FAYRER, SIR JOSEPH

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 219 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FAT-FLA

FAYRER, SIR JOSEPH , Bart. (1824-1907), English physician, was born at Plymouth on the 6th of December 1824. After studying medicine at Charing Cross

hospital

, London, he was in 1847 appointed medical officer of H.M.S. " Victory," and soon afterwards accompanied the 3rd Lord

Mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

-Edgcumbe on a tour through Europe, in the course of which he saw fighting at Palmero and Rome. Appointed an assistant surgeon in Bengal in 1850, he went through the Burmese campaign of 1852 and was political assistant and Residency surgeon at Lucknow during the Mutiny. From 1859 to 1872 he was professor of surgery at the Medical College of Calcutta, and when the prince of Wales made his tour in India he was appointed to accompany him as physician. Returning from India, he acted as president of the Medical Board of the India office from 1874 to 1895, and in 1896 he was created a baronet. Sir Joseph Fayrer, who became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1877, wrote much on subjects connected with the practice of medicine in India, and was especially known for his studies on the poisonous

snakes

SNAKES

of that country and on the physiological effects produced by their virus (Thanatophidia of India, 1872). In 1900 appeared his Recollections of my Life. He died at Falmouth on the 21st of May 1907.the hills separating the province from the Nile Valley. South-west of the Fayum, and forming part of the mudiria, is the Gharak depression. Another depression, entirely barren, the Wadi Rayan, covering 28o sq. m., lies west of the Gharak. The whole region is below sea-level, and save for the gap mentioned is encircled by the Libyan hills. The lowest part of the province, the north-west end, is occupied by the Birket el Kerun, or Lake of the Horns, whose surface level is 140 ft. below that of the sea. The lake covers about 78 sq. m.
Differing from the typical oasis, whose fertility depends on water obtained from springs, the cultivated land in the Fayum is formed of Nile mud brought down by the Bahr Yusuf. From this channel, 15 M. in length from Lahun, at the entrance of the gap in the hills, to Medina, several canals branch off and by these the province is irrigated, the drainage water flowing into the Birket el Kerun. Over 400 sq. m. of the Fayum is cultivated, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

crops being cereals and

cotton

. The completion of the Assuan dam by ensuring a fuller

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

of water enabled 20,000 acres of land, previously unirrigated and untaxed, to be brought under cultivation in the three years 1903-1905. Three crops are obtained in twenty months. The province is noted for its figs and grapes, the figs being of exceptionally good quality. Olives are also cultivated. Rose trees are very numerous and most of the attar of roses of Egypt is manufactured in the province. The Fayum also possesses an excellent breed of sheep. Lake Kerun abounds in fish, notably the bulli (Nile carp), of which considerable quantities are sent to Cairo.
Medinet el-Fayum (or Medina), the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of the province, is a great agricultural centre, with a population which increased from 26,000 in 1882 to 37,320 in 1907, and has several large bazaars, mosques, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The Bahr Yusuf runs through the town, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over the stream: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and one of two arches over which is built the Kait Bey mosque. Mounds north of the town mark the site of Arsinoe, earlier Crocodilopolis, where was worshipped the sacred crocodile kept in the Lake of

Moeris

MOERIS, AELIUS
MOERIS, LAKE OF

. Besides Medina there are several other towns in the province, among them Senuris and Tomia to the north of Medina and Senaru and Abuksa on the road to the lake, all served by rail-ways. There are also, especially in the neighbourhood of the lake, many ruins of ancient villages and cities. The Fayum is the site of the Lake of

Moeris

MOERIS, AELIUS
MOERIS, LAKE OF

(q.v.) of the ancient Egyptians--a lake of which Birket el Kerun is the shrunken remnant.
See Due Fayum and Lake Moeris, by Major (Sir) R. H. Brown, R.E. (London, 1892), a valuable contribution as to the condition of the province at that date, its connexion with Lake Moeris and its possibilities in the future; The Assuan Reservoir and Lake Moeris (London, 1904), by Sir William Willcockswith text in English, French and Arabica consideration of irrigation possibilities; The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, by H. J. L. Beadnell (Cairo, 1905).

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