The great military surgeon Larrey served during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, where he was the first to observe the contagiousness of trachoma shortly after the successful invasion in 1798. The disease spread to Europe under the name of “military ophthalmia” or “Egyptian ophthalmia”. This pamphlet was printed at Napoleon's press in Cairo, the first printing press established in Egypt. Reprinted in Larrey’s, Rélation historique et chirurgicale de I’expedition de l'Armée d’Orient, Paris, 1803.