, make their appearance in the months of December, January, February, March, and sometimes April; but they are seldom either frequent or remarkably violent.

If we set aside the ophthalmia, there are none of the above diseases more acute than they are commonly in Britain; nor can I say more frequent, except the plague, of which hereafter, and certain malignant, remittent, and intermittent fevers, that sometimes break out with great vehemence; but this is only in particular years, or in such towns and villages as are situated near stagnant waters, whether naturally marshes, or that, for the benefit of the silk-gardens, they lay them under water by art: and the bad effects of such situations is evident even in Aleppo, where those who inhabit the houses on the fosse of the town, now turned into gardens, are always most subject to intermittents.

The Europeans are but very seldom affected by any epidemics. This perhaps may in part be owing to their not conversing much with, the natives, and so keeping out of the way of the contagion, of which most of those diseases partake in a greater or less degree; partly to their living above stairs, and not in the cool and damp air, which the fountains in their little courts and gardens occasion; and partly likewise, because the Europeans do not indulge themselves so freely as the natives in the use of crude and indigestible fruits. That these circumstances strongly co-operate towards their preservation, may also be inferred from hence, that the European priests, who mix much with the natives, and those Europeans who are married, and have houses in the country-manner, are as subject to the attacks of every reigning epidemic as the natives themselves. It must be likewise observed, that when a disease seizes any one of the different sorts of people who reside here, its symptoms and progress are exactly the same in all, whether European, Turk, Jew, or native Christian: but it must be at the same time remarked, that, in treating the sick, regard must be had to their very different method of living; for those who are accustomed to drink nothing stronger than water or coffee, will not bear so warm a regimen, as those, who are accustomed to fermented and spirituous liquors.

The generality of fevers here, though of the continual kind, and indeed almost all acute diseases in this place, are subject to exacerbations once or twice in twenty-four hours, which are usually accompanied by a flushing in one or both cheeks, and the critical days and evacuations agree much better with the account given of them by the ancients than they are observed to do in Britain: but I could never discover the truth of Dr. Brown’s remark⁠[485], That “as to fevers at and about Aleppo, though they have the same type there as in England, yet there are two things peculiar to them; one is, that in acute fevers cold sweat commonly signifies recovery, but hot sweat portends death; the other is, that in such acute fevers even an intermittent pulse denounces no danger.” Perhaps this might have been peculiar to some epidemic that prevailed at the time the Doctor was at Aleppo; but, during all the time I resided there, I am certain that both the one and the other have been as dangerous symptoms in Aleppo as any where else. And probably he may have been led into a mistake by the common expression of the natives, who give the appellation of a cold sweat to such a critical one, as having carried off the fever, leaves the body cool, and of course the sweat that remains upon it feels cool: whereas, what they call a hot sweat, is such as often happens in fevers without any abatement of the symptoms, so that both the body and sweat remain hot; and such sort of sweats are bad symptoms, as often in other places as in Aleppo.

The Europeans, particularly the English, are subject, soon after their arrival, to a very violent fever; which however seldom lasts above twenty-four hours. This, from what cause I know not, has got the name of the goose. It is necessary to bleed largely in this fever, and the most prudent way is to purge the patient once or twice at proper intervals after the disease is removed. When they have remained any time at Scanderoon, they are often seized with tertian agues soon after they arrive at Aleppo, which is also common to the natives that live upon the coast, though they have been well while they continued there, and the disease not at all epidemic in the city. If it is in the winter, or spring, these fevers are commonly regularly formed, and easily cured; but in the autumn they are of a very bad kind, and, if the bark is not soon given, are not a little dangerous. The ingenious Mr. Cleghorn’s account of the tertians of Minorca answers exactly to those of Cyprus, Scanderoon, the coast of Syria, and what some years happen at Aleppo; and a long course of experience has convinced me that his method of cure is the safest, as well as the most successful.

The Christians, from the great quantity of oil they eat in their Lent, and that too mostly burnt, as frying is their favourite manner of dressing that kind of victuals, are at such seasons subject to a feverish disorder, attended with a cough. The skin over the whole body feels hot, parched, and dry; but it is most violent in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. They wheez much in breathing, and labour by coughing to expectorate, but without effect. Bleeding, a gentle laxative, with the plentiful use of pectoral and saponaceous diluters, soon remove their complaints.

The mal d’Aleppo, of which a more particular account shall be given hereafter, is a disease that may properly be called here endemial. Of sporaides, the following are the most frequent, viz. Almost all the diseases that the eyes are subject to, which are many of them the consequences of the ophthalmia. Obstructions of the abdominal viscera, often the consequences of acute diseases, and to which also they are much subjected by the nature of their aliment, want of exercise, method of fitting, and also in the men their large and tight-bound girdles. Ruptures and hæmorrhoids, which they are much afflicted with, seem to owe their origin to some of the same causes. The tinea seems occasioned from nastiness, as they seldom so much as uncover either their children or grown people’s heads but in the bagnio; and worms, one kind or other of which scarce one person, either young or old, are free from, seem also to take their rise from the nature of their aliment. The leprosy is now exceeding rare in these countries, but scorbutic eruptions and putrid gums very common. Notwithstanding their jealousy and strict watch over their women, the venereal disease is very frequent amongst them. As they have no idea of a gonorrhœa different from what is mentioned in their own authors, they neither conceive it to be infectious, nor to be in danger of ending in a worse disease. The consequence of the first is, the spreading of the infection; and of the last, that it often terminates in a pox. When this appears, it is called Frank zahmedy, or the Frank disease, probably from their having it first from Europe; and they are then much alarmed: and though they imagine this to be infectious, yet are more apt to attribute it to their having smoked out of the same pipe, or ate out of the same spoon, &c. with a person infected, than to any other cause. As the natives know very little of the use of mercury, numbers of them labour under the disease great part of their lives, and some without any very considerable uneasiness; the warmth of the climate, and frequent use of the bagnio, may perhaps conduce towards preventing its making a very quick progress.

Such persons as have any tendency to a phthisis pulmonalis should avoid the air of Aleppo, for it is seldom that any afflicted with that disease outlives a few months, if they do not leave the place.

Besides these diseases already mentioned, all others known in Britain are to be met with at Aleppo, and nearly in the same proportion, except the gout, which is rare amongst them, and mostly hereditary.

PART II. OBSERVATIONS on the Epidemical Diseases in the City of Aleppo . — CHAP. I. Observations on the Weather in General. — JANUARY. — FEBRUARY. — MARCH. — APRIL. — MAY. — JUNE. — JULY. — AUGUST. — SEPTEMBER. — OCTOBER. — NOVEMBER. — DECEMBER.

The weather at Aleppo differing but very little in any one year from another, I thought it would save a great deal of unnecessary trouble, if I gave a general account of the weather usual in every month, drawn from a meteorological register, regularly kept, with only few intermissions, for about ten years, and afterwards noted what was particular.

The barometer used in the following observations was English, and graduated according to the measure of that country. The first column denotes inches, the second 10ths of an inch.

The thermometers, (for, from accidents of breaking, several were used) except for the last two years, were small portable ones, graduated according to Farenheit’s scale; the other was larger, upon the same scale. All of them were of mercury, and (as well as the barometer) made by the accurate Mr. Bird in London.

The situation of the instruments for the years 1743, 44, 45, and those of 52 and 53, was in a little wooden kiosk⁠[486], facing the east, which projected over a narrow street that run south and north, with high buildings on each side. The sun had only access by the south-window, and that scarce an hour in the day. To this place there was a free ingress of air, the two opposite windows, and often the whole, being constantly open from the month of April till the latter end of October; and in the winter, though these windows were shut, a free access still remained by the door, and a window which opened into a passage fronting the west, the outer door of which in the day-time was always open. Add to this, that these wooden kiosks have not either their wood-work, or numerous windows, so well closed as to prevent a pretty considerable communication with the external air through the chinks.

This is the situation which appears to be much preferable to any other, and from which the general account of the weather is taken. But a multiplicity of practice rendering it impossible for me to keep the register, I was obliged to a friend, who was so kind as to take that trouble for me; and then the thermometer was placed in a vaulted south-room, which was defended from the west by two other rooms, and opposite to the window a door opened into a large vaulted hall. In the winter (particularly the forenoon) this was frequently open, and in the summer-months was shut only by a door made of lattice-work, the window being open all that season. In this country the rooms so situated are remarkably warm in winter, and cool in summer.

In this last position the thermometer must be understood to be kept from July 1746 till the end of 1747. Both these situations being within doors, were some degrees warmer than the external air in winter, as would appear from the thermometer never sinking to the freezing point even in time of frost; and they are cooler than the external air in summer, as I have found by several trials. These things were necessary to be premised, as they may account for the variations in the instrument, that are remarkable in the different situations.

The weather in January is commonly either frosty or rainy. What snow falls is chiefly in this month; but it is in no great quantity, and does not lie many hours. The middle of the month is its most usual time of falling, and then it often remains frosty till the end.

Whenever rain falls, it is usually in the night, and in very heavy showers.

The winds are moderate, and mostly from the northern or eastern quarter.

The most common height of the thermometer at nine in the morning is 40 and 46, and the difference between that and three in the afternoon a gradual rise of 3 or 4 deg. In rainy days, or even such as are cloudy, this variation seldom exceeds 1 or 2 deg. and often there is none at all; and this observation holds through all the year.

This month is for the most part as rainy as the former; with this difference, that neither rain nor fair weather continue so many days together, but change from one to the other every four or five days. A little snow often falls in this month, and commonly there are a few frosty days. It is very often cloudy, though no rain falls, particularly in the afternoon; but they are light, white clouds. At such times the air without doors is moderately warm. The winds are much as in the preceding month, till towards the end, and then it sometimes blows hard westerly.

The first fortnight, the usual morning-height of the thermometer is from 42 to 47; the variation between the morning and evening observation, 1, 2, or 3 deg. In the last fortnight, when there happens no frost, it gradually rises to about 50, and the difference between morning and evening commonly 4 or 5.

A good deal of rain falls in the month of March; but it is generally in short, hard showers, and often accompanied with thunder. At such times the weather is dark and gloomy; but for the greater part it is clear, only a few white light clouds. The weather begins to be hot in the open air.

The winds are stronger than in the preceding months, and blow much oftener westerly.

The common height of the thermometer in the morning is in the beginning of the month as in the end of the last; about the middle, 52; the end, 56 to 58. The difference between morning and evening observations become more considerable as the month advances; in the beginning, commonly 5; the end, 8 to 9. If it rains, the variation is very inconsiderable, as has been mentioned before.

This month is in general fair, clear weather, with white, light clouds in the afternoon; seldom dark or cloudy, except when it rains, which it does in hard thunder-showers as in the last month, but not so often. There are commonly a few close, hazey days; these happen when there are light breezes northerly or easterly; but the winds in general are fresh westerly.

The days begin to grow very hot, but the mornings and evenings as yet remain cool.

The mercury in the thermometer has its morning-station gradually raised from 60 to 66 as the month advances, and the variation 8 to 10 between the morning and evening observation, except when it rains.

May has generally one or two hard showers of rain, sometimes accompanied with hail, and often thunder; at others, the weather is serene, with very few clouds, and those light and white.

The weather begins to grow very warm in this month, particularly when calm, or the wind northerly or easterly; but the wind for much the greater part is fresh, and westerly. And here it will not be amiss to observe, that, during the whole of the summer, the westerly winds have a considerable influence over the thermometer. When they are weak, the heat encreases; if calm, it becomes still hotter; but even then not so hot as when a northerly or easterly wind blows, which raises the mercury several degrees, and makes the air very disagreeable. See p. 14.

The usual station of the mercury in the thermometer is at the beginning 70, and it gradually rises, as the month advances, to 76 or 80. The variation between the morning and evening observation rises also from 6 to 9.

This month is serene throughout, seldom so much as a few flying clouds to be seen. It is very rare that even so much as one shower of rain falls, and that at most but for a few minutes.

The westerly winds reign chiefly in this month; and freshening after mid-day, often continue through the night, which allay the extreme heat, now become very troublesome.

The morning-height of the mercury, at seven o’clock, gradually encreases with the month, from 76 to about 80; as that of the afternoon, at four o’clock, does from 84 to 92.

July differs very little from the former month; the weather constantly serene.

The westerly winds usually blow fresh; but, if they fail, it becomes excessive hot.

Eighty, is the common height of the mercury, in the morning, at the beginning of the month, as 85, 86 is at the end. The difference between the morning and evening observation, 8 or 10.

Till about the 20th, August is exactly like the two preceding months: from that to the end, there usually appear a number of white clouds, but larger than any that accidentally appear in other summer-months. These are commonly termed the Nile clouds; and from this time, the dews (which are scarce ever observed in the two preceding months) begin to fall in the nights; but they are not very considerable.

The height of the thermometer, till the clouds appear, is pretty much the same as in that of last month; but, whenever they come, they commonly sink it 4 or 5 degrees.

For the first fortnight this month is like the former, or rather more sultry, as the wind seldom blows strong. If no rain falls, this weather continues all the month; but usually between the 15th and 25th dark, gloomy clouds arise; and a squal, in the nature of a whirlwind, blows from the westward, bringing with it a great cloud of dust that covers the whole city. This prognosticates rain, and in one or two days more some heavy showers fall, either in the city, or not far off. These are called the first rains; and though they are usually inconsiderable, yet the air is much cooled, and the remainder of the month rendered very pleasant.

Seldom a night passes without much lightening in the north-west quarter, but not attended by thunder. When this lightening appears in the west or south-west points, it is a sure sign of the approaching rain, which is often followed by thunder.

The winds in September are westerly, but often not more than light breezes.

In the beginning of this month, the usual morning-height of the thermometer is much as in the end of August; the variation between the morning and evening observation rather more considerable. The falling of rain sinks it 3 or 4 degrees, and it usually keeps falling all the month till it gets to 65. The variation in one day seldom then, exceeds 3 or 4, and just at the falling of the rain much less, perhaps 1 or 2.

Till the second rains fall in October, the weather is serene, cool, and rather more pleasant than at any other time of the year; afterwards it becomes more variable. These rains are usually regulated by those in September, being between twenty and thirty days after them; and, like them also, the quantity varies considerably in different years. However, those of October are seldom less than three or four days; but it must not be understood that it continues a constant rain during the whole of those days.

The winds are rarely strong in this month, but are commonly variable.

The morning-height of the thermometer, till the rains fall, is usually about 72; the difference between the morning and evening observation, 5 or 6. After the falling of the rains it gradually sinks to 60. The variation then in one day is seldom more than 3 or 4, on the rainy days commonly less.

November may be reckoned one of the rainy months, though frequently there is an interval of very fine weather. The number of rainy days rarely exceed seven or eight, and most of them only a few heavy showers. It is unusual to see snow fall in this month; but after the first fortnight it is generally frosty in the morning when the weather is serene.

The winds are variable, seldom strong, but more inclined to the north and east than any of the other quarters.

As the month advances, the mercury in the thermometer gradually falls from 60 to 50; the former being its usual morning-height at the beginning, as the latter is at the end. The variation in one day, from 5 to 2; but on rainy days there is very often no variation at all.

This is usually a rainy month, and much more cloudy, foggy weather in the intervals than in the preceding, consequently not near so agreeable. The greatest number of rainy days mentioned in the register is 16, the fewest 6, commonly 8 or 9.

There is always more or less frosty weather in this month, and frequently a little snow. This falls out commonly after or about the end of the first fortnight, and with it commences the cold weather.

The winds are, as in the preceding month, commonly easterly or northerly, and seldom strong.

Forty-six is the common height of the thermometer through this month. The difference between the morning and evening observation, when it does not rain, is often 3.

CHAP. II. Of the Weather from the Year 1742 to 1747, and of the Years 1752 and 1753. — A. D. MDCCXLII. — A. D. MDCCXLIII. — A. D. MDCCXLIV. — A. D. MDCCXLV. — A. D. MDCCXLVI. — A. D. MDCCXLVII. — A. D. MDCCLII. — A. D. MDCCLIII.

The winter of this year was more severe than usual in this country, and much less rain in March and April than is customary at that season.

About the end of April the weather became very warm, and continued so till the 20th of May; from which time, till the 22d of June, it grew rather cool for the season of the year, the air being refreshed by strong westerly breezes.

The 22d of June, the wind changed to north-west, and was very moderate; upon which the weather became exceeding hot, and continued so all that month, and for the first ten days in July. The remainder of the summer was such as is common in this country, without any of the hot easterly winds.

On the 25th of September the first rains fell, and continued only one day; after which the weather was extremely pleasant till the end of October; when the second rains fell, and continued a few days. Upon their ceasing, it set in fair and serene till the 14th of December; when a small shock of an earthquake was felt, and a hard frost began, which continued all that month.

For want of proper instruments, the changes of heat and cold this year are here represented according to what they appeared to our senses.

From the beginning of January till the middle, a great deal of snow fell, the frost continued, and the air was exceeding cold; the thermometer being but once above 40 in the evening, and in the morning commonly 36, once 34, on the third at 9, A. M. A few days of fair, pleasant weather succeeded this cold, and then began violent rains, which continued during the remainder of the month.

The rains were almost constant till the 20th of February; the latter part of which month was fair, pleasant weather.

March set in with variable spring-weather, (though somewhat cooler than usual), which continued till the 23d; from which time till the end a great quantity of rain, hail, and thunder.

April was fair (except one thunder-shower) till the 19th; during which the weather was pretty warm, with a sort of haziness in the air. The 20th and 21st, it blew very hard from the south-west, with much rain, and the weather became unusually cool for the season. The mercury in the thermometer, which had before commonly rose to 74 in the afternoon, seldom afterwards getting up so high as 66 during the whole month, which was attended with a good deal of rain and thunder, some hail, and the wind generally fresh westerly.

May (except on the 13th and 23d, when some severe thunder-showers fell) was fair, pleasant weather, and much cooler than usual. The thermometer was unfortunately broke this month; so that from this time till May following, the observations were made by a large thermometer, filled with spirits, which showed distinctly the changes of heat and cold, but was not upon any known scale.

The beginning of June was fair and cool weather for the season. On the 10th it began to be hot; and, notwithstanding strong westerly winds, and often flying clouds, the air was very hot during the rest of the month. On the 12th, at 8 P. M. were felt two small shocks of an earthquake. The sky was at that time serene, and it blew fresh.

On the night between the 1st and 2d of July, some severe thunder-showers fell; a thing very extraordinary at this season. During the whole of the month, the westerly wind blew fresh, and generally continued great part of the night, by which means the air was rendered remarkably cool.

This chill weather continued a few days in August; but the remainder of that month, the winds, though westerly, being moderate, and ceasing a little after sunset, together with its succeeding such cool weather, made it seem uncommonly warm, though from the thermometer it appeared that the heat was not in reality greater than in other years. On the 19th, at half an hour after eleven o’clock at night, was felt a small shock of an earthquake. The sky was at that time serene, and little wind stirring.

The beginning of September was hot, as in August; but on the 10th it became sultry, particularly in the night, and continued so till the 18th at night, when the first rains began to fall; and though they were but moderate, they rendered the remainder of the month quite cool.

Though it rained a little on the 8th of October, and continued cloudy for several days; yet the second rains did not, properly speaking, fall till the 23d, when they were plentiful, and continued three days. The remainder of that month, and all the rest of the year, afforded nothing remarkable.

The snow which fell on the 5th of January lay six inches deep, and continued for several days in places shaded from the sun; which is not usual in this country; the quantity that fell in this month was likewise somewhat extraordinary.

February and March had nothing in them different from other years.

April was more rainy than customary. On the 28th, at half an hour after one in the morning, were two pretty brisk shocks of an earthquake, and at six in the evening another.

May and July were as usual in a moderate summer; but June had more northerly winds, and was hotter than common; the usual height of the thermometer being 95.

From the first week in August, several days of easterly winds rendered the air unusually hot, which by a very singular, though but small, shower of rain on the 30th, was cooled for a few days; the thermometer, P. M. falling from 92 to 83.

The first rains were ushered in by the accustomed squall of wind on the 4th of September at night, and were violent for a few hours, but did not cool the air. On the 20th and 22d, one shower of rain fell, and rendered it more cool; and the plentiful rain on the evening of the 23d, and greatest part of the day on the 24th, completed it.

On the 16th of October, at night, the second rains fell, with a good deal of thunder, and on the 19th some more; after which the rest of the year afforded nothing that was remarkable.

This year had nothing uncommon in the weather till the 12th of March, when it became cold; and an unusual frost, with, a north-east wind for a few days, nipped most of the blossoms on the trees; the mercury in the thermometer after noon being rarely above 54, whereas before it was at 62.

April was remarkably dry, having but one shower of rain, on the 6th. May and June had nothing extraordinary.

July, except a few days at the latter end, and all August, not being refreshed with the westerly breezes, and having several days of easterly wind, particularly the middle of August, were extremely hot; the afternoons height of the thermometer being often 100, and twice 101.

The first rains were very moderate, and fell on the 10th September, being as usual preceded by a squal of wind. The second rains fell heavy and seasonable, about the middle of October; from which time happened nothing singular all the rest of the year.

The 4th, 5th, and 6th of January this year, it snowed almost continually; so that it lay in the streets above a foot thick, which is very uncommon. It was not all thaw’d in the city for some days; and in such places abroad where the sun-beams did not reach, there was still some lying on the 13th. From this time till June the weather was as usual.

It began to blow very hard westerly on the 13th June, and the wind brought along with it many clouds, which let fall two small showers of rain on the 14th, one at 10 A. M. the other at 7 P. M. which sunk the mercury in the thermometer from 84, its usual afternoon’s height, to 76 three fourths.

August had none of the usual cloudy weather; yet the rest of the summer had nothing in it particular.

Though it began to be cloudy on the 4th of September, and continued so for a few days, and even thundered; yet no rain fell till the 11th in the afternoon, and then only a gentle shower of about an hour, which sunk the thermometer from 82 and an half, its common afternoon’s height, to 77. It soon however rose again; and the wind being easterly or northerly from the 20th to the end of the month, the weather was unusually warm; the afternoon height of the mercury being 85 or 86.

In the month of October there fell but one shower of rain, the 25th P. M. so that the thermometer kept high all the month, and the weather was extremely pleasant.

On the 2d and 3d of November the rains fell plentifully; and, through the whole of this and the succeeding month, more fell than is usual in other years. There did not happen either frost or snow.

From the beginning of January till the end of March, the winds were much higher than usual at that season, neither was there any frost or snow; but more rain fell in January and February than is common, and the weather in general was bleak and unpleasant. The rest of the year till September was mild, and very moderate.

Though it was cloudy, and threatened rain about the 20th of September, yet none fell in this month at Aleppo; so the thermometer’s evenings height kept up at 82 till the end of the month.

The whole of October was clear and settled weather, except one thunder-shower on the 13th, (which sunk the mercury in the thermometer from 81 to 73) a small shower on the 22d, and a gentle rain the whole of the 24th.

On the 7th of November the rains began to fall plentifully, the weather became as in other years, but there was no frost in this month.

December was rather more foggy than common, without either frost or snow.

Being, for want of leisure, prevented from giving a particular account of the epidemic diseases from 1748 to 1751, that of the weather is also omitted.

The change of stile from the Julian to the Gregorian rendering references to the general account of the weather, which were made according to the Julian calendar, indistinct, I conceived it necessary to give the weather of the years 1752 and 1753 compleat.

It is true that the short method formerly used might have served till September, as the act of parliament did not take place till the 3d of that month: but, besides the want of uniformity that would have attended a change in the method before the year was out, I thought, that, if there were any who should make an objection to the former, this would make them some atonement; and that it could be disagreeable to none, more especially as the epidemic fevers of those two years changed their appearances so remarkably according to the season.

The thermometer used, till noted otherwise, was the large one, and the situation during the whole two years in the wooden kiosk. Where-ever a rainy day occurs, with one ′, it is to be understood that a small shower or two happened on that day; ‴ denotes violent rains, and ″ an intermediate degree of rain.

JANUARY.

The first week of this month cloudy and rainy; from the 8th to the 29th continued clear, fair weather, with some light clouds now and then intervening.

Rainy Days.

1st and 4th ″ at night, 5th ‴, 6th ″ at night, with squalls of wind, 7th and ″ 29th in the night, 30th ‴, and 31st ‴.

In the first fortnight, the mercury in the thermometer never rose above 50. Through the whole month, the most general height at nine in the morning was 46, from which time it usually rose 3 or 4 degrees; so that at 3 P. M. it stood at 49 or 50, except in rainy weather, when the variation was less considerable, and there was frequently none at all.

FEBRUARY.

Light clouds were more frequent in this month than in the former; the weather in the afternoon often became overcast; the three last days serene; the rain fell mostly in the night, and in violent showers.

Rainy Days.

7th, begun in the evening, and continued till the 8th ″ in the forenoon, 9th ″ in the night, 10th ″ A. M. 22d ′, 23d ‴ in the night, and 24th ′ in the forenoon.

The most common height of the thermometer in the morning was 48, its variation in the beginning of the month 3, and in the middle and latter part 5, unless in rainy weather.

MARCH.

The same serene weather with which the last month ended, continued till the 9th; from thence till the 18th, light flying clouds, with some rain; the remainder of the month serene, except the 24th, 25th, and 26th, which were cloudy.

Rainy Days.

8th ″ in the night, 9th ′ P. M., 13th ′ in the night, 14th ″, 16th ′ in the night with thunder, 26th ′, and 27th ′ A. M.

The general height of the mercury in the thermometer in the morning was 45 in the beginning of the month, about the middle 52, at the end 56. The difference between the morning and evening observations grew more considerable as the month advanced; at the commencement it was commonly 5, towards the end 8 or 9.

APRIL.

During the first week, mostly clear weather, with light, flying clouds in the afternoon. From the 7th to the 12th, variable weather, frequent hard showers of rain, sometimes attended with lightening and thunder. These showers fell chiefly in the night or morning. The rest of the month, except one day, clear weather, diversified with light clouds.

Rainy Days.

7th ′ A. M. and in the night ′, 8th ′ in the night, 9th ′ A. M. and a storm in the night, 10th ‴, 11th ′, 22d P. M. and in the night ″.

For the first ten days, the morning-station of the thermometer was 60, the afternoon 66, except it rained, when the difference was less. The remainder of the month, the height was commonly 65, and the variation in the same day 9 or 10.

MAY.

There was a considerable quantity of rain fell the beginning of this month. The register till the 18th is incompleat; from the 18th the weather clear and pleasant; thunder in the morning of the 22d; the wind westerly all the month, and blowing fresh, particularly from the 20th.

Rainy Days.

3d A. M. ″, in the night ″, 4th ′ morning.

From the 18th to the 29th, the common height of the mercury in the thermometer, at ten in the morning, was 70; the difference in one day 6, sometimes 9. The three last days the station in the morning was 78, the difference 8.

JUNE.

Fine serene weather through the whole month; some few light, flying clouds on the 17th and 27th; from the 7th a fresh westerly wind.

Rainy Days none.

The morning-height of the mercury, at seven o’clock, increased gradually with the month, from 76 to 80; as that of the afternoon, at four o’clock, did from 85 to 91. This in general was the case; but the strength of the wind had also much influence.

JULY.

Serene and cool weather for the season, except the last eight days; when the west wind, which had blown fresh from the beginning of the month, giving way to calms and light breezes, it became exceeding hot.

Rainy Days none.

The common height of the mercury was in the morning 80, and in the afternoon 90. In the last week it stood in the morning at 85, and in the afternoon at 94 or 95.

AUGUST.

Till the 21st, serene, fresh weather, some light, flying clouds appearing now and then about mid-day, or in the afternoon. The 21st, black, flying clouds threatened rain the whole day: from this to the end of the month, clouds of this kind passed almost every day. In the nights of the 6th, 20th, and 23d, many dark, gloomy clouds, with lightening. The west wind continued to blow fresh all the month.

Rainy Days none.

The general difference in the height of the mercury, between the morning and evening observation, was 10, and the morning-height 80. In the cloudy weather towards the end of the month, the mercury sunk to 75 in the morning, and in the afternoon stood at 85.

SEPTEMBER.

Dews in the night were common at the beginning of this month. The weather till the 18th (which the reader must remember was but a few days, the 3d being by act of parliament reckoned the 14th) was much like August. For two hours before mid-day on the 18th, a small rain; from that till the end the weather by degrees became cooler, particularly in the nights. The wind continued westerly, but was not so fresh as in the last month; light, flying clouds frequent in the afternoon.

Rainy Days.

18th ′ A. M.

The height and variation of the thermometer was in the beginning the same as in the latter part of August; about the 20th, the morning-height was 73, and it continued falling all the month. In the afternoon it seldom rose more than 3 or 4 degrees.

OCTOBER.

Light, flying clouds throughout the day, a fresh west wind, and cool weather. From the 4th to the 15th, serene, and somewhat warm; the wind little, and variable. The 16th, flying clouds, and violent blasts of wind, by which volumes of dust were raised and hurried about in a surprising manner. The four succeeding days the wind blew fresh from the west or south-west. The 22d overcast, and threatening rain, which began that evening, and was violent in the night: all next day gloomy, with small rain; violent rains again in the night. The 28th, till mid-day, as before described; after that, violent showers, with thunder and lightening. It then cleared up, but some more rain fell in the evening. The remainder of the month (except the 26th and 27th, which were cloudy) proved serene weather.

Rainy Days.

22d ″ evenings and night, 23d ‴, and 24th ″.

The thermometer’s morning-height in the first fortnight was commonly 72, the difference at the times of observation in the same day 5 or 6. In the last fortnight it fell gradually to 60, and its variation in the day was rarely more than 3 or 4.

NOVEMBER.

The first eight days, fine pleasant weather, light clouds sometimes appearing, but, except one day, no black clouds. The afternoon of the 8th cloudy, the two following days gloomy, with some rain; from the 11th to the 16th, serene mornings, and light clouds in the afternoon; from that to the 20th, much cloudy weather, with some rain; the five succeeding days, fair, and frosty. The month ended with cloudy, rainy weather.

In the first fortnight, light breezes of wind west south-west, sometimes east or north-east. In the last fortnight, constantly moderate east or north-east. The wind blew rarely fresh, or, if it did, was but for a little while at night.

Rainy Days.

8th ″ at night, 9th ′, 10th ′, and 16th ′ A. M. 26th ′ in the night, 27th ″, 28th ″, and 29th ″ in the night.

As the month advanced, the mercury in the thermometer fell from 60 to 50; the former being the usual morning-station at the beginning, as the latter was at the end. The variation in the day was at first 5, and afterwards 3; in rainy weather 2, sometimes nothing.

DECEMBER.

This month begun with cloudy, gloomy weather, which continued the first ten days; the mornings generally foggy; the 11th and 12th, dark weather; the two following days were fair, and frosty; from the 15th to the 18th, dark and gloomy; from that to the 23d, frost; from the 23d to the 28th, gloomy winter weather. Most of the rain in this month, except on the 23d, fell after sunset.

The wind, as in last month, moderate, at east or north-east.

Rainy Days.

5th ″ with thunder, 9th ″, 23d ‴, 26th ″, 27th ″, storm in the night from the west.

In the first week the mercury usually stood at 54; from the 5th to the 11th, at 50; from that till the 24th, that it got up again to 50, it continued fluctuating between 43 and 46. The most common height was 44. The difference in the same day was very inconsiderable, never exceeding 3, and for the most part 1, sometimes not discernible.

JANUARY.

The preceding year concluded with pleasant serene weather, which, one gloomy day excepted, continued till the 11th of this month; to this succeeded four dark winter days; from the 15th to the afternoon of the 22d, fair, and frost, light flying clouds now and then; the remainder mostly gloomy, rainy weather; the last day uncommonly cold, with some snow; more rain fell in the day-time than usual in this month.

Wind generally north-east or east, and moderate.

Rainy Days.

3d ′, 11th ′ A. M. ″ in the night, 12th ‴, 14th ″, 22d ′ A. M. ″ evening, 23d ′ and 24th ′ A. M. 27th ‴, 28th ″, 29th ″, and 30th ″, in the day-time.

The most common height of the thermometer, at eight in the morning, during the first fifteen days, was 49, the remaining part of the month 45; the variation in the same day, at the different hours of observation, as usual.

FEBRUARY.

Till the 12th, fair, frosty weather, except the 2d and 3d; on the former it snowed all day, and the latter continued overcast; the 12th, cloudy, and rained several hours; the eight following days serene, with light clouds after mid-day; the remaining part of the month cloudy and clear by turns; a good many showers of rain, but of no long continuance.

The wind very moderate, as in the last month; the first ten days, north-east or south-west; from the 15th to the 20th, east; the last eight days somewhat fresher, west.

Rainy Days.

12th ″ began at noon, 21st ′ P. M. 22d ′ P. M. 24th ′ P. M. with thunder, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, showery.

The height of the mercury, in the morning, for the first twelve days, was 38; after that it continued ascending gradually to 52. The difference in the afternoon, or variation in the same day, was at the beginning and middle of the month exactly as mentioned in February last year; the few last days being rainy, the variation (as usual) was only 1 or 2.

MARCH.

To the 20th, serene, some few light clouds now and then in the afternoon; the 9th excepted, which was cloudy and stormy; the remainder of the month variable weather, though chiefly cloudy. The rain fell mostly in short showers.

The first ten days the wind variable, south-west, south-east, or east; the other part of the month, commonly west or south-west. It was in general moderate throughout, only sometimes blew a little fresh in the afternoon; storm on the 9th.

Rainy Days.

9th ‴ A. M. 21st ′ evening, 23d ′ P. M. 24th ″, 29 ′, 31st ″ in the night.

The common station of the mercury, in the morning, was at the beginning 52, some days about the middle of the month 49, after which it gradually rose to 57; the variation on the cloudy days 2, at other times 4 or 5, but never so considerable as in the preceding March.

APRIL.

Begun with cloudy, rainy weather; from the 2d to the 9th; serene; hazey weather frequent in the second week; the 16th and 17th, serene; from this time to the 27th, the weather unusually cool and cloudy. There were properly only two rainy days, the rain at other times falling only in short showers.

The reigning wind, particularly towards the end, west or south-west; frequent calms, and throughout the month the wind moderate.

Rainy Days.

1st ″ P. M. 2d ‴, 13th ′ night, 14th ′ A. M. 15th ′, 19th ″, 22d ″ P. M. with thunder, 25th ′, 26th ′, 31st ′, A. M.

As the month advanced, the morning-station of the thermometer rose gradually from 51 to 62; the variation in the same day was generally 6, and never exceeding; but as there was much cloudy weather, it was often only 2 or 3.

MAY.

The first day, gloomy, with continual rain till four in the afternoon; the three following days, showery, with thunder; the three next days, fair, with flying clouds, and a fresh wind; in the evening of the 8th, a storm, and thunder; the ensuing week, much hazey weather, and the sun sometimes obscured by the clouds; from the 16th to the 28th, serene weather, and generally a fresh wind through the day, clouds sometimes in the evening; the 28th, overcast; the two last days, windy, and several dark clouds passed. Frequent calms in this month; the wind variable, south-east, or east. When it blew fresh, as it did towards the latter end of the month, it was at west.

Rainy Days.

1st ‴, 2d ′ at noon, 3d ″ thunder-showers, 4th ′ P. M. 7th ″ with thunder P. M. 15th ′ evening, 28th ′ P. M.

The morning-station of the mercury, in the first fortnight, rose from 61 to 70; the variation in the same day advancing also regularly with the month from 3 to 9⁠[487].

JUNE.

The weather through the whole of this month was in general cool for the season; dark clouds frequent in the first week; from the 8th to the 14th, light, flying clouds in the forenoon; the remainder of the month serene, except a few hours before noon, that light, fleecy clouds sometimes appeared, but more seldom as the month advanced.

The west wind blew for the most part pretty fresh through all the month. In the afternoon of the 2d, at a quarter past five o’clock, there was a slight shock of an earthquake; the wind fresh all that day.

Rainy Days.

1st, a small shower.

The ordinary station of the mercury in the barometer was 28 7.

JULY.

The weather in the two first weeks, cool and pleasant, fleecy clouds, as in the last month, often appearing before noon; to the 22d, little wind, serene, and warm; then three days cool weather; the remainder moderate breezes, and hot. The wind westerly.

To the 20th, the mercury in the barometer stood invariably at the greatest height, as it did the rest of the month at 28 5.

AUGUST.

Through this whole month, the weather was mostly serene, few clouds of any kind appearing; the 1st day, a fresh wind; to the 14th, hot, and little or no wind, particularly from the 4th the nights very hot; from the 14th to the 19th, the weather cooler, being refreshed by a morning and evening breeze; the rest of the month, calm, or little wind; many white clouds passed on the 23d and 25th, the west wind blowing fresh.

The wind throughout westerly.

Rainy Days none.

The mercury in the barometer stood at 28 5 from the beginning till the 9th, from that time till the 29th its invariable station was 28 6, as on the three last days of the month it was 28 6½.

SEPTEMBER.

The first week serene, the mornings and evenings cool; from the 13th to the 16th, frequent hard gusts of wind, that brought along with them clouds of dust, as usual before the autumn-rains; flying clouds often, and sometimes dew in the nights; frequent lightening in the west; the 12th and 13th, steady gales of wind; a little rain in the night of the 16th; the four succeeding days, overcast, and often threatening rain; from the 20th to the 25th, serene; the remainder of the month stormy.

The wind westerly.

Rainy Days.

16th ′, 29th ″ noon.

In the first fortnight, 82 was the usual morning-height of the thermometer; in the afternoon it commonly rose to 89 or 90; in the storm it fell to 76, and rose in the afternoon only to 80; in the last fortnight, 72 was the common height in the morning; the variation in the same day 8.

OCTOBER.

Mornings serene, and flying clouds in the afternoon, made up the weather in the first week; from the 9th to the 14th, much cloudy weather; the 15th, rainy; the other part of the month fair, the mornings sometimes serene, sometimes cloudy; but through the day there were generally white clouds, except the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 29th, which were quite serene.

The wind little, and variable; sometimes it blew fresh in the night at west.

Rainy Days.

10th ″ evening and night, 15th ′ A. M. P. M. ″ and evening.

The variation of the mercury in the thermometer was in the same day generally 8 or 9, sometimes 5, the morning-station being 68 or 70; from the 15th it continued gradually sinking to 59; and the variation in the same day was 5 or 6.

NOVEMBER.

The two first days, cloudy; the evening of the 2d threatened rain; From that to the 20th, serene and pleasant; from the 23d to the 27th, gloomy weather; the latter days of the month, serene through the day, but cloudy both in the morning and evening.

The wind little, and variable, at east, north-east, south-east, &c.

Rainy Days.

23d A. M. ″ in the night, 25th ‴ in the night, 26th ′ morning.

The mercury in the thermometer, in the progress of the first fortnight, descended from 58 to 52, the variation in the afternoon being generally 9 or 10; in the last fortnight it gradually fell from 52 to 44; the variation in that time was seldom more than 6.

DECEMBER.

The first fortnight, except two or three clear days, was for the most part dark and cloudy; the 17th was serene, but from that to the 27th foggy; the morning of the 28th clear, at noon cloudy, and rained violently in the evening; the two last days of the year were serene and pleasant, and through the whole month the weather was unusually mild.

Frequent calms, little winds, at east or north-east; on the 5th it blew fresh at west, with a shower of hail.

Rainy Days.

2d ′ P. M. 3d ‴ in the day, 4th ‴ in the day, 5th ′ P. M. 11th ′ in the night, 12th ″ A. M. 13th ″, 14th ″, 23d ′ night, 25th ′ A. M. 28th ‴ afternoon and evening.

The height of the mercury in the thermometer throughout the month was 44 or 45 at eight in the morning; the variation in rainy weather nothing, and at other times 2 or 1.

CHAP. III. Of the Epidemical Diseases, from the beginning of 1742 to the end of 1747, and of the Years 1752 and 1753. — A. D. MDCCXLII. — A. D. MDCCXLIII. — A. D. MDCCXLIV. — A. D. MDCCXLV. — A. D. MDCCXLVI. — A. D. MDCCXLVII. — A. D. MDCCLII. — A. D. MDCCLIII.

This year was very healthy, till about the beginning of March; when an acute fever, attended with a pain in the right hypochonder, became very frequent, both among adults and children, though few of those were seized with it who were under ten years old. Copious bleeding, emollient glysters, cooling purges, with antiphlogistic medicines internally, and emollient fomentations to the part affected, generally relieved the symptoms, and brought the fever to a favourable crisis on the seventh or ninth day in adults by a plentiful sweat, and in children most commonly by a diarrhœa.

In some these evacuations only carried off the pain, and brought the fever to a regular intermission; when it was soon and safely cured by the cortex; though, if any errors were committed in the use of the non-naturals, the patients were very subject to relapses.

But when evacuations were not used in due time, the disease often proved fatal, or at best the fever was protracted to thirty, and even forty days, and some few of the sick died hectic.

Though the above mentioned fever did not quite disappear till the autumn; yet, after the beginning of June, it affected so few, that it could scarcely be called epidemical.

Inflammatory quinsies were also frequent at this time; but they were not violent, and quickly yielded to the common methods.

Through the winter the plague had been frequent in Antab, Kilis, Azass, and most of the villages among the mountains Amanus; to which places, according to the best information we could get, it had been brought from Bias⁠[489], where it had raged the summer before.

The Chinganas, who came as usual from these parts, about the middle of April, to be hired for reaping corn, brought it with them to Aleppo. To these, and a few others in the out-parts of the town, it was confined for some time; and it was not till the 18th of May, that we had any notice of it, when, upon strict enquiry, it was found that there had been some seized with the distemper in the city. In a few days, it encreased pretty much among the Jews (who suffered greatly in proportion to their small number this season) and came to be more general through the city and suburbs, where it continued, though in a limited degree, till the beginning of July, when the extream heat of the weather put a considerable check to it: some, however, were daily carried off by the disease till near the end of this month, when it entirely ceased. The Europeans shut up⁠[490] this year the beginning of June, and continued so about a month.

About the middle of July, diarrhœas and dysenteries became very frequent. The discharges at first were bilious, and the gripes violent. A very high fever was a constant attendant often with petechiæ, and other malignant symptoms: plentiful bleeding was always necessary at the beginning; after which an ipecacuan vomit, with a few doses of rhubarb (found most effectual when a few grains of calomel were added) prepared the way for anodynes and gentle astringents: these, with soft mucilaginous aliment, in most instances, compleated the cure; but in several, from a promising appearance, it proved suddenly mortal: this was likewise the case with some in intermitting fevers that were now epidemic, and continued with the dysentery all the autumn. This unexpected fatality happened at times, to such as were not shut up, in all acute diseases during the time of the plague; but buboes, or other signs of that distemper, were seen but seldom⁠[491].

About the beginning of September, the small-pox made their appearance, especially amongst children; but being of a mild distinct kind, very little assistance was required from medicine. In October this disease became more frequent; and much the greater part that were seized, had the confluent sort, attended with hæmorrhages, petechiæ, phlyctanæ, and other the worst of symptoms. Convulsions (always violent) on their first seizure, indicated that the pock would flux, and prove fatal. In this confluent kind the eruptions were often discovered on the extremities as soon as the child was observed to be out of order, and never were later in appearing than the end of the second day. These patients generally died on the beginning of the eleventh, reckoning from the first attack, when the distemper was left to nature, as is commonly the case in this country; or, if they survived, yet many of them were afterwards harrassed with corrosive ulcers, carious bones, hard tumors on the glandular parts, difficult either to discuss or bring to suppuration, coughs, and fluxes; which last soon put an end to their miseries. By degrees this great malignancy seemed to wear off; so that by December the disease became mild and favourable, and most of the sick recovered.

The Jews were the most severely afflicted by this sort of small-pox.

Bleeding, bathing the extremities in warm water, with a plentiful use of diluting, antiphlogistic medicines, if used at the beginning, often prevented fatal consequences. Purging in the secondary fever, or after the decline of the disease, is never practised here by the natives; from the neglect of which, perhaps, the dreadful symptoms above enumerated were more frequent; though they often happened when all possible means had been used to prevent them.

Inoculation is only practised here among the Christians, and is not yet general even among them. However, it appears to gain ground daily, though their injudicious method of proceeding in it seems to lay this practice under several disadvantages. They do not either prepare the body beforehand, or consider the habit of the child to be inoculated, or the nature of the pock, or other diseases of the party from whom they receive infection, but carry the child to be inoculated into the chamber of the sick; where an old woman opening one of the pustles with a needle, takes a little of the matter upon its point; with this needle she pricks many times the fleshly part of the child’s hand, between the first joint of the thumb and the same joint of the fore-finger, taking up a little more matter upon the point of the needle after every two or three punctures; then putting a bit of cotton on the part, it is tied up, and the operation finished.

About the middle of November the plague began to shew itself again in the suburbs called Bankusa⁠[492], and that neighbourhood; and before Christmas it was found to be in some parts of the city, though it made little or no progress.

A few pleurisies and rheumatisms began to make their appearance in December.

In January, the small-pox, which were now for the most part distinct, abated considerably, and by the end of February they quite disappeared.

The pleurises and rheumatisms grew more common in January, and continued through the greatest part of February. They were commonly accompanied with headach, thirst, and other febrile symptoms. The pulse was low, quick, and hard; the urine not so high-coloured as usual in those inflammatory fevers, but without sediment. The blood was sizey. The pains of the rheumatics were not generally very acute, though fixed, and more especially in the knees, which soon swelled considerably, and were often subject to great weakness long after the pain and fever were removed.

In both diseases the method of cure was the same. They could not for the most part bear such large and repeated bleeding as is usual in those inflammatory cases at other times; but, by moderate bleeding, twice, or at most thrice, cooling purges, emollient fomentations to the parts in pain, a plentiful use of antiphlogistic and saponaceous diluters, with volatiles added towards the decline of the disease, they speedily recovered.

During the winter, a continual fever, much like that of the preceding spring, affected several; but the pain in the right hypochonder did not so commonly attend it.

During the course of the spring, intermittents were common; but they had nothing in them particular.

The plague which had continued in the suburbs during all the month of January, though hitherto it had made but little progress, now began to spread among the Jews in the city, and seized many of the Christians in the month of February; though, as it was then diminished at Bankusa, it might more properly be said to have changed its quarters, than to have augmented its forces.

About the beginning of March, some Jews and Turks, who were known to the Europeans, dying suddenly, they began to be alarmed. However, whether from a cessation of the distemper, or from great industry used in concealing it, together with the natural credulity of mankind in what they wish to be true, cannot easily be determined; but certain it is, that we then heard no more of it, and most people flattered themselves with hopes that it was entirely ceased: but, on the 20th of March, we were credibly informed, that two Jews were dead in the same house, and that several other persons of different sects were dead or infected, which raised a fresh alarm amongst us; and, in truth, the increase became soon too visible, particularly among the Armenians, who suffered in a very extraordinary manner during the whole continuance of the distemper.

Hitherto the greatest part of the infected were women and children, and mostly in the suburbs; but, about the beginning of April, there was a manifest encrease of the burials in the city, and several were seized in the Khanes, where the Europeans live, so that most of them shut up the 11th of that month.

It continued encreasing gradually in all parts, and among all sorts of people during the month of April, but continued its ravages in May with much more violence, and arrived at its greatest height, according to the reports we received, about the last of that month, when the number of burials was every day apparently great. But as we had no account that could be depended upon, it is not possible to ascertain the precise number. Our list of the Christians was however tolerably exact; and, notwithstanding many of them were gone out of the city, and the rest who could afford it were shut up, though not in the most regular way, their burials amounted from 20 to 30, and sometimes 34 a-day. Hence it is evident, that the number of Turks must have been very considerable; though, according to the informations of those who remember former plagues in this place, the mortality attending this was but very moderate.

About the beginning of June the distemper decreased pretty much amongst the Turks, according to the accounts brought to us, though the number of Christian burials (of which we were informed with more certainty) diminished but little. From the 13th to the 17th, it again encreased, particularly among the Turks, though not to the height it was at about the end of May. On the 18th it began again to decline, and continued decreasing with a surprising rapidity, some small interruptions excepted, till the end of the month, by which time the burials were reduced to a very few. However, they kept at that stand the greatest part of July; nor could the city be said to be quite exempt from the infection till about the middle of August, though it was so much abated that most of the Europeans got abroad about the 18th of July.

About the beginning of August, intermittent fevers became frequent, and were at their height in September; after which they abated, but did not entirely cease till the close of the year.

For a few days after their commencement, they often resembled continual fevers, with violent and irregular symptoms, not unlike those of the plague; but, after bleeding and vomiting, or, what was most commonly practised, purging, with a plentiful use of nitrous medicines, they formed into tertians, double tertians, or quotidians, and were speedily and safely cured by the use of the bark. It was remarkable in those fevers, that they affected many more of the Europeans than epidemics in this country commonly do.

Diarrhœas were also frequent throughout the autumn, and till the end of December, but without any thing particular in their symptoms.

From the middle of November till the end of the year, we now and then heard of a person dying of the plague; but these instances were very rare, hardly more than two of whom we could be certain that they had the distemper.

A few pleurisies and peripneumonies occurred during the months of January and February; but these were not either frequent or violent, yielding, and that very quickly, to the common methods.

About the middle of February the chincough broke out among the children. It was often attended with a smart fever, and pain in the side. Copious bleeding was necessary, cooling purges, with pectoral and antiphlogistic medicines, and, towards the decline of the fever, blisters, which were most effectual when applied to the part affected: but it was not often that the parents would consent to this application, having in general a great aversion to blistering on any account. Notwithstanding this treatment, the fever, and often the pain, remained fourteen days, and the cough for two or three weeks after; but the force of it was much diminished, and the intervals between the fits long. This disease ceased by the end of March.

At this time also an inflammatory fever, without affecting any particular part, was frequent amongst children; which bleeding, purging, and nitrous medicines, with the testacea, commonly carried off in a few days.

For want of bleeding, the above mentioned diseases proved fatal to many, this operation being scarce ever performed upon children by the physicians of this country. They content themselves with making a few slight scarifications on the top of the ears, or on the calves of the legs; from whence they seldom procure more than a few drops of blood.

The plague, which began to appear in November, made very little progress during the months of January and February. In March it became a little more apparent, and proceeded exactly in the same course as the year before, ceasing entirely about the middle of August. The number of the infected were but few; so that the English nation did not shut up at all, and some of the French only towards the middle of May.

In the preceding years, I prescribed for the sick chiefly from the accounts I had from a person I employed to visit them; for though, notwithstanding all my precautions, I was often deceived by false representations, and employed to visit some of the infected before we shut up, yet I avoided it to the utmost of my power; but this year, the fears of infection being (like that of all other dangers to which one has been long exposed) much wore off, I attended the sick of the plague in common with those under other diseases.

Intermittents made their appearance about the middle of March, and continued till the beginning of May. Those who had laboured under this disease in the autumn, were now the most subject to it.

As the greatest part were regular, formed tertians, a vomit or purge, with the use of the cortex, was all that was necessary to cure them; and the same medicine, with the warm bitters, and elixir of vitriol, were continued for some time after, to prevent a relapse.

In June, July, August, and part of September, a malignant fever was common, attended with much the same symptoms as the plague, excepting buboes and carbuncles. The vomiting, with which it began, lasted for several days, and the fever continued at least till the fourteenth, but often longer; some few after the fourteenth had regular intermissions.

The method of cure was much the same as that of the plague, only that they bore a second bleeding, and nitrous medicines, better than I usually found they did in that distemper. When the fever intermitted, the bark was given with success.

From June till December, intermittent fevers of various forms were very frequent. They did not put on the appearance of continual fevers in the beginning, like those of the last year; but, if they were not timely stopped by the bark after the fourth paroxysm, (viz. the seventh day) there was no remission; but the fever became continual, remaining at least till the fourteenth day, but more frequently till the twenty-first, if it did not prove fatal before, which was often the case while the warm weather continued.

A few diarrhœas occurred between the end of August and the beginning of January. In November and December some pleurisies and quinsies appeared; but neither of these diseases had any thing in them different from those of other seasons.

We had no disease that could be called epidemic, excepting the spring-intermittents, which began early (January), and continued till the beginning of May. They indeed were more frequent than usual.

The summer-fevers among the young children begun in June, and were generally accompanied with a diarrhœa, but had nothing unusual.

Intermittents also made their appearance this year in June, and were numerous till December; but though they were very liable to return, they were not of a bad kind.

A few dysenteries were to be met with in the autumn, but scarce so many as to entitle the disease epidemic.

In September, the small-pox appeared among the children. The few that were first seized had a mild, distinct pock; but by the middle of October they became very common, and the generality of the sick had a bad confluent kind, which proved fatal to many on the eleventh day from their seizure; but of such as were treated after Sydenham’s method, very few died. The most part of those that recovered had inflammatory tumors on the elbows, which always suppurated, and proved tedious in their cure; but, if timely opened, the bone was seldom affected.

The small-pox, which had raged violently in November and December, became milder in January, as also less frequent, and by the beginning of February entirely disappeared.

In January and February several had inflammatory fevers, which were commonly cured in a few days by bleeding, cooling purges, and a plentiful use of nitrous medicines.

In June, a putrid fever, with petechiæ, began, and continued during the months of July and August; but the number of the sick was but small. It however seldom proved fatal, but commonly terminated happily by a critical sweat on the eleventh day, or at the furthest on the fourteenth.

This autumn was most remarkably free from intermittents; none were seen before September, and they totally disappeared by November. The remainder of the year was very healthy.

As the last year ended, so this begun, free from any disease that had the appearance of an epidemic. A few diarrhœas occurred during January and February, in April peripneumonies affected several, and now and then through all these months intermittents appeared: but none of these diseases were either frequent or dangerous; so that this season might be esteemed one of the most healthy.

In May a putrid fever broke out, and was very frequent through the whole of the summer, and to the end of October; after which, though it became less common, yet it now and then shewed itself till the end of January 1748.

This fever began with a shivering and vomiting, which were soon succeeded by violent headachs, pains over the whole body, and an evident loss of strength, though the pulse was full and hard for the first four days. The tongue was first white, then became brown, hard, and dry. Most of the sick became delirious on the fifth day, and towards the end of the disease comatose. The heat was violent, both internally and externally, with regular exacerbations in the evenings, preceded by flushing in the cheeks. Purple spots, about the size of a flea-bite, generally broke out over the whole body about the fifth day, and the fever most commonly ended by a plentiful sweat, either on the seventh or by the ninth; sometimes indeed it continued to the eleventh. At its first appearance, the fourteenth day was usually critical. Signs from the urine were very fallacious. However, in proportion to the number of the sick, and violence of the symptoms, this fever was not very mortal.

The method found most effectual in treating the sick, was to bleed plentifully on the first days of the disease; once to discharge the contents of the primæ viæ, with a gentle laxative, which was the more necessary, as the generality of the sick voided quantities of worms; to give nitrous medicines in small doses often repeated, with the plentiful use of the spir. vitrioli, and cooling glysters pro re nata. Towards the end of the disease, warmer medicines were added as the state of the pulse seemed to indicate; and blisters, when the sick could be prevailed upon to admit them, were of great service.

In September and October several were seized with a fever that seemed different from that before described, and which indeed proved fatal to more than one half of those who were afflicted with it.

The first attack of this fever was by a slight shivering and nausea, sometimes a vomiting. These were not succeeded by any violent heat, but by an excessive languor, and most exquisite pains over the whole body. The head either did not ache at all, or but very little. Several times in a day, however, they complained of a lancinating pain, which, as they expressed it, run through their head; and as it came suddenly, it as suddenly went off again; and, though they had no great pain, they complained of a giddiness, and constant noise in their ears, like the rushing of water. From the very beginning they laboured under great dejection of spirits; and their eyes appeared muddy, with a particular ghastly look, much like to that of a person in the plague. The tongue was moist; and, like one in health, for several hours they seemed to be without thirst, or other uneasiness, and then would suddenly complain of a violent internal heat, and drink great quantities of liquor greedily, though neither their pulse nor tongue were altered, nor any external heat to be observed.

The urine was of a straw-colour, without cloud or sediment, till the sixth day, when there appeared in it a small cloud suspended about half-way; and this appearance it had in those who died, as well as in those who recovered. They slept very little, or not at all, during the whole course of the disease. The pulse from the beginning to the end was but very little quicker than natural; about the fifth day it sunk, and about twelve hours before death was not to be felt. The sick were scarcely ever delirious, and never comatose, continuing entirely sensible till they expired, which was commonly on the seventh day of the disease. Those who recovered had a crisis by a plentiful sweat on the ninth. None of the sick had any petechiæ.

The blood that was drawn on the first day was like that of a person in health; but, after the third day, it was of the colour of coffee-grounds, appearing quite thin as it run out of the vein, and, when cold, was bluish on the top, and but very loosely coagulated.

This fever did not appear any way infectious; for I observed no instance wherein two persons had it in the same family, nor where any of the sick could be supposed to have caught it from another affected with the disease: and indeed the whole number of the sick that came within my knowledge did not amount to above thirty, twelve of whom were my own patients, and out of these I lost four. The others seemed to owe their recovery to a pretty large bleeding, and an ipecacuan vomit at the beginning of the disease, small and repeated doses of pulv. contrayervæ comp. with a few grains of nitr. stibiat. gentle anodynes, with moderate acidulated cordials pro re nata, and an emollient refrigerating glyster every evening. Towards the fifth day, a warmer regimen was necessary, with blisters applied to the back, legs, and arms, according as the sinking of the pulse seemed to require.

Plenty of barley-water, acidulated with spirit of vitriol, was allowed for the patient’s drink; and panada, rice-gruel, and roasted apples, for food; though, to such as would not be contented with this diet without the addition of butter, which is the method of this country, I chose rather to allow weak chicken-broth, with crum of bread, or a little rice, boiled in it.

The autumnal intermittents were this year but few; nor did any other diseases besides those already mentioned appear so frequently as to claim the title of epidemics.

From the year 1748 to 1751, I was prevented from taking notes in the manner that was necessary to furnish an account of the epidemics of those years, by a constant engagement in the duties of my profession, together with an almost daily attendance on the Bashaw; which however furnished me with an opportunity of seeing more of the manners of the people than I should otherwise have done, and was fully recompensed by the large presents, and other public marks of his favour, which he was pleased to confer on me. In general, however, the first three years were healthy, if we except the measles and small-pox, which were sometimes in this period very frequent. The measles first made their appearance in the spring of 1749, and finished in the spring of 1750. As this disease had not visited Aleppo for several years, it affected numbers of adults, as well as children; so that it was no uncommon thing to see the father, mother, children, and servants, all sick of the measles together. No description of the disease could be more exact than that which Sydenham gives us of 1670, nor any method of cure more effectual, none having died that were treated after his manner, though it proved fatal to many of those who were treated after the manner of the country; which is, to keep them extremely warm, and on the ninth day to take the sick out of the hot room, in which they have been kept, to the bagnio; without which they imagine that the sick would fall into an incurable diarrhœa: whereas in the small-pox, which one would imagine is a disease that should require more washing, they don’t allow them to go to the bagnio till after the fortieth day.

The small-pox made their appearance about the middle of August 1750, and were at first of a bad confluent kind: however, they became more mild by the middle of November, and disappeared early in the spring.

The harvest of the year 1750 proved bad; so that a want of corn began to be felt early in the winter, and the poor were much distressed for want of bread. The new bashaw embraced this opportunity to bring in large quantities of wheat from his own granaries at Hamah, where it had been hoarded up for several years; by which means it was very much damaged, and the bread made of it was extremely black and musty: however, it was all that the poor had to eat till the coming in of the new grain.

About the beginning of June 1751, a most fatal dysentery made its appearance, and continued till the middle of November; and possibly proceeded as much from the bad bread, as the epidemic constitution of the air, though both causes perhaps concurred in producing it.

The first part of the year was very healthy; but, about the vernal equinox, a continual fever began, which attacked a great many people of all ranks, and continued with violence till near the end of July; after which the number of the sick diminished greatly, and by the middle of September this fever quite disappeared.

It began in the usual way, by a slight shivering, and often with a nausea; to which succeeded heat, thirst, headach, and pain in the loins. The head was much confused from the first seizure, and a remarkable stupidity appeared in the patient’s look. The tongue became immediately white, soon after brown, and often, towards the end of the disease, was covered with a black crust. The pulse was quick, but seldom hard or full, and continued in a more equal state than I ever observed in any other fever in this country, few or none of the sick having any remission or exacerbations, the heat and other symptoms continuing almost uniformly at one regular standard from the beginning to the end, if the patient’s strength was not exhausted by unseasonable evacuations and improper management. On the ninth or eleventh day most of the sick had an hæmorrhage from the nose, which in some seemed to mitigate the symptoms, though many grew worse upon it; in others it had no manifest effect, either good or bad. The crisis was almost always by a plentiful sweat; but this happened to none at the first appearance of this disease before the fourteenth, and to the greater part on the seventeenth.

Towards the end of May, the hæmorrhage commonly happened on the seventh day, and a copious discharge by sweat on the eleventh; which, though it very much relieved, yet was not a perfect crisis, the fever never quite leaving them till the fourteenth. Many of the sick now had petechiæ.

As the hot weather advanced, so likewise these discharges came on earlier in the disease; so that by the latter end of June almost all had the hæmorrhages, the fifth or seventh, and on this last the sweats likewise. And what is very remarkable is, that from about this time till the epidemic ceased, though the sick had been duly purged after the fever, and the utmost care taken in respect to the non-naturals; yet none of them escaped a relapse, which seized them in the same way as the preceding fever, only the heat was much more intense. The second day they were taken with violent pains in the hypochonders, bilious vomitings, and often purging, which left them the third day; a smart fever remaining till the fifth, with many remissions and exacerbations, when a critical sweat put an end to it; I mean in such as had recovered of the preceding fever on the seventh day; but such as had grown better on the fourteenth, did not recover of the relapse before the eleventh.

Several of the sick had the fever so slightly, that they were able to walk abroad; but, notwithstanding this mildness of the symptoms, the disease continued the same number of days as in the others.

Though this fever was not in its own nature very dangerous, yet it proved fatal to many, particularly in the months of April and May, when the number of the sick was very great, and the fever was of long continuance. The increase of its mortality was probably owing to bleeding and purging, which were often used by the natives towards the eleventh day of the disease, and to which they were prompted by the spontaneous hæmorrhages, and an impatience under the long duration of the fever; but it seldom happened that any evacuations were used after the eighth day, without manifest detriment to the sick, either by retarding their recovery, or sinking them irretrievably.

Of several hundreds that were treated after the following method, only two died. As soon as the person was taken ill, he was blooded pretty largely; next day he took a laxative potion of infus. sennæ limon. and manna, and in the evening of that day a gentle anodyne. If he was strong and plethoric, the bleeding was repeated the third day; but, after this, blood was seldom, if ever, taken. Nitrous medicines, with a small proportion of pulv. contrayerv. composit. were given every six hours, and the last encreased or diminished according as the pulse seemed to require; and towards the end of the disease, or when the pulse was low, the pulv. contrayerv. comp. Phar. Edin. was substituted in its stead. A glyster of milk, pulp of cassia fistula, or sugar, and a little oil, was injected every evening till the eleventh, if the head was much confused, and the body costive, which was generally the case in the first months; though afterwards, when the disease became more acute, most of the sick had several stools every day.

When petechiæ appeared, and the heat was intense, with great languor, moderate cordials, acidulated with spir. vitrioli, together with the above mentioned powders, were repeated as necessity required.

The second day after the crisis, they were purged with the same potion as at the beginning, and it was repeated at proper intervals, once or twice: when a tendency to relapses became so general, a decoction of the cortex, with a small proportion of elixir vitrioli, was given to prevent them, and often with success.

In these relapses, though the symptoms seemed violent, they were seldom or never blooded. When the vomiting came on, the sick were ordered to drink quantities of warm water, to wash the stomach; glysters were occasionally injected, and the medicines before mentioned exhibited.

The patient’s drink was a ptisan, in common use here, made of barley, grass-roots, and a few injubs, sometimes acidulated with lemon-juice; their food, weak chicken-broth, with a little rice, or crum of bread, boiled in it, and now and then a roasted apple.

From the beginning of the summer till the end of September, the chincough was frequent among the children; but though it was very violent, it much sooner gave way to medicines than I ever knew it; for by once bleeding, (which was generally with leeches) a few purges, and a weak solution of gum ammoniac in water, with a small proportion of acet. scillitic. & tinct. castor. they either soon recovered, or the cough grew much less frequent and violent, and went off entirely in about a fortnight more.

This year the fever usually attending young children was more frequent than in others.

Scarcely one intermittent was to be met with this autumn; and the place was exceeding healthy till the middle of November, when a fever became very frequent (chiefly among children three years old and upwards) with a swelling in one or both parotids, the maxillary glands, and sometimes over the whole face.

Bleeding, with a gentle purgative once or twice repeated, and a low diet, generally cured those that had it the most violently in five or six days, and such as had it slightly recovered without any assistance in about the same time; and though this fever continued to affect great numbers all the year, and till about the middle of January 1753, I did not hear of any to whom it proved fatal.

With this year commenced a continual fever, which was chiefly confined to adults, and to the northern suburbs of the city, where the Christians mostly inhabit.

The disease began with a shivering and nausea, but the patient seldom vomited. The heat was intense during the first two or three days, the pulse strong and frequent: the sick did not so much complain of pain, as of great confusion in their head, and noise in their ears, acute pains in their back, legs, and arms; which last they could scarcely bear to move. The tongue was at first white, afterwards yellow, and towards the height of the disease generally black. From the beginning their aspect was stupid, and by the sixth day they became delirious; from the seventh to the ninth petechiæ appeared over the whole body, not round, as usual, but in irregular figures. The pulse by this time began to sink, and they were often comatose; from the ninth to the eleventh, a moderate sweat sometimes broke out, or they had a few loose stools, which seemed to relieve, and for the present to abate the symptoms; yet the fever always continued till the seventeenth day, when it began to decline gradually, and went off without any remarkable evacuation. When the head was much affected, the urine was pale as water, without any sediment; in some it was of a blackish cast, like a weak tincture of steel. On the eleventh day it commonly let fall a white sediment in those who recovered; and indeed all who were treated in the method mentioned for the continual fever of last year (with the addition of sinapisms to the soles of the feet, for they are much averse to blisters) recovered.

Those who were bled to any considerable quantity after the seventh day generally died on the ninth or the eleventh.

This fever continued to prevail till the beginning of February, when the very cold weather we had at that time put a check to it; so that, from the beginning to the 20th, I saw but two persons who had any appearance of it. These, besides the above mentioned symptoms, had an acute pain in the right hypochonder affecting their breathing, and bore larger bleeding than could be endured without great injury in the preceding constitution, and the blood was sizey. Both these patients had a crisis of the fever by a large hæmorrhage from the right nostril on the seventh day, and very nearly about the same hour in which they were first seized. In one of them the hæmorrhage was accompanied by a diarrhœa, and about a fortnight after he had a regular tertian.

In January several old people had apoplexies, though few proved mortal: they commonly ended in hemiplegias, which in several, though much advanced in years, gave way to medicine.

About the 20th of February, the continual fever above mentioned, which had almost totally ceased upon the setting in of cold weather, again made its appearance, and with additional force. Almost all now had petechiæ, which were round, very small, and of a purple colour. These, after the twelfth or thirteenth day, disappeared, without any manifest alteration in the disease. The urine during the first three or four days was of an orange colour, and towards the seventh let fall a copious white sediment; after that it became clear and pale as water till the eleventh or twelfth; when, though it still retained the same appearance whilst warm, when cold it let fall a sediment like fine flour, and continued thus till the end of the disease, which always happened on the seventeenth.

Many of the sick in the fever, both of this and the last year, voided many worms of the round kind, and towards the height of the disease almost all were deaf, which last was a good sign; and it may here be remarked, that these two symptoms are almost common to all fevers in Aleppo.

About the middle of April near one fourth of the people were seized with violent coughs, which did not either last long with those attacked, or in the compass of a few days continued to spread any farther.

The Jews, who had hitherto kept pretty clear of the fever, though it was now very common in the city, began to feel its effects severely very soon after their feast, about the middle of April.

In May several of the sick had a critical sweat on the seventh day, preceded in some by an hæmorrhage from the nose; but all who had this hæmorrhage, in about five or six days after, had a return of the fever, which was more violent than at the first attack, and continued five days. In several those relapses were accompanied with peripneumonic symptoms, and required bleeding.

Children had hitherto escaped this disease; but in this month (May) a considerable number of them, from nine years old and upwards, were seized with it. The symptoms and duration were much the same as in adults; only their most frequent complaint was of pains in the belly, and they voided worms either by vomiting or stool, chiefly of the round kind.

The number of the sick was much diminished by the beginning of June, and the fever quite disappeared before July.

The method pursued in the cure of the fever of last year was attended with the same success in this; and evacuations after the seventh day, as in the preceding, so likewise in the present, were always prejudicial, and often fatal.

The summer-fever, commonly incident to young children in this country, began this year in June, and continued through the summer as customary.

In July a very few were seized with mild dysenteries, others with intermittents, chiefly quartans; but neither of these distempers were so frequent as to be termed epidemic.

The ophthalmias, which, according to custom, were epidemic in September, had this particular from other years, that the inflammation was chiefly external in the palpebræ.

Both this and last year furunculi were frequent on different parts of the body, but more especially the fingers; in November, and part of December, they often broke out in the armpits, but without any other disorder.

A very few had pleurisies in December, and several died suddenly of apoplexies about this time.

It should have been before observed, that the continual fever of this year, particularly after the month of February, seldom affected one person in a house, without going through two thirds of the family; but it was rare to find two sick together, one being generally a few days recovered before the other was taken ill.

CHAP. IV. Of the PLAGUE. — Sect. I. Of the Plague in General. — SECT. II. Of the Plague, as it appeared in Aleppo , in 1742, 1743, and 1744. — SECT. III. Of the method used by the Europeans for their preservation from the Plague. — SECT. IV. Of the MAL d’ALEPPO.

All the facts mentioned in the notes are taken from old journals or letters written at the times they happened.

It is the common opinion of the inhabitants of Aleppo, that they are visited with the plague about once in ten years, and that it is brought thither from some neighbouring city, where it first makes its appearance, as Antab, Urfa, &c. to the northward, or Damascus to the southward; from which last place it is generally alledged that the worst plagues have been brought; though some assert that those which have come from the northward have raged with the greatest violence.

With respect to the intervals between the returns of the plague, though that of 1742 is an exception, yet the common opinion seems in some measure to be founded on experience⁠[493]. And it seems a fact pretty well attested, that it never rages at Aleppo without having first visited some of the above mentioned places; though the first appearance of all is, from what I have been able to learn, always in some town on the coast of Syria⁠[494]. If it first shews itself in Sidon, Byroot, or Tripoly, Damascus is usually the channel through which it comes to Aleppo; but if in Scanderoon or Byass, then it commonly passes by way of Antab, Killis, Urfa, &c.

During the winter this disease is constantly moderate; as the spring advances it grows more violent, it comes to its height in June, decreases greatly in July, and certainly disappears in August; and this seems to be the constant course of the plague at Aleppo: so that none are ever seized with it in the months of September and October, even in such extraordinary instances as when it has made its appearance for three years successively, as it did in 1742, 1743, and 1744⁠[495].

A considerable difference is observable, both as to the mortality and number of the infected, in different years; but it does not appear that it has ever raged in this country with the violence that it has often done in Europe.

Extreme heat seems to check the progress of the distemper; for though, during the few first hot days, the mortality, as well as the number of those newly infected, encreased, yet a few days longer continuance of that weather greatly diminished the number of the sick. Add to this, that the season wherein it always ceases at Aleppo, is that in which the heats are the most excessive.

Though the natives, as well as several authors, have a notion that the moon has some influence over this distemper, yet experience no ways favoured this opinion in the late plague at Aleppo.

Having the distemper once, does not prevent a second seizure, numbers of people being alive when I left Aleppo, who have had it twice or oftener; and I have even seen instances of the same person’s having had the disease three several times in the same season.

It is no wonder that the very name of plague among us should strike terror whenever it is mentioned; for, besides the numerous and terrible distresses of the whole body of the people during the rage of a pestilence, and the scenes of death and misery which are continually before our eyes, the distemper itself is the most lamentable to which mankind are liable. The torments of heat, thirst, and pain, frequently unite in some patients; an unspeakable languor and dejection in others; the loathsome remains of the distemper in the painful and putrid ulcers, even in those who escape; the desertion of friends and attendants; the want of common necessaries, and medical assistance, are all of them circumstances which aggravate the miseries of the sick, and contribute not a little towards augmenting the general horror.

And as there is no disease incident to mankind that is in its nature more terrible and destructive, so there is none more difficult to describe. Its symptoms are scarcely in all respects alike in any two persons; nay, they even vary extremely in an hour in the same subject. The disease begins often with the most flattering appearances, and ends fatally in a few hours. Some complain of a pain at their heart, are seized with a vomiting and giddiness, and die in a few minutes; while the most alarming attacks sometimes end speedily in health and security.

In general, however, a coldness or shivering, with sickness, vomiting large quantities of porraceous bile, often of a very offensive smell, pain in the back or loins, an intense headach, uncommon giddiness, and a sudden loss of strength, were the first complaints of those who were seized with this distemper; and these were usually attended with great uneasiness or anxiety about the pit of the stomach, and a sharp, shooting pain darting into the parotid, axillary, or inguinal glands.

These symptoms were soon succeeded by a violent fever; in which, while the patients complained of extreme inward heat, their skin felt but little hotter than usual. Sometimes this heat soon became general and intense, at other times particular parts only were affected therewith; and it seldom continued many hours together alike, but remitted and returned with considerable, but unequal force several times in a day. The face, in these exacerbations, became florid, and was often changed from a deep scarlet to a livid colour, resembling that of a person almost strangled. These appearances again would suddenly give place to a cadaverous paleness. The eyes soon lost their lustre, and acquired a kind of muddiness; and the countenance of the greatest part of the sick was ghastly, and confused beyond description.

The pulse, at the first seizure, was very little different from its natural state, only somewhat more quick and low. In a few hours it commonly encreased in quickness and strength; but these seldom continued in the same way an hour together, nay, scarce many minutes, but varied without any manifest correspondence with the other febrile symptoms, both as to strength and quickness, incessantly.

In those who complained of pains, either darting into the parotids, the armpits, or groins, a small, painful, hard, deep-seated tumor was discovered by the touch in the part, without any manifest discoloration of the skin. Such were the first beginnings of the pestilential buboes.

This was the common appearance of the distemper the first day of the disease; and those who had the most favourable escape were often attacked at first with as alarming symptoms as those who died in a few hours; for sometimes this febrile paroxysm dissolved in a few hours, and left the patient indeed languid, and weakened to an extreme degree, but free from other complaints, except the pain of the tumor above mentioned; which in many encreased from this time, both in size, tension, and pain, during about twelve or fifteen days, when it commonly suppurated, the patient, all the time, the first day excepted, walking about as usual.

But though many thus escaped, yet several who were seized in this manner, especially in the month of March 1743, suddenly dropped down dead, or at least lived but a few hours; the headach, vomiting, and pain about the præcordia, encreasing every moment to such a degree as to occasion immediate death, or fatal convulsions. Few of those who died in this manner had any appearance of such indurated tumors, though generally the armpits, groins, or internal parts of the arms and thighs, were livid or black, and the whole body was covered with confluent petechiæ, interspersed with livid pustules, especially after death.

Those who survived the first attack of the distemper, which was by much the greatest part of the sick, in the evening had a very considerable encrease of every symptom. The heat became excessive, both internally and externally; and as the sick were by this time for the most part delirious, it was often with difficulty they could be kept within doors. They were disposed to talk a great deal, but faultered so much in their speech as scarcely to be understood; the tongue having also shared in the debility that was evident in every other part of the body.

In this state they continued during most part of the night; towards morning the violence of the heat, inquietude, and delirium, abated; a manifest remission succeeded; some recovered their senses entirely, some in great part, and then complained much of intense headach, or pain of the buboes, which last would often increase suddenly, and decrease as quickly, in the space of a few hours. About one half of the sick about this time had an additional complaint of a painful pustule, like an angry, confluent pock, surrounded by a circle of a deep scarlet tinge, which soon became livid, and was attended with an intense burning pain; from which circumstance, as well as from its fiery aspect, it has probably obtained the name of carbuncle.

These pustules broke out indiscriminately on all parts of the body, and increased from the size of a large pock to the extent of an inch and a half diameter, sometimes, though rarely, to three inches.

The remission of the feverish symptoms was commonly but of very short continuance, the rigors, anxiety, and delirium soon returning with greater violence, with a frequent and strong subsultus tendinum. These symptoms, however, did not proceed with a regular increase during the day; but the rigors and heats coming and going by turns, formed short, but alarming intermissions, each paroxysm surpassing the former either in violence or duration; till, in the evening, the pulse was scarcely to be counted by reason of its depression and quickness. The patient grew comatose, with a quick, laborious, and interrupted respiration.

The buboes, which some hours before seemed manifestly to increase, now often subsided, and almost disappeared, and the livid circle about the carbuncle became black, resembling a large eschar made by a caustic; and livid or black spots, of different dimensions, about this time often appeared dispersed over the whole body.

Under these circumstances, dreadful as they seemed, some hope of recovery still remained; for though many died on the third day, yet several had a favourable crisis by a profuse sweat: some struggled under these difficulties to the fifth day, a few to the seventh, and here and there one even to the eleventh, before any critical alteration appeared.

If the disease was not wholly carried off by a copious sweat on the third day, it was always considerably abated, and was in general totally removed by a second, though less profuse one, by the fifth; so that no symptoms of the disease were then left, weakness excepted, and the pain proceeding from the buboes and carbuncles. And it may here be remarked, that all who were attacked had buboes; though, even in many that recovered, they discussed without any manner of bad consequences: but the carbuncles did not appear on above one half of the sick, and often begun to digest before the critical sweat happened.

It is evident, from the account already given, that nothing could be more difficult than to form a judgment about the event of this disease, or be more just than what Morellus⁠[496] observes on a similar occasion. This author, after reciting several circumstances proving the irregularity of its type, concludes, “That, in respect to the plague, even our senses and reason deceive us, the aphorisms of Hippocrates are erroneous; and Hippocrates himself, was he present, would likewise be mistaken.”

The tongue was in some quite moist, and in all respects like that of a person in health through the whole course of the distemper; in others it was at first white, but soon became yellow, black, and covered with a dry, rough scurf or fur. Some had no thirst at all, and could scarcely be prevailed upon to take liquids in sufficient quantities. But the generality of the sick were extremely thirsty, and drank with great eagerness whatever they had given them, especially at particular times; for the intenseness of their thirst had irregular intervals, and did not continue alike through the progress of the distemper, nor often correspond with the violence of the fever.

In most patients the vomiting ceased after the first few hours, excepting when they overloaded their stomachs during this excess of thirst; at which times the vomiting returned.

The urine was as little to be depended on as a sign as any other circumstance, being scarce alike at the same time of the disease in any two persons; and its appearance varied no less in the same patient every day. In general, however, it was somewhat of a deeper yellow than usual in a person in health, and without sediment.

Some had a diarrhœa during all the time, others were costive; in most the discharges were natural. The distemper, however, seemed never to admit of a critical solution by either stool or urine. Some few had hæmorrhages from the nose or uterus: and if these happened after the second day, a plentiful sweat, which was most commonly critical, soon followed; a circumstance different from what usually has happened in the plague at other places.

In the years 1742 and 1743, the buboes often appeared as soon as the patients were taken ill, in some not till twelve hours after, and in a few not till after two or three days: but, in 1744, some perceived the buboes a day or two before they had any other symptom of the disease. And during all the time the plague raged at Aleppo, none of the sick were without them, except such who died suddenly. In general, the sick had but one, and they were more common in the axillary or inguinal glands than in the parotids. Some few had even two or three, which were not confined to one side of the body. Their first appearance, as hath been mentioned, was like a small indurated gland; deeply seated; in some they were fixed but more frequently moveable, and most commonly painful to the touch. They would often, increase considerably in a few hours with intense pain, and would as suddenly subside; and these changes would frequently succeed each other several times in twenty-four hours. Sometimes an exacerbation immediately following the decrease of the bubo, would prompt one to imagine this decrease to have been the cause; but this was not so constantly the case as to induce me to think it was so in reality.

The buboes, so far as I could learn, never advanced towards a regular maturation, till a critical sweat had carried off the fever. In ten, twelve, or fifteen days from the first attack, they commonly suppurated with the usual attendants of heat and pain. Sometimes, nay frequently, I have known them to disappear soon after the critical sweat, and discuss without any detriment to the patient. At other times, when grown pretty large, about the height of the disease, they sunk, and mortified without being attended with fatal consequences: for as soon as the crisis was compleat, the mortification stopped, and the eschar separated gradually, leaving a large deep ulcer, which healed without difficulty by the usual methods.

The inguinal buboes were seldom single, there being generally two, and in the same groin. The superior was the largest, of a long figure, somewhat resembling a cucumber, lying obliquely, but lower than where the venereal buboes appear, and it was this which commonly came to suppuration. Once I met with a case where an axillary bubo divided into two; one part getting under the pectoral muscle, the other sinking deeper into the armpit: both of them grew painful and inflamed; but that in the armpit only suppurated.

I met with no instance of a bubo not followed or preceded by the fever.

In respect to the carbuncles, it has already been observed, that they broke out on all parts of the body, the muscular and tendinous especially. From the size of a silver penny they often spread themselves speedily to the extent of an inch and half, two inches, nay sometimes three inches, diameter, frequently penetrating deep into the substance of the parts they attacked. Their most common time of appearing was on the second day of the disease. Their progress was very quick, and not above one half of the sick had them. In such as died, I was told, (for I saw none of those cases myself) that from the pustule issued a quantity of ichorous matter; but the black circle remained hard and dry; in the others the mortification usually stopped on the third day, and in a day or two more digested, and began to separate round the edges. The separation of the whole eschar was completed rather sooner than in such as are made by a caustic.

A few of the sick had pustules, which were filled with well-concocted matter, without any livid or discoloured circle about them: these, after a certain time, dried up, and fell off, as it commonly happens in the distinct small-pox; and as all the patients who had this eruption recovered, it was considered as a favourable symptom.

To enumerate all the various changes that happened, with the sudden and unexpected transitions from extreme danger to great safety, would be tedious, and little instructive. Such, however, were the general outlines of the distemper, and the most usual symptoms; which though they by no means furnish one with the necessary helps to form a certain prognostic, yet some hints may from thence be deduced for establishing a rational, and perhaps a successful practice.

Upon considering, however, the several circumstances attending this fatal distemper, the various shapes it assumes, the sudden transitions from one appearance to another, the precipitate advances to its height, and the danger which the physician incurs in visiting the sick, the wonder ceases, that we meet with in authors so various and contradictory accounts of the proper methods for treating it. Some plead for evacuations, others decry them with vehemence: if we allow, that difference of climates, different constitutions of the air in the same climate, and perhaps some variety even in the plague itself, might lead practitioners to judge not always alike concerning it; yet it is not so easy to reconcile the jarring opinions of those who have practised at the same time, and in the same place, in respect to this essential part of management: and as in a disease, wherein reason is often perplexed, and experience itself fallacious, one would chuse to rely much on proper authority, it is greatly to be lamented, that nature has not been more, and opinion less, attended to. As the plague has so often visited that country, one might reasonably have expected among the natives some vestiges of unbiassed observation, and attempts at least towards a proper method of cure; but, so far as I have hitherto been able to discover, no traces of any thing satisfactory are to be met with among them. The Turks have less faith in medicine for the cure of this disease than of any other, believing it to be a curse inflicted by God Almighty for the sins of the people; and as the chief of those who practise physic are either Christians or Jews, and not so strongly prepossessed with the doctrine of predestination, consequently afraid of catching the distemper, they rather endeavour to confirm the Turks in their false notions, lest they should be forced to visit the sick. Hence it follows, that the greatest part of those who are seized with the plague, either are left to struggle with the violence of the disorder without any assistance, or must submit to the direction of the meanest and most ignorant of mankind. The practice which seems to prevail most generally amongst them, is to bleed all who apply to them, and in every stage of the disease; after which they endeavour to promote sweat by a few grains of bezoar, in the simple distilled water of scorzonera; which is the medicine they chiefly confide in, such is the slender acquaintance they have yet acquired in the materia medica.

From the most impartial and attentive observation I could make, it seemed to me, that very plentiful bleeding at the first appearance of the disease was of great service; but after the first day was always prejudicial.

Vomiting was also of the utmost consequence at the beginning: warm water was commonly sufficient to procure it, as the sick had generally a propensity to this discharge. If a stimulus was required, a small dose of ipecacuanha or sal vitrioli was all that was necessary for most patients.

Though purging with the violent cathartics is justly condemned; yet an emollient glyster, or even a gentle laxative with manna and crem. tartar. when the patient was costive, and the head much affected, was not only safe, but often of great service; and, when the symptoms were not violent, I have frequently given a gentle purge of infus. sennæ, mann. & crem. tartar. the second day of the disease with success. It may appear strange; but it is a fact confirmed to me by many instances, that a purgative of this kind, given after the critical sweat, was the most effectual means to bring the buboes to suppuration.

The natural crisis of the disease was always by sweat; and, when the same evacuation could be procured by art, it was also of service; but there were two great inconveniences attending attempts of this kind on the first day. One was, that the common medicines in the usual doses for this purpose, if they failed of procuring the desired diaphoresis, threw the patient into a flame, and greatly augmented all the symptoms: the other inconvenience was, that though we succeeded in raising a sweat, it was requisite to continue it a much longer time than most of the people in that country could be persuaded to endure; and, if checked, it was of bad consequence, either increasing all the symptoms, or, what was often the case, bringing on a diarrhœa; which though at first it seemed to relieve, yet generally proved fatal in the end.

The cordial and diaphoretic medicines found to be most efficacious were, Rad. contrayerv. Valerian. sylvest. Croc. Anglic. Pulv. contrayerv. comp. Pharm. Edin. and Theriac. Androm. or Diascord. when a diarrhœa attended. Anodynes also greatly assisted the other medicines in their operations; but those of the gentler kind, as syr. diacod. seemed to agree better with the sick than opium.

I made an attempt to try the effects of the cortex in this distemper; but a popular clamour being raised against that medicine, I thought it most prudent to desist, as I was convinced that my youth, and the short time I had then resided in the place, would render any efforts I could make to get the better of it ineffectual. No fair trial was made of the rad. serpentar. Virgin. because few of the natives would take it on account of its bitterness: for whoever would obtain a ready compliance with his orders in that country, must as seldom as possible offend their palates with unpleasant remedies; because whatever may be the consequence to themselves, they will often chuse to incur distant, though great risks, rather than submit to present inconveniences. Small doses repeated every four hours, was the most effectual method of giving these medicines, and plenty of diluent liquors, acidulated with spirit of vitriol, not only assisted in promoting a diaphoresis, but was of the utmost consequence in moderating the fever, which the cordials and diaphoretics were otherwise apt to increase.

Nitrous medicines in this disease neither were attended with their usual success in allaying heat, nor could the sick in general bear the common doses without a sensible increase of languor and dejection, or danger of bringing on a diarrhœa.

The following method of treating the sick I found the most successful upon repeated trials.

As soon as the patient was seized, from 10 to 20 ounces of blood, according to the present condition of the sick, or violence of the symptoms, were ordered to be taken from the arm. Seldom more than a pound however was taken from any; that being a quantity greatly exceeding what they usually lose at once in any disease.

After bleeding, if the nausea was considerable, they were ordered to drink plentifully of warm water, (which was presently brought up again, and with it a quantity of bile), and this operation to be repeated several times. If the nausea was not sufficient, which was but seldom the case, a small dose of rad. ipecacuan. or sal. vitriol. was given to promote the vomiting. It appeared from experience of such consequence that those evacuations should be made early, that most of my acquaintance had previous directions to set about them immediately, in case any person should be infected in their family.

A gentle anodyne was given after vomiting, or, if that did not settle their stomachs, Riverius’s saline draught, with an ounce of diacodium, or 15 drops of laudanum.

These evacuations being premised, small doses of the cordial and diaphoretic medicines, above mentioned, joined with a very small proportion of nitr. stibiat. were given every four hours; and the sick were encouraged to drink liberally of a decoction of scorzonera roots and barley, or even of spring water, but always tepid, if they could be persuaded to drink it so, and acidulated with as much sp. vitrioli, as to make it agreeable. A certain proportion of this spirit, with syrup of violets, made it more grateful both to the eye and the palate, and was no small inducement to them to drink the necessary quantity.

In the winter, the sick were ordered to be removed into a larger and more airy room, than they were accustomed to sleep in at that season; and the air to be both warmed and corrected by a moderate fire. In the summer, all the doors and windows were allowed to be opened, excepting that which was immediately opposite to the patient’s bed; and many of them would not even bear that restriction, but would have all open in the day time, and often in the night lay upon the house top. Their covering was the same as in health.

A moderate cordial of some of the simple waters, with a little Tinct. croci, Tinct. Valerian, sylv. Confect. alkerm. well acidulated with sp. vitrioli, and commonly sweetened with syrup of white poppies, was allowed them when faint or uneasy, and they expressed great satisfaction upon taking this mixture. For children, this alone, with plenty of acidulated liquors, was what I chiefly used, and with good success.

When the sick could be persuaded to submit to the above regimen, a sweat often broke out the second or beginning of the third day, when they were covered up, and the sweat was encouraged so long as they could bear it.

Whether it proceeded from the carelessness of the attendants, in giving way to the impatience of the sick, and so not encouraging the sweat so long as it ought to have been, or from the nature of the disease, I know not, but certain it is, that this first sweat, particularly if it happened on the second day, though it greatly relieved the patient, yet did not entirely carry off the fever. A continuance of the same medicines, in somewhat larger doses, generally enabled nature to throw off every subsequent exacerbation by a plentiful sweat, till a compleat crisis was obtained.

When the sweat was sufficient, and had greatly mitigated the symptoms, notwithstanding some degree of fever still remained, a mild cathartic was given the next morning, the other medicines were continued during its operation, and an anodyne was ordered early in the evening.

When an encrease of the symptoms seemed to be the consequence of a sudden sinking of the buboes, which sometimes happened on the second or third day, a blister applied just below the bubo was of service.

Upon the first appearance of a coma, or debility in the tongue, a blister was applied to the head, and to the other usual parts, as necessity required. Some patients, who had been deemed past recovery, having struggled through the disease, and apparently by the use of blisters, at length brought them into credit, and induced the natives to submit, with less reluctance, to a practice which they would otherwise have abhorred. Stimulating cataplasms of one part garlic, and two parts crum of bread, with the addition of a little vinegar, applied to the soles of the feet, were of great service in this case; and if the patient was costive, emollient laxative glysters were injected. The dose of the alexipharmics was encreased, and diluting acidulated liquors given often in small quantities.

Suppurating cataplasms were sometimes applied to the buboes, but as they were kept on with difficulty, the Empl. Diachyl. cum Gum. was more generally used; and when a stimulus was required, a few cantharides, or a little euphorbium was added. In most of the sick, they were left to open of themselves, on account of the dread the natives have of the lancet or caustic, and the want sometimes of proper persons to apply them: and indeed, by what I observed, none suffered from the long delay in opening them, farther than the usual inconveniences attending other tumors thus left to themselves; and they never required any method different from the common to heal them.

When the buboes mortified, they were treated as the carbuncles; and though, upon the separation of the mortified parts, the ulcers were often large and deep, yet they healed very soon.

Sometimes the carbuncles were scarified, but oftener not: the dressings that agreed best with them, were Ung. Basilic. Flav. with a small proportion of Ol. Terebinthinæ, and sometimes Tinct. Myrrh. applying over all an emollient cataplasm; and after the indurated black parts were separated, they soon healed, without any particular accidents.

Next to the protection of Divine Providence, the means that the Europeans at Aleppo depend upon for their preservation during the time of the plague, are either retiring from the city, or shutting up at home, in such a manner as effectually to prevent all communication with either persons or goods capable of conveying the infection. The first method was formerly the common practice of the English, when the nature of their business was such as allowed them to retire early in the season, and their number so considerable, that they encamped upon the Bylan mountains, without any danger from the Curds⁠[497]: so that, by keeping the person employed to go to the village to market at a proper distance, and using the necessary precautions in receiving provisions, &c. if the plague should be there, they were quite secure, and had at the same time an opportunity of amusing themselves by riding, shooting, and other country-recreations, and enjoying the cool air and verdure among those mountains; a pleasure at other times surpassing most others in that warm climate, though now barely sufficient to allay the melancholy reflexions so natural on this occasion. At present, however, as the nature of their business is such as prevents their retiring early, their number small, and the Curds more troublesome than heretofore, so that they cannot well encamp upon the mountains, a retirement from the place is attended with considerable inconveniences; for it is next to impossible, when the season is advanced, but one or other of the servants who must unavoidably be hired to carry baggage, &c. on the road, (for all sorts of necessaries must be carried along with one in this country, even provisions and bedding) either has the distemper in his own family, or at best has daily intercourse with numbers in that condition. And though, by carrying tents, the danger of sleeping in an infected village may be avoided; yet it may nevertheless happen to be at the very place where the retirement has been intended, it being, I believe, very rare that it rages at Aleppo without likewise affecting most other places within a few days journey round it, and full as rare that the people will confess its being amongst them.

Shutting up at home is attended with none of these inconveniences, and, when conducted in the proper manner, its salutary effects are found by experience to be such, that persons in this situation remain without danger in the middle of a city where the plague rages with the greatest violence; a circumstance so evident, that all the Christians and Jews who can afford it follow the example of the Franks in this respect. And though the Turks cannot, on account of their religion, do it avowedly⁠[498]; yet such of them as have been any ways conversant with the Europeans, and are not mere bigots, either keep at home, on pretence of being indisposed, or retire to some garden for change of air, if their affairs will not admit of their going abroad to some distant place, where they imagine the disease does not reach. A journey to Mecca, on pretence of devotion, is their most common expedient.

It having been mentioned, that the Europeans are not so subject to the epidemic diseases of that country as the natives, it is necessary to inform the reader, that experience confirms their being liable to the plague, some of them having generally been infected when the distemper raged in the place, either before they shut up, or after they came abroad. It may also be proper to add, that their servants, who are natives, and are a much greater number than the Europeans, enjoy the same benefit from shutting up.

While the number of the sick is inconsiderable, as is commonly the case during the winter, the Europeans content themselves with using the following precautions, viz. to have no more intercourse with the natives than what they are necessarily obliged to by their business; to keep their servants at home, if possible, which however is not easily accomplished; not to make use of a common barber, if it can be avoided; and to carefully enquire concerning the health of those who wash their linen, chusing for that office such as are not employed by the natives. This does not however prevent their visiting each other, and enjoying their usual recreations abroad in the country.

During this time it is usual for the natives to make use of all the arguments in their power to persuade the Europeans, that either the whole of the reports concerning the distemper are false, or, when this cannot be accomplished, that the little which had appeared is now quite over; which last pretence, however untrue, or indeed vain to hope for, many are willing to be deceived by, till either some European, their dependants, or others under their immediate inspection, being infected, causes a general consternation, and occasions their shutting up with all expedition. Such of the Franks as act with the most prudence not only use the precautions already mentioned, but also make the proper dispositions for shutting up, so as to be ready to do it upon the first visible increase of the distemper, which they look upon as unavoidable in the spring, and lay their account with being confined till July. The progress of the disease is so quick, that the difference between such as shut up early, and those that brave it out to the last, is seldom more than a few days.

As it would be disagreeable for a single person to be confined by himself, they generally divide into small parties, and shut up in such houses as are most spacious and convenient. It is an advantage to be in one that has no communication, by way of the terrace, with any other; for though when the distemper is not frequent, going over the house-top to visit such other of their friends as are also shut up, is sometimes practised, yet, when the plague rages much, it is reckoned safest not to trust to any one, lest they should be guilty of irregularities; and when such communications are open, it is impossible to be sure of keeping the servants in order. Provision is made, as has been already mentioned, for a confinement till July; for, after the doors are once shut, nothing is admitted but letters, and what is absolutely necessary for the table, and these too with the precautions which shall be mentioned. One thing, though it may seem trifling, conduces not a little to their ease, and that is, to have one person that can shave; for a long beard is extremely disagreeable in hot weather. Cats, being great ramblers, are looked upon as dangerous animals at such times; and therefore the Europeans either confine theirs at home, or send them to be taken care of by some of their dependants, in a distant part of the city; and no quarter is shewn to any strange cats that shall happen to be seen within their bounds, but such are immediately shot, and thrown into the street by the help of a pair of tongs.

This disposition being made, and the distemper so far advanced that it is thought imprudent to go abroad any longer, the street-door is locked, and, for the greater security, sealed up; and, if there are any windows, or passages of any kind below stairs, through which the servants might possibly receive any thing from without, they are secured also; even the small hole cut in the door through which the water, for the service of the family is conveyed, has a lock and key, so that it is never opened, but when the Sacka (or water-carrier) comes, and then usually one of the Europeans attends; for these water-carriers, being of the same race with the servants, are the most likely to bring them such things as they may desire. A window above stairs is next allotted, through which the necessary provisions, &c. are to be received; and such an one is usually chose as looks into the most private part of the Khane, or street, to avoid drawing together a concourse of idle passengers, which the novelty of the sight would naturally do: but the more this window is exposed to the eyes of the family within, the better it is for preventing irregularities from servants. The necessary apparatus for this window, consists of a rope, which, with the addition of a few yards of an iron chain, and a hook to the lower end, reaches within two or three feet of the ground; an iron or copper pail, which is hung on the hook of the chain, and let down for conveying things to or from a person below, whom they hire on purpose, and is all day in waiting to bring the necessary provisions, carry messages, &c. A quantity of vinegar, a pail of water, a long reed split at one end for conveying letters, and some brimstone to smoke them with, as also a pair of tongs for taking out the provisions. Meat, poultry (which last must be well picked) and every thing else that will allow of it, is dipped in water, mixed with a small proportion of vinegar, and hung up some little time before it is touched. Bread, which will admit of nothing of that nature, is exposed to the air for some hours before it is handled; and letters or other papers, are sprinkled with vinegar and smoked with sulphur; for which purpose, if it was a more general practice to have a box so contrived, as to impregnate the papers more throughly with the fumes of that mineral, it might perhaps be more safe. Some few, in place of sulphur, smoke their letters with the following, which is what is commonly used in the Lazaretto at Malta⁠[499].

The impatience under confinement, with the melancholy occasion of it, the apprehension that some of the company may have received the infection, though it may not as yet have appeared, the singing before the corps in the day, and the shrieking of the women for the dead, both day and night, all contribute to make the first week’s confinement very disagreeable. Custom, however, soon renders those things so familiar, as to lose much of their force; and the company falling into various ways of amusing themselves, in a very little time, though they cannot help feeling for the unhappy sufferers, yet the only uneasiness most people express, on their own account, is from a want of liberty to go abroad; this want, they endeavour to supply by an evening’s walk upon the house-top, from whence as many of the European houses are but at a small distance from each other, they enjoy the conversation of some of their friends, though too far off for secrecy.

Though the shutting up of the Europeans and many Christians, as also the retirement of some Turks, as has been already mentioned, in a great measure puts a stop to trade while the distemper rages violently, yet the markets are all open, and as great plenty of provisions, and every thing else to be had as at any other time: the streets too, though not so much crouded, yet are still pretty full of people; the generality of the Turks visit the sick, and attend their funerals, in the same manner as at other times; and though the Christians and Jews do not, except on very emergent occasions, visit their sick friends, and very few besides a priest, and those who carry the bier, attend the funerals, yet there is no want of servants and relations, to do the necessary offices about the sick, the same as if it was any common distemper.

As soon as the number of the sick begins to decline, the same causes that prevented some from shutting up early, together with a natural desire that all have for liberty, generally induces several to get abroad too soon. The difference between the first and the last, in opening as in shutting up, seldom exceeds a few days; and yet this, however, makes a very considerable one in the risk, for both the increase and decrease of the distemper, are very sudden.

The first step upon opening, is usually to ride abroad; and though it is at a season wherein there is not the least verdure, except in the gardens, yet, after so long a confinement, the sight of the open country affords no small pleasure. Care is taken, while the gentlemen are abroad, to prevent the servants in the family from having intercourse with any body; and, after the doors are opened, the same precautions are used for a week or two, as before shutting up.

The above precautions, are all that the Europeans commonly practise; but by myself, and such of the natives, who being obliged to be amongst the sick, asked my advice, the following rules were observed, which, though nothing new, I have taken the liberty to insert; as they have hitherto proved successful, and many of them may be useful to the Europeans, while their business obliges them to go abroad: to this, however, it is but justice to add, that the trials were not many, and that there were some few persons who were equally in the way of the disease, without being infected, though they used no precautions at all. The rules laid down were these:

Never to go abroad in the morning fasting.

To avoid, as much as possible, all excesses, violent passions, or large evacuations, but not to live more abstemiously, either with regard to eating or drinking, than usual: perhaps one or two glasses of good wine more than customary, might rather be beneficial than otherwise; and a plentiful use of acid liquors, such as a very weak sour punch in the summer, is not only agreeable but useful.

While in the sick person’s chamber, passing a corpse, or near any thing infected, not to swallow the saliva, and to breathe, in the natural way through a handkerchief or spunge, wetted either with plain vinegar, or such as had rue infused in it.

When examining the pulse, and other circumstances that require being very nigh the sick, to hold the breath as much as possible, and, as soon as retired from the chamber, to wash the mouth, face, and hands with vinegar.

Upon returning home, to put on other cloaths, and expose such as had been wore to the air; perhaps it might also be of service to smoke them with sulphur, but this was not practised. At such times also, it is proper once more to wash the mouth, face, and hands with vinegar.

As to medicine, a large dose of the extract of the bark, with a draught of wine and water, well acidulated with elixir of vitriol, taken twice a day, were all that were used. For such as can take the bark in a liquid form, a strong decoction of it may answer the purpose as effectually.

A Cutaneous disease, thought by some to be peculiar to this place, has acquired the name of Il mal d’Aleppo, or Aleppo evil, among the Europeans. The natives call it Habt il senne, or Botch of a year, from the supposed time of its duration. In Turkish, Haleb Choban, or the Aleppo ulcer. This disease is not, however, peculiar to this place, being almost as common at Antab, and all the other villages on the banks of the rivers Sejour and Coick, as at this place; which favours the opinion of its being occasioned by the water.

The natives reckon but two species of this disorder, and distinguish them by the names of male and female; but there is a third kind of cutaneous distemper, which, though it is commonly ascribed to the bite or sting of a common millepedes, or wood-louse, seems to me to be altogether of the same nature, though milder in degree.

What they call the male distemper, makes its appearance in the form of a small, red, hard tubercle or pimple, which commonly passes some weeks unregarded, as it gives no manner of uneasiness: afterwards it begins to encrease, and usually comes to the size of an English sixpence, which, after some months, begins to be scurfy on the top; by degrees the little matter that oozes out of it, forms into a thick crusty scab; which, unless it is picked off, or otherwise disturbed, remains upon it till the parts underneath being healed, it falls off, and leaves but a very small mark. The whole of its duration is seldom above eight months.

What is called the female species begins like the former; but after a month or two it becomes somewhat painful, encreases often to double the extent of the male, discharges a good deal of the ichorous matter from under the scab, and by degrees comes to have the appearance of an indigested scorbutic ulcer, with a livid circle round it; but seems to be no deeper than the tunica cellulosa. In this condition it remains for several months, and is in general about a year from its first appearance before it is cured: but this is not a thing certain, many getting well some months sooner, while others remain several months longer. After it is cicatrised, it leaves an ugly scar, which remains thro’ life, and for many months has a livid colour. When they are not irritated, they seldom give much pain.

The third kind of Mal, which they call the pinch of a millepedes, begins like the two others, but seldom grows larger than about twice the size of a large pin’s head, and never changes its appearance, remaining a small tubercle for many months, without any pain, after which, it usually throws off a few scurfy scales and disappears; but some remain a much longer time.

It affects the natives when they are children, and generally appears in the face, though they also have some on their extremities; for most of them have two, three, or sometimes more, it being rare that they have but one. In strangers, it commonly appears some months after their arrival; and they have them not so frequently on the face as the natives: very few escape having them, but they seldom affect the same person above once; dogs and cats are as subject to the disease as men; it commonly breaks out upon the nose of these creatures.

In respect to the cure, like the tooth-ach, or ague with us, every one pretends to an infallible remedy for them; but the many beautiful faces, daily impaired by the disease, are too evident proofs of their ill success: and in truth, from what I have observed, it is infinitely better to apply nothing, than any of the numberless medicines they make use of.

Of several applications that I made trial of upon myself and some others, I found the mercurial plaister the most efficacious; the prescription was the same as the Emplastrum commune cum mercurio, with a smaller proportion of mercury, and a little larger of Bals. sulphur.

If this was applied at the beginning, it often prevented their making any farther progress; if they had begun to run, it hindered them from increasing so much as they would otherwise have done, and generally cured them before their usual time. This is to be understood of that called the female; for the male, as well as the third kind, seldom require any medicinal application.

The reader, it is hoped, is now no longer a stranger to most of the particulars relating to Aleppo; but I cannot conclude these sheets, without rendering justice to their natural patrons, the gentlemen of the British factory there, who still maintain that excellent character, for which they have been long celebrated, of mitigating the inconveniences that necessarily attend their residence in that city, by the perfect harmony in which they live, and improving every circumstance of advantage by the same social quality, of which, having been so long witness, and in which being so much a partaker, I make no doubt, the public will receive with candor, this testimony which gratitude requires.

FOOTNOTES

INDEX.

ERRATA.