The Modern Traveller [by J Conder]

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heart towards the head and breast; whence that hemorrhage at the nose and mouth which happens after death. This wind is especially fatal to persons of a plethoric habit, and those in whom fatigue has destroyed the tone of the muscles and the vessels....
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: disordered, and the whole mass of blood driven by the heart towards the head and breast; whence that hemorrhage at the nose and mouth which happens after death. This wind is especially fatal to persons of a plethoric habit, and those in whom fatigue has destroyed the tone of the muscles and the vessels. The corpse remains a long time warm, swells, turns blue, and is easily separated; all which are signs of that putrid fermentation which takes place in animal bodies when the humours become stagnant. These accidents are to be avoided by stopping the nose and mouth with handkerchiefs. An efficacious method likewise is that practised by the camels, who bury their noses in the sand, and keep them there till the squall is over. Another quality of this wind is its extreme aridity; which is such, that water sprinkled on the floor, evaporates in a few minutes. By this extreme dryness, it withers and strips all the plants; and by exhaling too suddenly the emanations from animal bodies, crisps the skin, closes the pores, and causes that feverish heat which is the invariable effect of suppressed perspiration. lu the most arid tracts near the sea, the dews are singularly copious, notwithstanding which, the natives sleep in the open air; and Niebuhr says, he never slept more soundly than where he found his bed all wet with dew in the morning. In some places, however, this practice is dangerous. NATURAL HISTORY. There are some groves or thickets on the mountains of Arabia, says M. Malte Brun, but no forests, properly so called, are to be found. Itinay be doubted whether our knowledge of the country is sufficiently complete to justify this statement. Niebuhr speaks of forests in the south of Arabia, which abound with thousands of monkeys without tails. The country is rich, h...