A British marine biologist founded the Ghardaqa marine laboratory at Hurgada, in Egypt at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez, in the early 1930s. Because he was obviously a professional man and medical care wasn't always available, the locals often consulted him on health matters, especially in emergency. Egyptians set great value on the prophylactic value of onions and he commented that, on several occasions when called to a severely ill man, he found that they had stuffed segments of onion in every available orifice; his first act would be to remove them from the nose so that the patient could breathe!

Somewhat off-topic, I visited the area on a coastal pollution study some years ago. Standing on an old jetty in Suez Bay, I wondered what was the crackling, powdery material beneath my feet. Our guide explained that the jetty had been used to export camels to Saudi Arabia; the decomposed dry material was old camel skins. It was at that time that I began to worry about anthrax... Tony N-S.





_________________________________________________________________
Worried what your kids see online? Protect them better with MSN 8 http://join.msn.com/?page=features/parental&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=186&DI=1059


Reply via email to