In complying with the orders of government in India, I have sincere pleasure in being able, from original documents, to present them with a correct account of the diseases and mortality which occurred in their army during the late expedition to Egypt. From the period of the first sailing of the expedition, and my appointment to the medical superintendance of it, I retained both the reports of the different medical gentlemen employed in it, and my own memorandums written on the spot. During the period in which Dr Shapter acted, and until I was re-appointed, I likewise kept states of the sick and mortality of the army, and thereafter, till the return and landing of every corps of the army at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, or at Ceylon.

The India government has ever been peculiarly anxious about every thing that related to the health of their troops, zealous in collecting any fact and circumstance touching the causes of diseases or the means of obviating them, and most liberal in every thing that regarded the health of the sick soldier.

During an uncommonly long voyage, in a march over extensive deserts, and in a country and climate described as the most inimical to the human race, the Indian army enjoyed a considerable degree of health, and suffered but a small mortality. The causes of this I shall attempt to develope: the investigation may be useful.

The prevention of disease is usually the province, and is mostly in the power, of the military officer; the cure lies with the medical: in the expedition to Egypt very much was done by both.

The medical officers deserve my grateful thanks, and I readily acknowledge my obligations to them. For every assistance in their power, I am under not fewer obligations to the military officers. In no army, perhaps, was the health of every soldier in it more the care of every officer, from the general downwards, than in the Indian army.

It would be doing violence to my feelings not to mention how much my duty was abridged by having such a commander-in-chief as General Baird. His military abilities are well known. His extreme attention to every thing which regarded the health and comfort of the soldier, I must mention, was a principal cause of the great degree of health enjoyed by the army.

To Brigadier-General Beresford the army owes very much likewise. It is not my business to say how much all were indebted to the man, who, under circumstances the most discouraging, led the advance over the desert. In my official capacity I cannot but notice how much the British army, as well as that from India, were indebted to him, as President of the Board of Health, and as Commandant of Alexandria. The excellent police established by him gave security to the army as well as to the inhabitants; and, more than any other circumstance, tended to the exclusion of the plague from Alexandria.

The route which we took from India to Egypt is remarkable for having been that by which, in the earliest ages, the commerce of Asia, its spices, its gums, its perfumes, and all the luxuries of the East, were conveyed to Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Rome, Marseilles, and in a word to all the coasts of the Mediterranean, from Egypt, a country rendered extremely interesting by various recollections.—The situation of the army from India has accordingly excited no common share of interest.

It penetrated Egypt by a route over the desert of Thebes, a route unattempted by any army for perhaps two or three thousand years. Independently of late circumstances, Egypt and Arabia peculiarly interest every man of science, and more particularly medical men, from the occurrence of the plague, and the ophthalmia, or the disorder of the eyes, in Egypt.

On one account the situation of the Indian army in Egypt is not a little curious. It consisted of about eight thousand men; of which number about one-half were natives of India, and the other half Europeans. We have often seen the changes effected on a European habit by a removal to a tropical or to a warm climate, but not, till now, the changes in the constitution of an Asiatic army brought to a cold climate: for such were the bleak shores of the Mediterranean to the feeble Indian.

The following Sketches I have divided into three parts. The first gives the medical history, or rather the journal, of the expedition: in the second, after attempting to assign the causes of the diseases which prevailed, some modes of prevention are offered: and in the third there is some account of the diseases.

The first division of the army intended for the expedition to Egypt, under Colonel Murray, sailed from Bombay in January, 1801. Their voyage was rather a tedious one, and the small-pox and a remittent fever broke out among them. They touched for refreshments at Mocha and at Jedda, and on the 16th May, 1801, came to anchor in Kossier-bay; the prevailing winds in the Red Sea, at this time, rendering it impossible to get so far up as Suez.

The second division of troops, (originally intended for another service,) under Colonel Beresford, sailed from Point de Galle, in Ceylon, on the 19th February; and on the 19th May disembarked at Kossier.

The last division, under Colonel Ramsay, sailed from TrincomalÉe, in Ceylon. They were later of arriving at Kossier, and were not able to cross the desert before July.

At Kossier there is a fort and a town, if they deserve the name. They are built of mud, and the Arabs inhabit them only at the season when caravans arrive with the pilgrims for Mecca, and with corn for that and the other ports on the opposite Arabian coast.

Like every other place described by Mr Bruce, that we have seen, we found Kossier most accurately laid down by that traveller in lat. 26° 7, and long. 34. 04.

Kossier is situated on the western coast of the Red Sea. Here, vessels for the expedition were daily arriving, and the troops in general landed in a very healthy condition. In one column of an annexed table, intended to show the diseases and mortality of the army, will be seen the strength of the different corps employed in that service.

JUNE, 1801.

At the beginning of this month we were in camp near the village of Kossier. Soon after the arrival of the troops at Kossier, all were attacked with a diarrhoea, occasioned by the water, which contained much sulphate of magnesia. At first it greatly debilitated the men; but, as they became used to it, the water ceased to affect the bowels. On the whole it appeared to have produced salutary effects, and the army was, for some time, uncommonly healthy.

On the 19th, the 88th, with two companies of the 80th regiment, under the command of Colonel Beresford, as the advance of the army, commenced the march across the desert. Having the digging of wells and other duties to perform, the advance did not reach the banks of the Nile until the next month. The rest of the army marched on the following days, the marches being always performed by night; and the army, with a very inconsiderable loss, reached the banks of the Nile in a very healthy state. The course which we took was nearly that travelled by Mr Bruce. For a considerable way after we left Kossier, the road had the strongest resemblance to the bed of a river. As we advanced from Kossier, the water became daily less salt, and less bitter. At Le Gita, and at Bir Amber, the two stations nearest to GhennÉ, it was not much complained of.

The winds in Kossier camp, from nine to twelve o’clock, generally blew from the N. W. accompanied with torrents of sand.

On the march, a very hot suffocating wind from the W. set in about ten and continued till three o’clock. The thermometer at Kossier could not be attended to.

On the 29th, at Le Gita, in my tent, at three P. M. the mercury stood at 114°. In the soldiers tents it could not have been less than 118°. At six o’clock in the morning, in a well three feet deep, it was at 69°; and, after taking it out, it fell to 63°: but evaporation must have had a share in the reduction. In other places, on the march, the degree of heat must have been higher. Le Gita is not a situation favourable to the centration of heat: it is situated in a large open plain of many miles extent.

There was but little sickness in this month, and yet almost every exciting cause existed. The heat was intense. In the currents of dust, much of it went into the stomach and lungs, and occasioned nausea, which was likewise occasioned by the destructive hot wind. To this the Arabs and even the camels always turn their backs. The men were frequently exercised, and the duties of fatigue in India, usually done by black natives, were performed at Kossier by the soldiers. The fatigue on the march has perhaps never been exceeded in any army. Diarrhoea, and a few cases of ophthalmia, and nyctalopia, were the only diseases in the army. The native corps from Bombay were recovering from a fever, with which they landed. These corps were the last that crossed the desert.

JULY.

During almost the whole of this month, the army was encamped on the banks of the Nile, which now began to overflow its banks, near GhennÉ. On the opposite bank are the magnificent ruins of Tentyra, or Dendira, and the fine temple of Isis. The situation of the army near GhennÉ was very healthy. There was excellent water, and an abundant market of vegetables, of fruit, and of the best provisions. We prepared to move, and detachments of the army went up to Thebes, Luxor, and to the cataracts, to press all the boats. About the end of the month, the army began to move to Lower Egypt. The 10th regiment marched to GirgÉ, the capital of Upper Egypt, sixty miles below GhennÉ.

On the 27th and following days, the rest of the army was embarked in boats. The wind at GhennÉ was not regular from any quarter, and sand was blown from all quarters, particularly at the time of the springs. The thermometer had a wide range at GhennÉ. In my marquee from 71° to 108°.

On the 20th, it rose to 110°. In the open air the heat was from 70° to 115°. There was more sickness than in the last month. There were several cases of hepatitis, particularly in the 10th regiment, and cases of dysentery were not unfrequent towards the end of the month. In the beginning a considerable number of cases of fever appeared, and not a few of ophthalmia and pneumonia: but all these soon did well, after being removed to a good hospital. The Catchief, the officer next in rank to the Bey, gave up his own house for an hospital, and General Baird likewise gave up his quarters to the sick.

AUGUST.

By the 12th of this month, the greater part of the army, after a navigation of the Nile, of nearly four hundred miles, arrived at Damietta, where we found one regiment of the English army, the 89th, and a general hospital, under charge of Dr Franks, the inspector. The troops at first were put into quarters there; but an encampment was afterwards formed on Rhoda, a small island made by the Nile, very nearly in the centre between Cairo and Ghiza. The Nilometer is on this island. As they landed, the troops were uncommonly healthy. Most of the hepatic and dysenteric sick had recovered on the passage, and the only disease with which they landed was slight fever, of which the cases were not numerous. This state of health continued but a very short time after the landing. In the course of the first week, most of the corps sent one-twelfth and some one-tenth of their strength to the hospital.

In three weeks, the sick of the army exceeded one thousand. A considerable number of ophthalmic cases appeared, but the prevailing disease was fever. In every corps it prevailed, and very few escaped it. In general it was of short duration, of two, three, or five, days at most, and rarely proved fatal. Ghiza appeared then to have been an unhealthy quarter, and the ground of the encampment was found to be swampy. We found the 89th regiment in garrison at this place, and so very sickly was that corps, that they could not muster fifty men on the parade. The sick of the army was sent into Ibrahim Bey fort, pleasantly situated on the bank of the river on the Cairo side. It had been occupied by the enemy as an hospital, and had been completely fitted up by them for the purpose. But it was neither (if accounts could be believed) a healthy nor a safe situation. A little before our arrival, the French had some cases of the plague in a ward of this hospital. On hearing this, every measure of precaution was taken, and the disease did not appear. It was remarked, that those sent to the hospital, ill of ophthalmia, dysentery, and hepatitis, rarely left it without an attack of the prevailing fever.

About the end of the month, preparations were making to embark the army for Rosetta, and not less than twelve hundred sick were embarked.

During the month the wind was most frequently from the N. The thermometer on the Nile, from the 1st to the 8th, was higher than we had found it at GhennÉ. In the fort of Ibrahim Bey it moved from 80° 50 to 90°. The sickness of the month was very considerable. Though we lost several men, yet the loss bore but a small proportion to the sickness that prevailed. Much of the sickness, and many of the deaths which subsequently occurred, we could trace to the situation near Cairo. Many cases of hepatitis did not appear, but of late many of dysentery; and, in some corps before quitting Cairo, ophthalmia prevailed very generally.

SEPTEMBER.

Early in this month, the greater part of the army was encamped in the neighbourhood of Rosetta. The 86th regiment and two companies of the 7th Bombay regiment went into garrison at Ghiza. Separate regimental hospitals were provided for every corps in Rosetta: but the number of sick appeared to be gaining ground, particularly the cases of ophthalmia, which disease was nearly confined to the 10th and 88th regiments. The number occurring in the artillery, 61st and 80th regiments, was inconsiderable; and the disease was very rarely seen among the Sepoys. Dysentery and hepatitis prevailed very generally in every corps; but the appearance of another disease occasioned the greatest alarm throughout the army.

On the morning of the 14th, I discovered a case of the plague in the hospital of the 88th regiment: Anthonio, one of the hospital-cooks, who had for thirty hours laboured under febrile symptoms, shewed me two buboes in his groins. He had no venereal appearance, and the fever was now attended with extreme irritability of the stomach. At the same time, I was shewn another hospital-servant, a Hallancore, who lay next to Anthonio. The Hallancore had been attacked in the night time, and, when I saw him, had much fever and pain in the axilla, though I could discover no swelling of the glands. As speedily as possible these two men, and six other hospital-servants, who slept in the same apartment, were removed to a house at the extremity of the town. A room was immediately allotted, in the hospital of the 88th regiment, for cases under observation.

To this every soldier, or follower, with febrile symptoms, was sent the instant that the symptoms were discovered. A minute examination was made, on the evening of the 14th, of all the men in the hospital, amounting then to one hundred and sixty-two, in order to discover whether any laboured under suspicious symptoms, but nothing was observed.

On the morning of the 15th, I discovered six men with fever, most of them had been attacked in the night-time; they were sent without delay into the observation-room, and most strictly guarded. By frequent observation, in the course of the day, I discovered buboes in one, and pain in the axillary and femoral glands of all the others: all were therefore sent to the pest-house, which was now established.

Early on the morning of the 16th, the cook and Hallancore, first attacked, died. It was found necessary in the course of the day to send nine more men into the observation-room, where the nitrous fumigation was very liberally used. After an emetic, I gave mercury very liberally to the whole nine; but the symptoms, on the morning of the 18th, were so unequivocal, that I sent them all to the pest-house.

Our situation now became very alarming. There were the clearest proofs of the hospital which the 88th regiment occupied being thoroughly infected, consisting of about fourteen or fifteen rooms, but all the cases had hitherto come only from three of the rooms. Lamps for the nitrous fumigation were kept constantly burning both in them and in the observation-room. A very large building was procured near Rosetta; and, with all possible haste, the men were moved to it.

No man left the old hospital till all his clothes were washed; his hair was cut short, and himself bathed. On coming to the outside walls of the new hospital, every man stripped himself naked and went into a warm bath before his reception into the hospital. He was then provided with new clothing and bedding; the clothing brought with him was received by a non-commissioned officer, who saw it repeatedly washed and baked, after which it was received into the hospital store-room. On the evening of the 18th, I sent four more men into the observation-room, and, on the 21st, three of them were sent into the pest-house. The other did well in the observation-room.

On the 23d, Littlejohn, a boy, was sent in the morning to the observation-room, having been attacked the night before with rigours. On the 25th, Egan, another suspicious case, was also sent there. In both of them a severe ptyalism was excited in less than forty-eight hours by mercury and nitric acid, and they afterwards did well.

On the 28th, Craig, with febrile symptoms, was sent from the new hospital to the observation-room of the old. His gums were speedily affected; but it was found necessary to send him to the pest-house. This was the only instance of the plague which appeared in the 88th regiment after their removal to the new hospital.

The six native followers, first sent off, had no symptoms of the disease for eight days after their arrival at the pest-house; but, on the 9th and 10th days after, all of them were attacked, and none survived the attack three days. Four more of the Indian servants, sent to the pest-house to attend the others, shared the same fate. The case of the Mukadum of the Dooli-bearers was the most rapid.

On the 17th, he was attacked about nine o’clock in the morning with rigours, and died before four o’clock. No instances of the plague appeared in any other corps of the army during this month. Though they attempted to conceal it, we discovered that some accidents (as they call it) had occurred about the beginning of September among the people of the town.

The weather still continued the same during this, as the whole of last, month. The same winds prevailed, without rain or anything remarkable. On the 15th, 16th, and 17th, it blew from the westward: after this, we had close calm weather.

After the 15th, the Nile at Rosetta began to recede. The general range of the thermometer, in a house in Rosetta, was from 73° to 83° 50´.

After the plague, the most formidable disease in the army, from its general prevalence, was ophthalmia. In the 10th and 88th regiment there were upwards of three hundred and fifty cases. The total number in the army exceeded six hundred. Dysentery and hepatitis prevailed very generally among all the European corps; and the mortality of the month was very considerable.

OCTOBER.

In the beginning of this month, the encampment was moved from one to five miles distance from Rosetta. The hospitals were gradually removed also from hence. As the men recovered they were sent to a convalescent camp, intermediate both to Rosetta and the general encampment, and precautions were taken to prevent the men from intermingling with the inhabitants of Rosetta.

Thatched regimental hospitals were built in the camp; and, though in the middle of a desert, the sick soldier had a warm, comfortable, and well-ventilated, apartment, and was liberally provided with every thing conducive to his recovery. Early in the month, the garrison of Damietta joined the army. The 86th regiment were healthy and suffered less from ophthalmia than any European corps of the army. About the end of the month, this corps was sent to Ghiza, and the detachments in garrison there were ordered to join their respective corps.

The temperature of the air became sensibly lower than in the former month, the extremes being from 69° 50´ to 80°. The medium was from 70° to 77°. The westerly was still the prevailing wind, and it often blew very fresh. The atmosphere, towards the end of the month, was very cloudy; and, though we had no rain during the month, it seemed often to threaten it. Owing to the very strict precautions taken, little plague occurred during the month.

From the time the sick of the 88th regiment were separated, and from regulations regarding cleanliness and fumigation being rigidly adhered to, the progress of the contagion was effectually suppressed in that regiment. The European corps still continued to suffer from hepatitis and dysentery, while the number of cases of ophthalmia, and the great degree of violence in which this disease was now seen, were really alarming.

During the month, a case of the plague appeared in the 61st regiment. He had been a patient in the regimental hospital in Rosetta, and caught the disease from straggling through the town. The only other case which occurred was a follower of the commissariate department.

NOVEMBER.

At the commencement of this month, the army was encamped at El Hammed. The sick were in the thatched buildings, and the mortality bore but a small proportion to the sickness. The 86th regiment were very healthy in Ghiza. The weather during the month was different from what we had experienced for a considerable time. The sky was constantly clouded, and it often blew strongly from the west. It rained on fifteen days, and the quantity of rain which fell during the month was considerable. On the 17th, there was much thunder and lightning. The dews were heavy, and there was generally a thick fog which lasted till eight or nine in the morning. The extreme ranges of the thermometer in my marquee were from 57° to 77°.

In the beginning of the month, the whole sick of the army amounted to one thousand three hundred and fifty, or more than one-fourth part of the whole strength of it. In the course of the month there appeared one hundred and seventy cases of intermittent fever, occasioned evidently by the effluvia from the low ground between the camp and the river, which retained the rain, and, before we moved, became a swamp.

On the 8th, we were again alarmed at the appearance of a case of the plague, in the department of the commissary of cattle, which was immediately put under quarantine. On the 12th, symptoms of the disease appeared in a Sepoy of the Bengal battalion, who was in the hospital of that corps. On the 13th, five more cases were discovered in the same hospital, which was ordered to be burnt, the sick having been removed into a large house near Rosetta, where the same precautions were used as with the 88th regiment, when the disease first broke out. After their removal, no case appeared in that battalion. On the 12th a case of small-pox was discovered in the hospital of the 10th regiment; and, in the course of two days more, four cases appeared in the same hospital. The first, a Portugueze servant, died. At the end of the month, the number of sick was reduced. In the weekly return from the 20th to the 26th, there were six hundred and thirty-two Europeans, and three hundred and eighty Sepoys, making a total of one thousand and twelve.

None of the tents kept the rain well out, which was often heavy. The sand, however, quickly absorbed it in most places. The fever was, in several instances, similar to a type, which we had been little used to, viz. the typhoid.

DECEMBER.

Early in this month part of the army marched to Alexandria; and, by the end of it, all the army, with the exception of the horse-artillery, 7th Bombay regiment, and the department of the commissary of cattle, was collected there. About the time that the first part of the army marched thither, detachments of the 26th dragoons, and of Hompesch’s mounted riflemen, joined us from the English army, and were quartered in Rosetta. The plague now gained on us.

On the 1st of the month, Corporal Francis, of the 88th regiment, who had been on the pest-house guard the day before, complained of slight febrile symptoms and giddiness. He had a vibex on the seat of the inguinal glands on one side, with some pain, but no swelling there. I shewed him to Mr Price, who was in charge of the pest-house, and he had no doubt of its being a case of the plague. Very soon after his admission into the pest-house, a bubo appeared in his groin, and his fever increased. Mercury was thrown in rapidly, his mouth became affected, and, the bubo suppurating, he recovered.

On the 15th, a private of the 8th light dragoons was shewn to me with a bubo in his groin and giddiness, but without quickness of pulse or any other febrile symptom. On being brought to Mr Price he was admitted into the pest-house, and the treatment and result in him were similar to those of Francis.

On the evening of the 15th, it being reported to me that a Sepoy had suddenly died of fever in the line of the 7th Bombay regiment, I examined the body, and found the inguinal glands swelled on both sides. About an hour after, Mr Grisdale, the surgeon, shewed me a case in the hospital of the same corps, which was evidently the plague, and which I instantly ordered to the pest-house.

In the course of the month 38 more cases of the same disease, most violent and rapid in their progress, appeared in the same regiment. Three died, either in the hospital or on the lines, before they could be conveyed to the pest-house, and one died in his way thither. One man of the 1st Bombay regiment died of the same disease, who had clearly got the contagion from the former corps, near which their hospital was situated.

The weather during the month was changeable; towards the end it was boisterous. The thermometer in tents was sometimes so low as 49°, and rarely rose above 70°. The sky was cloudy, but rain fell only once in eight days. In the beginning of the month there was a considerable number of cases of continued fever. There were fewer intermittents than in the last month. The number of cases of dysentery was decreasing.

Towards the end of the month there were many cases of catarrh, pneumia, and rheumatism. The diseases of the eyes were greatly on the decline. In the weekly return of the 3d are three hundred and twelve cases, whereas in that of the 31st there appear only ninety eight.

JANUARY, 1802.

With the exceptions already mentioned, all the army, during this month, was in Alexandria, where they attained a degree of health they never had at Rosetta. No case of the plague had been known at Alexandria when the Indian army arrived there; and the strictest precautions were taken to cut off the communication with Rosetta and the 7th regiment.

In the beginning of the month the weather was extremely boisterous: the wind, generally from the north and north west, was very high. For eleven days there was rain, and often very heavy. The thermometer was once below 60°, and never above 70°, in a house in the centre of the city. The number of sick was much smaller, but the mortality greater, than in any preceding month. On the 1st, Mr Price, who was in charge of the pest-house near Rosetta, was himself attacked with the disease, which with him proved very violent.

On the following day, three of six Arabs, who acted as in-servants to the pest-house near Rosetta, were also attacked.

On the 6th, a Sepoy of the 1st Bombay regiment died suddenly in the hospital of the corps at Alexandria; the sick of this corps having arrived from Rosetta but a few days before.

On the 7th, two cases of the plague, from the same regiment, were detected in the camp at Alexandria.

On the 8th, the 1st and 7th Bombay regiment marched to, and encamped at, Aboukir-bay, where a pest-establishment was placed for them.

On the 2d, symptoms of the plague were discovered on Dr Whyte, who the day before had inoculated himself, and he died on the 9th.

On the day following, a soldier of the 61st regiment, a servant of Colonel Barlow, Commandant of Rosetta, was sent into the pest-house there, now under the charge of Mr Grisdale and Mr Rice, with the plague.

On the 13th, two of six Arabs, out-servants at Rosetta, were attacked with the disease. Two men of the department marched the same road, and halted at the same stages, as the 7th regiment had done a week before.

On the 22d, two men of the 10th regiment, from a permanent guard on-board a vessel under quarantine, were sent into the pest-house at Alexandria. There occurred this month 72 cases of the plague in the Indian army, viz.

	2	Officers, Dr Whyte and Mr Price.
	2	Cases in the 10th regiment.
	1	61st ditto.
	22	1st Bombay regiment.
	30	7th ditto.
	4	department of the com. of cattle.
	1	Pioneer-corps.
	10	Arab servants.
Total	72

Continued fever prevailed in the army. It was the synocha of Cullen. Intermittents were still on the decline, as were likewise dysentery and hepatitis. Pneumonia and rheumatism prevailed but in a small degree.

FEBRUARY.

This was a very cold and wet month; yet the number of sick continued to decrease, except in the 1st and 7th regiments, in which corps the plague continued to rage. Throughout the month, the sky was cloudy; we had high winds, on 19 days it rained, and on some of these as heavily as in the monsoons in India. The thermometer moved between 55° and 63°. On the 13th, for the first time, the following cases of the plague were dismissed cured from the quarantine-hospital; viz. two Sepoys, one drum-major, and one woman, from the 7th regiment, and two Arab servants of the pest-house. At this period, too, six were dismissed from the pest into the quarantine-hospital.

Till this day no native of India, who had entered the pest-house, ever returned. But so much was the dread of the distemper now lessened, that a volunteer in-steward, for the pest-house at Aboukir, came forward from the 7th regiment.

On the 24th, the commissary’s clerk at Rosetta got the disease. Of five Europeans, whom we had left at Rosetta, two caught it and died. The disease here raged with the utmost violence.

On the 28th, Signior Positti, an Italian, came from Rosetta, and lodged at the house of Mr Fantouchi, the Swedish consul in Alexandria. It was discovered two days after that he had the plague, and he, with the surgeon attending him, was immediately sent to the Lazaretto. Signior Positti died on the day of his admission. Almost all the cases of plague, which subsequently appeared in Alexandria, could be traced to this case as a source.

The whole number of cases of plague, which occurred in the army during this month, was only twenty one. Fever appeared in all the reports. It was accompanied with the inflammatory diathesis, and it was in general slight.

Of hepatitis and dysentery, the number of cases was still less than in former months. Ulcers, which in the Indian army were hitherto very rarely seen, prevailed at this period. Of rheumatism and pneumonia there was an increase.

On the whole, in the course of the month, there was a decrease of sickness, and a considerable decrease of the mortality. On the 1st of the month there were seven hundred and five in the report; and on the 28th only three hundred and twelve, or about one in twenty-six.

MARCH.

The weather was milder than in February. The thermometer was gradually on the rise. During the month it never was lower than 50° nor higher than 69°. The wind was most frequently from the west, from which quarter it blew very strongly on the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, and 21st. It rained on 12 days; and on some of them, about the middle of the month, very heavily. The atmosphere was in general cloudy. On the 19th we had claps of loud thunder. But for the existence of the plague the army might be said to have been very healthy during the month; and, though this disease was more diffused through the country and in the army, yet more cases did not occur in the Indian army than in last month, and the mortality from this disease was much less considerable than formerly.

The garrison of Ghiza had been, for some time, the most healthy part of the army. During the present month the corps there presented long reports of sick. The small-pox broke out among the Sepoys there; and in the 86th regiment there was an immense number of venereal cases, several of which, from their standing, were inveterate.

The following is a list of the number sick of the plague in March.

Royal Artillery	1
— Navy	1
26th dragoons	9
10th regiment	2
61st regiment	7
88th regiment	2
1st Bombay regiment	1
7th ditto	8
The Departments	3
Foreign corps	3
Strangers	2
Arab servants	7
Total	46

The spreading of the diseases rendered it necessary to multiply our pest-establishments. In addition to those of Alexandria, Rosetta, and Aboukir, one was formed at Ghiza, and one at Rahamania, situated on an island at that part of the Nile where the canal of Alexandria formerly took its rise. Between Aboukir and Rosetta, a serjeant and twelve men, of the 26th dragoons, were stationed to prevent communication between Alexandria and Rosetta. Nine of these were attacked with the disease during this month. Within the walls of the pest side, or that part of the lazaretto appropriated for the reception of cases of plague, at Alexandria, a serjeant and twelve men were also posted as a guard to preserve order. Eleven of them caught the disease in the present, and the rest in the following, month. They were volunteers from the 10th, 61st, and 88th, regiments, and appear in the above list. The source of this disease appeared to be clearly in Signior Positti. Four of the Arab servants who attended him were seized; and the Board of Health obtained an order that no more soldiers should be sent on so dangerous a duty.

On the 2d, a deserter from the queen’s German regiment, taken up in Alexandria, was sent to the provost’s guard. He had only come to Alexandria a few minutes before he was discovered. He complained of being ill; and, on being visited by Mr Blackwell, inspecting surgeon of plague-cases to the Board of Health, it was found that his disease was the plague. He was immediately conveyed to the lazaretto, and all the prisoners at the provost’s guard were brought to the observation-ground, and the provost with his guard were sent to the quarantine-ground. The deserter died a few minutes after his arrival in the pest-house. His case was one of the most inveterate.

On the 14th, Broughman O’Neal, one of the prisoners sent from the provost’s guard, having symptoms of the plague, was sent by Mr Cloran, who was in charge of the observation-side, in to Mr Price, who was in charge of the pest-side, of the lazaretto. On the 17th a case of the plague was detected in the hospital of the regiment De Roll. The infection could not be traced; however the surgeon and the sick in the hospital were put under quarantine.

On the 19th a case was detected in the hospital of Dillon’s regiment, and the hospital of that corps was also put under quarantine. On the 16th, one of nine Lascars, attached to Major Falconer, deputy quarter-master general, was attacked with the plague at Rahamania. The major had only arrived there from Rosetta a few days before. Subsequently, the remaining eight Lascars, and two of the Major’s servants, caught the contagion, and every one of them died. On the 26th a private of De Roll’s regiment was sent from the observation to the pest side of the lazaretto; and, on the same day, a sailor, belonging to the agent of transports near Aboukir, was sent into the pest-house, as was also a man of the Royal Artillery from Aboukir-castle.

Of fever there occurred but a very few cases during the month, and the disease was a very mild one.

Of five cases of small-pox two died, both of which were natives of India. Of hepatitis and dysentery there appear fewer cases, and of the total number more than one half were from the 61st regiment; and all the severe cases were of that corps. Of ulcers the number still continued to be considerable and increasing.

At the commencement of this month affairs wore a very unfavourable aspect. The plague, which first appeared in Rosetta, and had hitherto, with little exception, been confined to that place, at the present period had travelled as far as Aboukir on the one side, and as far as Rahamania on the other side, of Alexandria; and we had information that most of the intermediate stages, betwixt us and these two places, were infected. With so much severity did the disease rage at Rosetta, that, at the end of last month, it was found necessary to withdraw the commandant and every person from it, and the inhabitants shut themselves up. From information received by the Board of Health, they likewise found it necessary to place all those coming from Cairo and Ghiza under quarantine.

It was well known, that, in Upper Egypt, the plague was making dreadful ravages among the Mamalouks. The few cases which occurred in Alexandria made every one alert there, and a very strict police was kept up in the town by the commandant and by the Scorbatchie.

The weather in the beginning of the month was variable. The thermometer rose a little. It was rarely so low as 60°, and only once as high as 71° 50. We had much high wind on twelve days. It rained on fifteen days, but the quantity which fell was not so great as in the last month. The sky was cloudy throughout the month.

On the 20th there was much loud thunder.

On the 1st, sixty-four invalids, from the Indian army, were embarked for England. The greater part were cases of blindness.

Both Mr Price and Mr Rice, who dissected the body of Signior Positti in the lazaretto, had been ill ever since; and this day they were so ill that Dr Buchan was sent in to relieve Mr Price, and Mr Moss to relieve Mr Rice.

On the 3d, a case of the plague appeared at Ghiza on a private follower, and another case was detected in the hospital of the 26th Dragoons at Alexandria.

On the evening of the 14th, Mr O’Farrel, who had charge of the pest-house at Aboukir, was attacked with the disease. This day all the hospitals were moved out of town, and encamped under the walls of Alexandria.

On the 6th, a Jewess dropped down dead in the streets of the city, and it was discovered that she had been ill for four days of the plague. Her husband, who concealed it from the Board of Health, was bastinadoed; and afterwards was sent, with his whole family, into quarantine. On the same evening an Arab’s family reported that one of them was ill of the plague. The person affected was sent to the pest-side, and the rest of the family to the observation-ground, of the lazaretto.

On the 7th, Mr Dyson, who on the 4th went to Aboukir to relieve Mr O’Farrel, discovered bubo and symptoms of the plague in himself.

On the 10th, a serjeant of the 61st, who had had the disease last month, and who, after recovering, officiated as in-steward of the pest-house in Alexandria, was again attacked with the plague.

On the 11th Mr Angle died, being the fourteenth day of his disease. He, three weeks before, went to assist Dr Buchan in the lazaretto.

On the 14th, symptoms of the disease were first discovered on Mr Moss in the lazaretto. Of the Jew family sent to the observation-ground on the 6th, which amounted to seven persons, two were sent to-day to the pest-side.

On the 15th the husband of the jewess died in an observation-tent, having glandular swellings, which were not discovered till after his death. He did not appear to be ill. Mr Cloran was accustomed, once a day or oftener, to examine those under observation, but nothing was discovered to ail this man.

On the 16th, he discovered some symptoms of the disease in another of the same family, and sent him in to Dr Buchan.

On the 17th, a deserter from the 61st regiment, sent to the regimental guard-house, where he was discovered to have the plague, was sent to the lazaretto, and the guard, amounting to nineteen persons, into the observation-ground of the lazaretto. This man confessed that he had slept one night near the pest-house at Aboukir. On the 19th Mr Moss died. On the 24th the plague was discovered in another Jew family. The plague of the Indian army, during the month, was as follows, viz.

Assistant-surgeons	4
61st regiment	4
80th ditto	1
7th Bombay ditto	5
Departments	12
Total	26

On the whole, it was a pleasing circumstance to see so little of the disease among the native corps, as, when it did occur, it proved so much more fatal to them. From my correspondence with different gentlemen in the pest-houses it appears, that, during the month, bubo was not so constant a symptom, and that carbuncles were now frequent.

At first this symptom was seen in no case. Excepting the 61st regiment, the army was in a very healthy state. Fever was equally mild as in last month. Opthalmia began again to appear. In the last return there were sixty cases, fifty of which were Europeans. Of seventy-one men with ulcers, sixty were Europeans. The total sick of the army, at the end of the month, did not exceed three hundred; and in this are included every ulcer, accident, or less serious complaint, which prevents a soldier from appearing on parade.

MAY.

At the commencement of this month the principal part of the army was still encamped at Alexandria. On the last day of April orders arrived from England to General Baird, to return with his army to India, and to detach the 10th, 61st, and 88th, regiments, which were placed on the British establishment.

On the 3d the Indian army began the march to Ghiza, where it remained encamped by the pyramids for some days, until water and the passage over the desert were reported to be ready. At length the march commenced with the sick.

We crossed the river, encamped at Boulac, set off from Cairo, and, passing the ruins of Heliopolis, made Birket El Hadje our first stage. Our marches over the desert of Suez, as in crossing the great desert, were all performed during the night, and we always encamped by sunrise in the morning. Luckily there had much rain fallen before we marched; and at one place in the middle of the desert, and again at Suez, we found large collections of rain-water, from which all were well supplied.

By the end of the month the whole corps, except the 7th Bombay regiment, had crossed the desert and arrived at Suez. Part of the army was encamped near the town of Suez, and part at Moses Wells, nine miles on the eastern side of the Red Sea. The march over the desert of Suez was performed with much greater ease than that over the desert of Thebes. The weather was cool and favourable, the hot winds were less felt, and we found abundance of good water provided at the different stations. At the time of our arrival we found Suez very healthy. Though the plague had travelled as far as Cairo and all the neighbouring villages, it had not reached Suez till the arrival of the army.

The women and children of the army, as well as some invalids, were here; and they, with the Lascars of the fleet, were under the medical charge of Dr Colquhoun and Mr Waring, whose reports had all along shewn a very great degree of health. The only disease was the tropical dysentery, and this was confined to the women and children, who were inactive. The Lascars, who were actively employed, were all very healthy. During the month, several cases of the plague were reported, but they were all very mild. On the 4th, a Sepoy of the 1st Bombay regiment, on duty with the pioneers in the desert, was attacked with the disease, and was the only man who died of it during the month. On inquiry afterwards, it was found that the Sepoy had got the infection from one of the interpreters, named Peter, and that Peter brought the disease from the Turks in Cairo. The case of the interpreter was so mild, that it was treated by Mr Dick as a venereal complaint. He took mercury to produce salivation, the bubo came to suppuration, and Peter recovered. As soon as the Sepoy died in the desert, every article belonging to him was burnt with the body. A perfect separation was effected, and every precaution taken in consequence. No other case appeared in this detachment.

On the 12th, another case appeared in the 7th regiment, now encamped at a village opposite Boulac. No plague could be discovered to have been in the village. The occurrence of this case, therefore, could be accounted for in no other way than that the seeds of the disease still lurked in this very unfortunate corps, and that they brought it from Aboukir with them. A pest-house was established under the charge of Dr Henderson at Boulac, and two other mild cases were admitted into it towards the end of the month.

On the 23d, the disease was discovered on a Madras tent-Lascar at Moses Wells. On the 26th it was discovered on a serjeant of the 86th regiment in crossing the desert. This was the last case which appeared previous to the embarkation of the army.

The weather, during the month, was uncommonly fine. The thermometer was greatly on the rise. During the month it was from 60° to 68°: at Alexandria from 60° to 78°: in the tents on the desert, and at Moses Wells, from 60° to 98°. The wind was generally from north to north-west. In the desert, and at Moses Wells, we had the dry suffocating wind that we found in the desert of Thebes, at Kossier, at the same time in the former year; and the atmosphere was generally cloudy. The army was very healthy.

Ophthalmia now, however, became a more frequent disease, particularly among the Europeans, and it might be said to be the only disease which prevailed.

JUNE.

On the 2d, the embarkation commenced, and by the 15th the whole army was embarked, and had sailed for the different presidencies, except the 7th regiment, which, on account of the plague still prevailing in it after the rest of the army had embarked, was ordered to remain two months. Most of the corps in the army embarked in the most healthy state. There was hardly a sick man, except a few cases of the venereal disease which had resisted mercury.

To conclude, never, perhaps, was there an army embarked for any service more healthy than the Indian army was when it re-embarked on its return from Egypt.

Previously to the arrival of the army from Egypt, in order to provide against the introduction of the plague into India, quarantines were established at the presidencies of Bombay, Bengal, and Madras, as well as at the island of Ceylon. The principal of these was at Butcher’s island, near Bombay, where there were pest and quarantine establishments, of which, on my arrival in June, I took the charge. At this period, letters from Dr Short, at Bagdad, and from Mr Milne, at Bassorah, described the plague as raging in Persia, and particularly at Ispahan and Bagdad: in consequence of this information every vessel, both from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, was ordered to Butcher’s island.

As the ships arrived, the troops from the Red Sea were landed; but the artillery, 86th regiment, 1st Bombay regiment, and the commissariat department, were so uncommonly healthy, that I detained them but a very few days on the island.

The 7th Bombay regiment landed at Butcher’s island in August. As this was the corps in which the plague had principally prevailed, though they were not unhealthy, I judged it prudent to detain them a month. On my last inspection of them before they left the island, of a total of seven hundred, including Sepoys, their wives, and the public and private followers of the corps, I found only four sick, and these I believe were all catarrhs.

Dr Henderson, with the pest-establishment, and all those whom we had left at Suez, arrived at Butcher’s island on the 1st September. The convalescents from the plague, as well as the guard, and the pest-house servants, were, on their arrival, all of them very healthy; but I thought it safe to keep them in quarantine on the island till October, when, like all the others who had been in quarantine, they were provided with new clothing and sent over to Bombay.

The company’s packets from Bassorah, and the vessels which arrived from the Persian Gulf, had none of them the least suspicious appearance, and I found that their crews were all very healthy.

I had likewise the satisfaction to receive accounts from the medical gentlemen employed in the expedition, after their arrival at Calcutta, Madras, and Ceylon: their accounts were so late as November. In none of the corps did any death occur from the time of embarkation at Suez. The deaths which appear in the annexed table, in the 80th regiment, were men lost in the wreck of one of the transports.

END OF PART I.

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