Alexandria Gazette

Discoveries in Abyssinia.

M. Rocher d'Hericourt who has lately returned from a voyage in Abyssinia, has brought with him about a score of MSS. in the Ethiopian language, all of vast antiquity and great literary value. They are folio in form, bound in red leather, with the Greek cross and strange ornaments on the covers. In some of them the writing runs right across the page: in others it is in columns; in nearly all it is firm and bold in character. "Some of the MSS. are on history, religion, and science: one is a complete and very curious treatise on the mysteries of eastern astrology; and one, which appears to have been written at the beginning of the 11th century, contains a copy of the Bible, which differs in some respects from the ordinary version. To obtain these treasures, M. d'Hericourt passed a long time in Abyssinia, had to employ daring cunning, persuasion, and force, to go through many extraordinary adventures, and endure many hardships and persecutions. He has, besides, obtained a mass of curious information on the religion, (which it seems is half Jewish, half Christian,) the manners and the government of the singular people who inhabit Abyssinia; has ascertained all that could be learned of their country, of which so little is known; and has collected all the facts calculated to throw light on geology, mineralogy, botany, and other branches of science. But what is more practically important than all is that he has brought with him numerous specimens of a plant, the root of which, reduced to a powder, is a cure for hydrophobia both in men and animals. Of its virtues M. d'Hericourt had practical proof; four dogs and a man having been bitten by a mad dog, were, by application of the remedy, cured of the hydrophobia which ensued: whilst a fifth dog, (bitten at the same time by the same animal,) to which the remedy was not applied, perished in all the agony of that horrible disease. The virtue of the plant, and the manner of preparing it for use were explained to the traveller by a potentate of the country, who assured him that it was there generally used, and never failed. The specimens brought over by M. d'Hericourt have been submitted to the Academy des Sciences, and the committee of that learned body has been appointed to test their efficacy. If, as it is confidently hoped, they have not lost their virtue in this European clime, the world will soon be put in possession of the means of curing one of the most frightful diseases to which flesh is heir, and M. Rocher d'Herricourt will have the glory of having conferred an inestimable blessing on mankind -Paris Correspondent of the Literary Gazette.