'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎56] (189/458)

5G
COMMANDER F. JONES.
exhibiting in many cases a fatal type, assail, with few exceptions, every
man, woman and child in the Pashalik, from Samara to the Persian
Gulf. Basreh and the lower country within the influence of the humid
air of the sea, is at these times peculiarly fatal—but to the Norths
owing to a higher soil and a drier atmosphere accelerating evaporation-,
the period of its malignity is short and decreases monthly in its ravages.
^-Relapses occur as regular as the spring tides on a sea coast with the
full and change of the Moon in almost all cases.
The effects however, may be imagined on a population composed
principally of poor, without medicine of any sort, and to this chiefly
must be ascribed in my opinion, the annual decrease of the Myriads
that formerly peopled the fertile plains, for these inundations have oc
curred more or less from time immemorial. History, indeed, furnishei
us with the ravages made by these floods,* even in periods when a well
regulated Government managed to keep the substantial “bunds” neces
sary to the country in constant repair ; —can it then surprise us, if the
imbecile measures that have been grudgingly adopted since the modem
Persian and the Osmanli idler got possession of the soil, have failed in
effect, or have tended still further to deteriorate the jewel that fell to
their share, during periods of universal anarchy and confusion ? The
wonder, indeed, is that it still remains intact however tottering—amid the
visitations of Pashas and disease. For the former their is no remedy,
1 believe, as long as the Turk and the constitution of Turkey remain
the same ; the “ leopard cannot change his spots” nor the Turk divest
himself of his character alike remarkable for avarice and pride. The
latter would however soon vanish under a satrap of a well ordered em
pire, for the climate, when uncontaminated with Malaria, is naturally
perhaps the finest in the world, and in this I speak from a long experi
ence. The fevers, indeed, as they are, readily yield to febrile remedies
and the precaution of taking quinine, a couple of days previous to the
coming on of the lunar changes, in general prevents a relapse. Even
~
* All historians dwell more or less on the ravages made by the neglect of the dikes, and on
the Marshes existing even in the vicinity of the capitals from a very early time. In some cases
these offered material obstacles to the invader from the difficulty of crossing them with troops
and heavy engines of war. In others, their pestilent nature lent it*s aid in thinning the ranks
of the enemy, while at the same time, it created sickness though in a less degree to the assailed
for they must be supposed, to have been partially inured to its effects. See Yakut in Majm—
al—Buldan on the Katuls, Nahtwan and other canals. Zosimus corps Historic—Book III in
his description of Julian’s March against Ctesiphon—and Mastidi—Sprenger’s translation Vol. I
page 254 ; 255, m particular.