The decline of the fever takes place either by the occurrence of a crisis or sudden termination of the symptoms, often accompanied with some discharge from the body, such as profuse perspiration, copious flow of thick urine, and occasionally diarrhoea, or by a more gradual subsidence of the febrile phenomena, or, as it is technically termed, a lysis. On the other hand, death may result either from hyperpyrexia or from gradual exhaustion, the patient often passing into the typhoid state (a condition of extreme pros tration of the physical powers, with which are associated low delirium and coma, and which is an occasional mode of death in all acute diseases); or the fatal event may occur suddenly from syncope after slight exertion, in which case it is believed to be due to a softened state of the substance of the heart, one of the known accompaniments of fever. Certain well-marked types of fever are recognized, these being determined by the clinical history and peculiar character and sequence of the symptoms.

The term continued fever is applied to those forms in which the febrile temperature persists for a more or less definite period, uninterrupted by any distinct intermission till the crisis is reached. To this type belong simple continued fever or febricula, typhus and typhoid fevers, and the eruptive fevers or exanthemata,-viz., small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever. Relapsing fever is a form of continued fever, the chief characteristic of which is the occurrence in about a week after the crisis of a distinct relapse and repetition of all the symptoms. Occasionally second and third relapses take place.

The term remittent is applied to those forms of fever the course of which is interrupted by a short usually daily diminution of the febrile phenomena, followed by a recurrence of all the symptoms. Such fevers are chiefly met with in tropical climates, but occasionally continued fevers assume this form, particularly in children. The condition known as hectic fever, which occurs in the course of wasting diseases, is markedly remittent in its course.

In intermittent fever or ague there is a distinct periodic subsidence of the symptoms, which, according to its duration, characterizes the variety as quotidian (where the paroxysm recurs in 24 hours), tertian (in 48 hours), quartan (in 72 hours).

Intermittent fevers are most common in the tropics, and are believed to be due to malarial poisoning.

The term malignant is employed to describe forms of fever in which the blood appears to undergo rapid deteriorating changes, sometimes designated blood-poisoning. Yellow fever may be said to belong to this category and the continued fevers, more especially typhus and the exanthemata, occasionally assume a malignant form from the beginning. The chief forms of fever will be found described in detail under separate headings.

With respect to the treatment of the febrile condition in general, it may be remarked that modern therapeutics have furnished several methods of great importance and efficacy. It will be sufficient to refer to two of these, namely, the external application of cold, and the administration of antipyretic remedies or febrifuges. The former of these methods is accomplished by means of baths in which the fever patient is placed, the water being somewhat below the febrile temperature, and gradually cooled down by the addition of cold water till a temperature of from 60°-70° is reached. This process, when continued for only a short time and frequently repeated, has been found to yield most valuable results in many instances of high temperature, both in continued fever and in such febrile ailments as acute rheumatism. The relief to the patient is remarkable, the body rapidly parting with its heat, and the effect usually continues for hours. The explanation suggested by Professor Binz is that " in fever

the vessels of the skin are generally much contracted. The cool water acts as a strong stimulant on them, and causes a somewhat stronger contraction to take place, but this is only of short duration. Relaxation for a longer time is the necessary consequence. The hitherto bloodless and dry skin becomes filled and moist, and thus the irradiation of warmth goes on. The cooler the bath the longer it lasts." Certain drugs possess the power of reducing the heat of fever, and are now largely employed for this purpose. The most important of these is quinine, which, when administered in large doses (gr. x.-xxx.), has a marked effect in lowering the febrile temperature, and, if repeated, of keeping it down. It has been supposed that this effect of quinine is due to its action as an antiseptic upon the poison in the blood giving rise to the fever; but there seems a greater degree of probability in the view that it acts as an antitriptic by retarding those excessive tissue changes with which the development of heat is undoubtedly connected. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that after the administration of quinine the amount of urea discharged from the body is greatly diminished. It is said that quinine acts best at those periods of the day when the febrile temperature is inclined to undergo slight remission. Many other substances are used for their antipyretic action, among which may be mentioned digitalis, aconite, salicin, salicilic acid, &c. Alcohol is strongly recommended by some physicians for this purpose, but while its effect in large doses is no doubt to lower the temperature, its extensive employment in fever is objectionable on many important grounds. (J. O. A.)

FEYDEAU, ERNEST-AIMÉ (1821-1873), a French author, was born in Paris, March 16, 1821. He began his literary career in 1844, by the publication of a volume of poetry of that mediocre quality which in poetry is fatal. Either the partial failure of this literary effort, or his marriage soon afterwards to a daughter of the economist Blanqui, caused him to forsake for a time the vocation of letters, and to devote his ambition to exchange transactions; but the study of archæology gradually supplanted his interest in speculation, and he was finally confirmed in his original choice of a literary profession by the remarkable success which attended the publication, in 1858, of his novel Fanny, a success due chiefly to the cleverness with which it depicted and excused the corrupt manners of a certain portion of French society. Fanny was followed in rapid succession by a series of fictions, in which immorality was gilded with the same alluring glitter, but, wanting the attraction of novelty, they failed to produce such a marked impression as their predecessor; and as their interest depended little on the portrayal of any but the lower traits of character, and chiefly on the description of intrigues, they were read and admired only within a limited circle. Besides his novels Feydeau wrote several plays, none of which, however, attained much popularity; and he is also the author of Histoire générale des usages funèbres et sépultures des peuples anciens, 3 vols., 1857-61; Le Secret du Bonheur (sketches of Algerian life), 2 vols., 1864, English translation, 2 vols., 1867; and L'Allemagne en 1871, Paris, 1872, a clever caricature of German life and manners, but characterized in many places by a somewhat blasé tone, and disfigured here and there by bitterness of feeling. He died at Paris, October 28, 1873.

See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, vol. xiv. and Barbey d'Aurevilly, Les œuvres et les hommes au XIXe siècle.

FEZ, one of the chief cities in the empire of Morocco, into which kingdom it was incorporated in the year 1548. It is situated in 34° 6' 3" N. lat. and 4° 58' 15" W. long., being about 197 miles N.E. of Morocco, 100 miles E. from the Atlantic, and 85 miles S. of the Mediterranean.

The city is beautifully situated on the slopes of a pearshaped valley, through which flows the Wad-el-Jubar (or

for a time the city flourished; but the vices and traditional conservatism of the Moslem religion prevented permanent improvement, so that it gradually sank to the unknown and unimportant position it now occupies.

During the summer the heat is intense, but in winter the climate is excellent. Travellers differ much as to the number of inhabitants. Dr Leared computes them at from 45,000 to 50,000, but without sufficient data. Berbers, Arabs, negroes, and Jews are the principal races. dwelling in the city. The Jews suffer great persecutions and many indignities, but many of them contrive to amass money.

The best method of reaching Fez is from Tangier, the total distance being about 160 miles. The road, though a mere bridle path, is quite practicable for camels and horses. There are numerous towns and villages at suitable distances, which afford convenient halting-places for travellers. Authorities.-Leo Africanus, Barth, Rohlfs, Edmondo de Amicis, Dr Vogel, and Dr Leared. (C. B. N.) FEZZAN (the ancient Phazania, or country of the Garamantes), a country of the Sahara region of North Africa, forming a "kaïmakamlik" of the Ottoman vilayet of Tripoli, extends 390 miles N. to S. from the town of Bonjem, lat. 30° 40′ N., to Bir Omah, on the route from Murzuk to Bornu, in lat. 24° 10′ N.; and 420 miles E. to W. from the Akakus Mountains near Ghat in long. 10° 30′ W. to the village of Wau-Squair in long. 18° 20′ W. Its illdefined limits run from Bonjem, within 50 miles of the Mediterranean on the north, south-westward by the Birel-Hassi to the Akakus range east of Ghat, thence eastward to the Bir Omah south of the village of Tejerri, from that to Wau-Squair or Wau-Namus at its south-eastern corner, and thence northward past Zella to Bonjem, embracing an area of about 156,000 English square miles, or nearly three times the extent of England.

The general form of the country is determined by the ranges of hills called the Jebel-es-Sôda or Black Mountain, and the Haruj-el-Aswad or Black Haruj, which cross it along the parallel of 28° N., forming the northern edge of a broad desert plateau and the water-parting of the Mediterranean drainage slope, and shutting off the northern region from the depressions in which lie the oases of Fezzan proper in the south.

The Jebel-es-Sôda is described by M. Duveyrier as an isolated volcanic mass in the midst of a hammada or bare desert plateau of white limestone. Its length E. to W. is about 170 miles. At a point near the pass by which M. Duveyrier crossed it, a summit reaches a height of 2415 feet; where Rohlfs (Quer durch Afrika, Leipsic, 1874) passed over it between Tripoli and Murzuk he found its height to be 2982 feet. The volcanic mass of the Haruj continues the line of the Sôda in a S.E. direction for about 150 miles, and is crossed obliquely by the caravan routes from Fezzan to Egypt. Where Von Beurmann crossed the Haruj on the route from Zella to Murzuk he estimates its height at 1660 feet. The plateau of which these ranges mark the northern edge appears to be a continuation of the great desert plateau of Tripoli called the Hammada-el-Homra, and to have a general width of about 70 miles; where it is crossed on the western route over the Sôda it is described as shingly broken table-land, scattered over with large sandstone blocks; in the neighbourhood of the Haruj on the east it presents a series of ridges running in different directions 8 to 12 feet above the intermediate land. The wadis or periodically filled rain-channels which drain northward from these heights are for the most part tributaries of the Wadi-Um-el-Cheîl, which is called Wadi Bel where it opens on the coast of the greater Syrtis, and of the Wadi Tamet east of the former.

The southern edge of the plateau behind the Sôda descends to the Wadi-e-Shati running east and west; then follows a latitudinal belt of about 70 miles in average width, occupied by the sand dunes of Edeyen1 which run across the frontier from the north of the Tuareg plateau in the west, and in the east by Serir, the name applied to districts which differ from the hammada or true plateaus, in being less elevated and everywhere covered with coarse gravel or rounded water-worn stones, in contrast to the sharply broken blocks scattered on the higher table-lands. To this follows southward the narrower belt called the Hammada of Murzuk, of inconsiderable elevation, marked out on the north side by the Amsak ridge which falls to the Wadi-el-Gharbi and its continuation the Wadi-e-Sherki at its base, and which descends on the south to the line of Hofra, or slight depressions in which lie the oasis groups of Murzuk, Zuila, and Wau. Along the northern side of the Wadi-e-Sherki and Wadi-el-Gharbi, about 60 miles N.W. of Murzuk, lie the celebrated Trona lakes of Fezzan, which were first described by Dr Vogel. They are situated in a desert of drift sand in which the camels sink up to their bellies; one of them, the Bahr-el-Daud (Dauda "worm "), contains the remarkable shrimp noticed below. In general the surface of Fezzan does not vary greatly in elevation; its numerous wadis do not lie much below the level of the Serir; the height of Murzuk, for example, is estimated by Rohlfs at 1804 feet, or little below the general level of the hammada in the north.

Climate. The average temperature of Murzuk was found by Rohlfs to be 70° F., or 6° lower than that of Ghadames on the borders of western Tripoli. This difference he accounts for by the greater winter cold, for the heat of summer is probably greater here than in Tripoli; and his meteorological tables show such low temperatures as 25° F. at sunrise on the 20th of December, or 23° F. on the 30th of January, the thermometer having fallen below the freezing point 24 times within three months. As in all the rest of the desert, the climate is a very regular one, and is in general healthy, the dryness of the air in summer making the heat more bearable than on the sea coast, where the moisture of the atmosphere hinders evaporation from the skin. Although Fezzan does not lie within the zone of the tropical rains, and scarcely touches the limit of the winter rains supplied by the Mediterranean, it is visited at rare intervals by showers from the south. An almost perpetual blue sky overhangs the desert, and the people of Fezzan are so unaccustomed to and so ill-prepared for wet weather that, as in Tuat and Tidikelt, they pray to be spared from rain. They are not dependent upon it, for water is found almost everywhere at small depths, and little trouble is required to draw it from wells worked by men or camels for the purposes of irrigation; the palm groves, indeed, require no artificial watering, since their roots strike deep enough to reach the water-bearing

stratum.

Products. In the oases and cultivated spots of Fezzan there are generally five grain harvests in the year: in the winter months wheat and barley are sown, and in spring, summer, and autumn the various kinds of durra, especially ksob and gafoli. Ksob, first sown in March, is planted and reaped four times successively, although the last harvest in December does not ripen, so that it is used only as fodder for cattle. From year's end to year's end all kinds of vegetables could be produced, but only a few sorts, such as melons and cucumbers in summer, turnips and tubers in autumn, beans in winter, &c., are grown. Among other cultivated plants are tobacco (small and bad) and cotton. The latter flourishes, is perennial for six or seven years, and gives large pods of moderate length of staple. Olives,

1 "Edeyen" in Temâhag signifies dunes.-Duveyrier.

:

figs, and almonds are the chief fruits, besides the date, which is the great wealth of the land. The number of sorts of date-palm found in the oases is very large in that of Murzuk alone more than 30 varieties are counted, the most esteemed being named the Tillis, Tuati, and Auregh. In all Fezzan the date is the staple food, not only for men, but for camels, horses, and dogs. Even the stones of the fruit are softened and given to the cattle. The huts of the poorer classes are entirely made of date-palm leaves, and the more substantial habitations consist chiefly of the same material. The produce of the tree is small, 100 fullgrown trees yielding only about 40 cwts. of dates, worth about 30s. at Murzuk, and about four times that sum at Tripoli. They may generally be preserved about two

years.

---

Domestic animals include only the camel (in two varieties, the Tebu or Sudan camel and the Arabian, differing very much in size, form, and capabilities), domestic fowls, and pigeons, for the few horses, perhaps 50 in all Fezzan, and the miserable cattle, sheep, and goats imported, scarcely deserve mention. There are no large carnivora in Fezzan; even the hyena and jackal are absent. In the uninhabited oases gazelles and antelopes are occasionally found, but they are by no means abundant. Among birds are sparrows, swallows, ravens, falcons, and vultures; in summer wild pigeons and ducks are numerous, but in winter they seek a warmer climate. There are no remarkable insects or snakes. A species of Artemia or brine shrimp, about a quarter of an inch in length, of a colour resembling the bright hue of the gold fish, is fished for with cotton nets in the Bahr-el-Daud before noticed, and, mixed with dates and kneaded into a paste, which has the taste and smell of salt herring, is considered a luxury by the people of Fezzan. People. The inhabitants of Fezzan are undoubtedly a mixed people, derived from the surrounding Teda and Bornu on the south, Tuareg of the plateaus on the west, Berbers and Arabs from the north. In colour the people vary from black to pure white, but the prevailing hue of skin is a Malay-like yellow, the features and woolly hair being negro. The chief languages in use in Fezzan are, first, the Kanúri or Bornu language, which is spoken by little children before they learn Arabic, and, secondly, Arabic itself. Many understand Targish, the Teda, and Haussa languages. If among such a mixed people there can be said to be any national language, it is that of Bornu, which is most widely understood and spoken. The people of Sokna, north of the Jebel-es-Sôda, have a peculiar Berber dialect which Rohlfs found to be very closely allied to that of Ghadames. The natives of Fezzan are mild and conciliatory. As soon as one has passed the frontier of their country there is no more need to fear robbers; and this is the more remarkable since Tebus, who bear a thievish character in their own country, are very numerous. The men wear a haik or barakan like those of Tripoli, and a fez; short hose, and a large loose shirt called mansaría, with red or yellow slippers, complete their toilet. often sees the large blue or white tobe of Sudan and Bornu, and the litham or shawl-muffler of the Tuareg, wound round the mouth to keep out the blown sand of the desert. The women, who so long as they are young have very plump forms, and who are generally small, are more simply dressed, as a rule, in the barakan, wound round their bodies; they seldom wear shoes, but generally have sandals made of palm leaf. Like the Arab women they load arms and legs with heavy metal rings, which are of silver among the more wealthy; a single one of these rings sometimes weighs a French pound. The hair, thickly greased with butter, soon catching the dust, which forms a crust over it, is done up in numberless little plaits round the head, in the same fashion as in Bornu and Haussa. Little children run

Yet one

about naked until they attain the age of puberty, which comes very early, for mothers of ten or twelve years of age are not uncommon. Morality is at a very low stage, and the Fezzanians live a careless and happy life every evening the sounds of music and dancing are heard.

The greater number live in huts of palm leaves, which are set up in the simplest manner; sometimes there is a small outer hut, which is plastered outside with mud, and serves as a winter dwelling; the two are then surrounded by a little palm fence. Towns, like the capital Murzuk, are either built of stone or of lumps of earth, as these may be convenient to the site, but beyond the town wall nothing is to be seen but palm huts.

The houses are generally one-floored, and have one or two rooms; sometimes there is a little courtyard; all are windowless, and have only a low doorway. Dates, as has been already noticed, form the staple food, and camels' flesh is only eaten in the towns. In Murzuk, on an average, three camels are slaughtered every day, with one sheep and one goat, which serve for the whole population without and within the walls of about 8000.

With regard to the numbers of the population of Fezzan the estimates of various travellers, in the absence of any trustworthy data, are widely different. Hornemann gives 70,000 to 75,000, Richardson only 26,000, Vogel 54,000. Rohlfs, who visited Fezzan at a prosperous period in 1865, believes the number 200,000 to be a moderate estimate; but Nachtigal, in 1870, thinks the whole population cannot exceed 40,000.

Government.-Fezzan is governed by a kaïmakam or lieutenant-governor, under the governor of the vilayet, province, or regency of Tripoli. At the time of Rohlfs's visit, the twelve mudirates or districts into which it had formerly been divided had been reduced to seven, but the Government was on the point of restoring the twelve districts, and of marking out their limits more distinctly. These districts are those of Bonjem, Sokna, Shati, Temenhint, Sebba, Wadi Sherki, Wadi Gharbi, Hofra, Sherguîa, Zella, Rhodua, and Gatron. All the mudirs are appointed by the kaïmakam of Fezzan, and deposed by him, if he should see fit, without reference to the mushir of Tripoli. The government is like that of the other Turkish provinces, practically absolute-for the will of the kaimakam or the mudir is lawalthough in form constitutional, since a mijelis or council, in most cases only imaginary, is supposed to have a voice in the legislature.

Although the inhabited parts of Fezzan are naturally rich and fertile, the Turkish Government shows little skill in taking advantage of its resources. Under the most favourable circumstances the direct revenue of the country amounts to about 800,000 piastres, or about £72,000. Besides this, however, the Government receives a large sum from the sale of dates. Round Murzuk alone the number of palm trees belonging to the Government is reckoned by Rohlfs at a million. The direct receipts serve to salary the officials, including the kaïmakam and the troops, who, however, are not very regularly paid. Except it may be a present of slaves or other articles sent by the kaïmakam, not a farthing passes to Tripoli or Constantinople. On the contrary, all clothing, arms, even provisions, such as rice, sugar, and coffee for the soldiers, come from Tripoli or Stamboul. At the time of M. Duveyrier's visit the garrison of Murzuk consisted of 250 men of the regular Ottoman army (redîf), nearly all natives of Fezzan or negroes. At a later date Rohlfs found a garrison of 500 men.

Trade. The commerce of Fezzan is unimportant, and has never been great. The country serves as a depot or middle station between Bornu and its surrounding negro states in the south and Tripoli and Egypt in the north, the caravan

IX. 17