Robert Jackson, the son of a small landed proprietor of limited
income but respectable character in Lanarkshire, was born in 1750,
at Stonebyres, in that county. He received his education first at
the barony school of Wandon, and afterwards under the care of Mr
Wilson, a teacher of considerable local celebrity at Crawford, one
of the wildest spots in the Southern Highlands. He was subsequently
apprenticed to Mr William Baillie, of Biggar; and in 1766 proceeded,
for the completion of his professional training, to the university
of Edinburgh, at that time illustrated and adorned by the genius and
learning of such men as the Monros, the Cullens, and the Blacks.
In pursuing his studies at this favoured abode of science and
literature, young Jackson is said to have evinced all that purity of
morals and singleness of heart which characterised him in
after-life, and to have resisted the allurements of dissipation by
which, in those days especially, the youthful student was tempted to
wander from the paths of virtuous industry. His circumstances were,
however, distressingly narrow; and not only was he forced to forego
the means of professional improvement open only to the more opulent
student; but in order to meet the expenses of the winter-sessions,
he was obliged to employ the summer, not in the study but in the
practice of his profession. He engaged himself as medical officer to
a Greenland whaler, and in two successive summers visited, in that
capacity, 'the thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;' returning on
each occasion with a recruited purse and a frame strengthened and
invigorated by exposure and exercise. During these expeditions he
occupied his leisure with the study of the Greek and Roman
languages, and the careful and repeated perusal of the best authors
in both.
His third winter-sessions at Edinburgh having passed away, he was
induced to go out and seek his fortune in Jamaica, and accordingly
proceeded thither in a vessel commanded by one Captain Cunningham,
who had previously been employed as master of a transport at the
siege of Havannah. It is far from improbable that it was from his
conversations with this individual that Jackson derived those hints,
of which at a future time he availed himself, respecting the
transmission of troops by sea without injury to their health; but it
is quite certain his conviction of the enormous value of cold-water
affusions as a curative agent in the last stage of febrile
affections, was imbibed from this source.
Arriving in Jamaica, he in 1774 became assistant to an eminent
general practitioner at Savana-la-Mar, Dr King, who was also in
medical charge of a detachment of the first battalion of the 60th
regiment. This latter he consigned to Jackson's care; and well
worthy of the trust did our young adventurer, though but twenty-four
years of age, approve himself--visiting three or four times a day
the quarters of the troops to detect incipient disease, and studying
with ardour and intelligent attention the varied phenomena of
tropical maladies. Four years thus passed profitably away, and they
would have been as pleasant as profitable, but for one circumstance.
The existence of slavery and its concomitant horrors appears to have
made a deep impression on Jackson's mind, and, at last, to have
produced in him such sentiments of disgust and abhorrence, that he
resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, as the phrase is,
trying his luck in North America, where the revolutionary war was
then raging. This resolution--due perhaps, as much to his love of
travel as to the motive assigned--was not altogether unfortunate,
for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, Savana-la-Mar was
totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a considerable
distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping inroad of
the sea, in which Dr King, his family and partner, together with
numbers of others, unhappily perished.
The law of Jamaica forbade any one to leave the island without
having given previous notice of his intention, or having obtained
the bond of some respectable person as security for such debts as he
might have outstanding. Jackson, when he embarked for America, had
no debts whatever, and was, moreover, ignorant of the law, with
whose requirements therefore he did not comply. Nor did he become
aware of his mistake until, when off the easternmost point of the
island, the master of the vessel approached him and said: 'We are
now, sir, off Point-Morant; you will therefore have the goodness to
favour me with your security-bond. It is a mere legal form, but we
are obliged to respect it.' Finding this 'legal form' had not been
complied with, the master then, in spite of Jackson's protestations
and entreaties, set him on shore, and the vessel continued on her
voyage. What was to be done? Almost penniless, landed on a part of
the coast where he knew not a soul, Jackson well-nigh gave himself
up to despair. There was a vessel for New York loading, it was true,
at Lucea; but Lucea was 150 miles distant, on the westernmost side
of the island, and not to be reached by sea, whilst our adventurer's
purse would not suffer him to hire a horse. No choice was left him
but to walk, and that in a country where the exigencies of the
climate make pedestrianism perilous in the extreme to the white man.
Having reached Kingston, which was in the neighbourhood, in a boat,
and obtained the necessary certificate, he started on his dangerous
expedition, and on the first day walked eighteen miles, being
sheltered at night in the house of a benevolent planter. The next
day he pushed on for Rio Bueno, which he had almost reached, when,
overcome by thirst, he stopped by the way to refresh himself, and
imprudently standing in an open piazza exposed to a smart easterly
breeze, whilst his lemonade was preparing, contracted a severe chill
that almost took from him the power of motion, and left him to crawl
along the road slowly and with pain, until he reached his
destination.
Having finally arrived, friendless and moneyless, in New York, then
in the occupation of the British, he endeavoured first to obtain a
commission in the New York volunteers, and afterwards employment as
mate in the Naval Hospital. In his endeavours, he was kindly
assisted by a Jamaica gentleman, a fellow-passenger, whose regard
during the voyage he had succeeded in conciliating by his amiable
manners and evident abilities; but his efforts were all in vain, and
poor Jackson, familiar with poverty from childhood, began now to
experience the misery of destitution. In truth, starvation stared
him in the face, and a sense of delicacy withheld him from seeking
from his Jamaica friend the most trifling pecuniary assistance. In
this, his state of desperation, he determined upon passing the
British lines, and endeavouring to obtain amongst the insurgents the
food he had hitherto sought in vain; resolving, however, under no
circumstances to bear arms against his native country. Whilst
moodily and slowly walking towards the British outposts to carry
into execution this scheme, having in one pocket a shirt, and in
another a Greek Testament and a Homer, he was met half-way by a
British officer, who fixed his eyes steadily on him in passing.
Jackson in his agitation thought he read in the glance a knowledge
of his purpose and a disapprobation of it. Struck by the incident,
he turned back, and, after a moment's reflection, resolved on
offering himself as a volunteer in the first battalion of the 71st
regiment (Sutherland Highlanders), then in cantonment near New
York. Arriving at the place, he presented himself to the notice of
Lieutenant-Colonel (afterwards Sir Archibald) Campbell, who, having
first ascertained that he was a Scotsman, inquired to whom he was
known at New York. Jackson replied, to no one; but that a
fellow-passenger from Jamaica would readily testify to his being a
gentleman. 'I require no testimony to your being a gentleman,'
returned the kind-hearted colonel. 'Your countenance and address
satisfy me on that head. I will receive you into the regiment with
pleasure; but then I have to inform you, Mr Jackson, that there are
seventeen on the list before you, who are of course entitled to
prior promotion.' The next day, at the instance of Colonel Campbell,
the regimental-surgeon, Dr Stuart, appointed Jackson acting hospital
or surgeon's mate--a rank now happily abolished in the British army;
for those who filled it, whatever might be their competency or
skill, were accounted and treated no better than drudges. Although
discharging the duties that now devolve on the assistant-surgeon,
they were not, like him, commissioned, but only warrant-officers,
and therefore had no title to half-pay.
Dr Stuart, who appears to have been a man superior to vulgar
prejudice, and to have appreciated at once the extent of Jackson's
acquirements and the vigour of his intellect, relinquished to him,
almost without control, the charge of the regimental hospital. Here
it was that this able young officer began to put in practice that
amended system of army medical treatment which since his time, but
in conformity with his teachings, has been so successfully carried
out as to reduce the mortality amongst our soldiery from what it
formerly was--something like 15 per cent.--to what it is now, about
2-1/2 per cent.
In the army hospitals, at the period Jackson commenced a career that
was to eventuate so gloriously, there was no regulated system of
diet, no classification of the sick. What are now well known as
'medical comforts,' were things unheard of; the sick soldier, like
the healthy soldier, had his ration of salt-beef or pork, and his
allowance of rum. The hospital furnished him with no bedding; he
must bring his own blanket. Any place would do for an hospital. That
in which Jackson began his labours had originally been a
commissary's store; but happily its roof was water-tight--an unusual
occurrence--and its site being in close proximity to a wood, our
active surgeon's mate managed, by the aid of a common fatigue party,
to surround the walls with wicker-work platforms, which served the
patients as tolerably comfortable couches. A further and still more
important change he effected related to the article of diet. He
suggested, and the suggestion was adopted--honour to the courageous
humanity which did not shrink from so righteous an innovation!--that
instead of his salt ration and spirits, which he could not consume,
the sick soldier should be supplied with fresh meat, broth, &c.; and
that, as the quantity required for the invalid would be necessarily
small, the quarter-master should allow the saving on the commuted
ration to be expended in the common market on other comforts, such
as sago, &c. suitable for the patient. Thus proper hospital diet was
furnished, without entailing any additional expense on the state.[2]
Indefatigable in the discharge of his interesting duties, Mr Jackson
speedily obtained the confidence of his military superiors, who
remarked with admiration not only his intelligent zeal in performing
his hospital functions, but his calmness, quickness of perception,
and generous self-devotion when in the field of battle. On one
occasion, although suffering at the time from severe indisposition,
he remained, under a heavy fire, succouring the wounded, in spite of
the remonstrances of the officers present. On another, having
observed the British commander, Colonel (afterwards General)
Tarleton, in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, who had
routed the royalist troops, he galloped up to the colonel--whom a
musket-ball had just dismounted--pressed him to mount his own horse
and escape, whilst he himself, with a white handkerchief displayed,
quietly proceeded in the direction of the advancing foe, and
surrendered himself at once. The American commander, who did not
know what to make of such conduct, asked him who he was? He replied:
'I am assistant-surgeon in the 71st regiment. Many of the men are
wounded, and in your hands. I come, therefore, to offer my services
in attending them.' He was accordingly sent to the rear as a
prisoner; but was well treated, and spent the first night of his
captivity in dressing his soldiers' wounds, taking off his shirt,
and tearing it up into bandages for the purpose. He afterwards did
the same good office for the American sufferers; and when the
wounded English could be exchanged, Washington sent him back, not
only without exchange, but even without requiring his parole. At a
subsequent period during the same unhappy war, when the British
under Lord Cornwallis were in full retreat, the sick and wounded
were placed in a building which the colonists, on their approach,
began to riddle with shot. Several surgeons, not caring to incur the
risk of entering so exposed an edifice, agreed to cast lots who
should go in and see to the invalids; but Jackson, with
characteristic nerve and simplicity, at once stepped forward: 'No,
no,' said he, 'I will go and attend to the men!' He did so, and
returned unhurt.
After this we find him a prisoner in the hands of the Americans and
French at New York Town, Virginia. As on the former occasion, he was
treated with all imaginable kindness; and, being released on parole,
returned to Europe early in 1782, and proceeded by way of Cork,
Dublin, and Greenock to Edinburgh, where he abode for a short time.
Thence he started for London; and, desirous of testing the best way
of sustaining physical strength during long marches, and urged
perhaps also by economical considerations, he resolved to make the
journey on foot. His West Indian and American experience had taught
him that spare diet consisted best with pedestrian efficiency, and
it was accordingly his practice, during this long walk, to abstain
from animal food until the close of day, nor often then to partake
of it. He would walk some fourteen miles before breakfast--a meal of
tea and bread; rest then for an hour or an hour and a half; then
pace on until bedtime--a salad, a tart, or sometimes tea and bread,
forming his usual evening fare. He found that on this diet he arose
every morning at dawn with alacrity, and could prosecute without
inconvenience his laborious undertaking. By way of experiment he
twice or thrice varied his plan--dining on the road off beefsteaks,
and having a draught of porter in the course of the afternoon; but
the result justified his anticipations. The stimulus of the beer
soon passing off, lassitude succeeded the temporary strength it had
lent him; and, worse than all, his disposition to early rising
sensibly diminished.
His stay in London, which he reached in this primitive fashion, was
not long. His kind friend Dr Stuart, who had exchanged into the
Royal Horse-Guards, gave him the shelter of his roof; but so poor
was Mr Jackson, that, although ardently desirous of improving
himself in his profession, he was unable to attend any one of the
medical schools with which London abounds.
The peace of 1783 having opened the continent to the curiosity of
the British traveller, Jackson curtly announced to his friends, that
'he was going to take a walk.' His poverty allowed him no other
mode of locomotion; so off he set on the grand tour, carrying with
him a map of France, a bundle of clothes, and a scanty supply of
money. Crossing the channel, he reached Calais, a place which Horace
Walpole, writing from Rome, declared had astonished him more than
anything he had elsewhere seen, but in which our adventurer found
nothing more astonishing than a superb Swiss regiment. He proceeded
to Paris, and thence through Switzerland, by Geneva and Berne, into
Germany, at a town of which--Günz in Suabia--he met with a comical
enough adventure.
On entering the town he was challenged by a soldier, who, having
learned he had no passport, carried him before a magistrate, by whom
he was forthwith condemned as a vagabond, and remitted to the
custody of a recruiting sergeant. This worthy, in turn, introduced
him to the commanding officer, who politely gave our traveller the
choice of serving his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of
Germany, either in his cavalry or his infantry forces. But Jackson,
strangely insensible to the honour, flatly refused to serve his
Majesty in these or any other ways, and desired to be at once set
free, and suffered to continue his journey. The officer, doubtless
amazed at such presumption, desired the sergeant to convey him to
the barracks, where he was placed in a large room, in which were
congregated some two hundred or so involuntary recruits like
himself--harmless travellers, who, being destitute of passports, the
emperor forcibly enlisted into his service. Jackson found his
co-mates in misfortune very dirty, very ragged, but perfectly civil
and good-tempered. Having a little recovered his serenity--for it is
easy to see, though our hero is described as a man of placid
demeanour and somewhat Quakerly appearance, he could be not a little
fiery at times--he sat down and wrote to the commanding officer,
entreating leave to sleep at an inn, and proffering the deposit of
all his money as a pledge for his reappearance next morning. The
reply was an order that he should surrender his writing materials.
At seven o'clock, the appointed sleeping hour, the sergeant returned
and gave the signal for bed by rapping with his cane on the floor,
which was speedily covered by a number of dirty bags of mouldy
straw--the regulation mattresses, it would seem, for involuntary
recruits. Jackson--peppery again--refused to lie down, but was at
last compelled to do so, and between two of the dirtiest fellows of
the lot, each of whom had a leg chained to an arm. The next morning,
at his own request, he was brought before the commandant of the
town, who had only arrived late the preceding evening, and whom he
found seated in his bedroom, 'with all his officers standing round
him receiving orders,' says Jackson, 'with more humility than
orderly-sergeants.' The commandant repeated the offer of 'cavalry or
infantry;' adding that a war was about to commence with the Turks,
and that good-behaviour would insure promotion. However, finding
Jackson obstinately persistent in his refusal, he quietly observed,
in conclusion, that the emperor, as a matter of rule and of right,
'impressed' into his army all such as entered his dominions without
certificates of character. 'The order was so tyrannical,' declares
our _détenu_, 'that I could not contain myself. "Put me in chains,
if you please," I said, "but I tell you, all Germany shall not make
me carry a musket for the emperor."' This impetuous burst of
indignation seems to have alarmed the phlegmatic commandant, who
accordingly let our adventurer go, counselling him, however, to
write to the English ambassador at Vienna for a passport, lest he
should get into further trouble.
Jackson passed through the Tyrol into Italy, everywhere indulging
his love of scenery and still greater love of adventure; studying
with all the acuteness of his countrymen the varied characters of
the people he met with, and in his correspondence with home friends,
sketching them in language striking for its force, its propriety,
and originality. Some of his remarks on men and manners are
conceived in a truly Goldsmithian vein, whilst all testify at once
to the goodness of his heart and the quickness of his perceptions.
At Venice he says that he felt it to be 'such a feast of enjoyment
as seldom falls to the lot of man, and never to the lot of any but a
poor man, who has nothing conspicuous about him to attract the
notice of the crowd,' to possess such facilities as he did for
learning what the people of foreign countries really were.
At Albenga, in Piedmont, Jackson arrived one night, tired, hungry,
and drenched with rain. Intending to put up at the 'Albergo di San
Dominico,' which he had been informed was the best inn, he went by
accident to the convent of the same name, and entering, called
loudly to be shewn to a private room. 'Instead of telling me I was
wrong,' he says, 'the young brethren looked waggish, and began to
laugh: when a man is cold and hungry, he can ill brook being the
sport of others;' so accordingly--peppery again--he shook his stick
angrily at the young monks. And at last one of the most courteous
and demure of the number, coming forward, said that although theirs
was not exactly a public-house, still the stranger was heartily
welcome to walk in, rest, and refresh himself. Discovering his
mistake, Jackson of course lost no time in making his bow, his
apologies, and acknowledgments.
He returned to England by way of France, having but six sous in his
pockets when he reached Bordeaux, where an English merchant, a total
stranger, advanced him a few pounds. On the road, he was frequently
taken for an Irishman, and not seldom for an Irish priest; under
which impression, many civilities were paid him by the simple
inhabitants of the country he traversed. Ultimately he landed at
Southampton, with just four shillings in his possession; his once
black coat having turned a rusty brown, his hat shovel-shaped by
ill-usage, and his whole aspect so comical, that the mob hooted him,
under the belief that he was a Methodist preacher. Proceeding inland
on foot, in the direction of Southampton, he overtook a poor man
walking along the road whose looks of unutterable misery induced our
traveller to stop and inquire what ailed him. He told Jackson he had
a son and daughter dying of a disorder apparently contagious, and
that no physician would attend them, as he was too poor to pay the
fees. Jackson at once offered his services, which were gratefully
accepted. He saw his patients, and prescribed for them, and his
heart was touched by their simple expressions of gratitude. 'Their
thankfulness,' he says, 'for a thing that would perhaps do them no
good, gave me more pleasure than a fee of, I believe, twenty
guineas, much in need of it as I was.' The night had gathered in
before he reached Winchester, where, at a respectable inn, he
partook of such refreshment as his means afforded, and then desired
to be shewn to his bedroom. The answer was, that the house contained
no bedroom for such as he, and he was finally driven out with the
coarsest abuse into the streets. The hour was ten o'clock, the month
December, and the severity of the weather may be guessed from the
fact, that the snow lay deep on the ground. After wandering about
for some time, he at last obtained shelter in a small house in the
outskirts of the city. The next day he fared little better. 'On
Sunday morning,' he relates, 'I was sixty-four miles from London,
and had only one shilling in my pocket. I was hungry, but durst not
eat; thirsty, and I durst not drink, for fear of being obliged to
lie all night at the side of a hedge in a cold night in December.
After dark, I travelled over to Bagshot; was denied admittance into
some of the public-houses, ill used in others.' He sought in vain
permission even to lie in a barn; but a labourer he fortunately fell
in with conducted him to a house, where, at the sacrifice of his
last shilling, he secured at length a bed. The next day--foot-sore,
penniless, and starving--he entered London. After remaining there a
brief space--January 1784--in spite of the inclement season, he set
off, again on foot, to Perth--a journey that occupied him three
weeks, as he was detained on the way by some friends whom he
visited. At Perth, where his old regiment then lay previous to its
disbandment, he amused himself by studying Gaelic, and the
controversy respecting Ossian and his poems. Quitting Perth, he
travelled, still on foot, through the Highlands, the inhabitants of
which he was, in the first instance, disposed to class with savages;
but when he had observed the originality of conception, the breadth
of humour, and the elevated sentiments which mark the Celt, his
opinions underwent a total revolution. He was especially delighted
with a ragged old reiver or cattle-lifter whom he encountered, and
who had given shelter to the Young Chevalier in the braes of
Glenmoriston after the battle of Culloden.
On his return to Edinburgh, Jackson married a lady of fortune, the
daughter of Dr Stephenson, and niece of his old friend Colonel
Francis Shelley, of the 71st regiment; and was enabled by this
accession to his means once again to visit Paris, where he not only
resumed his medical studies, but acquired the mastery of several
languages, Arabic amongst the rest. Having graduated M.D. at Leyden,
he came back again to England, and commenced practice at
Stockton-upon-Tees, in Durham. Although his reputation speedily
became considerable, especially in cases of fever, he seems scarcely
to have liked his new avocation. He found solace, however, in his
favourite study of languages, which he pursued with unremitting
ardour--constantly reading through the Greek and Latin classics, and
not only rendering himself familiar with the best works of the
modern continental authors, but also with the literature of the
Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Gaelic tongues. The _Bostan_ of Saadi
is said to have been one of his most favourite poems.
On the war breaking out in 1793, Dr Jackson--who, in 1791, had
published a valuable work on the fevers of Jamaica and continental
America--applied for employment as army-physician; but Mr Hunter,
the director-general of the medical department of the army,
considering none eligible for such employment who had not served as
staffer regimental surgeon, or apothecary to the forces, Jackson
agreed to accept, in the first instance, the surgeoncy of the 3d
Buffs, on the understanding, that at a future time, he should be
nominated physician as he desired. Mr Hunter, however, died soon
after this; and his promise was not fulfilled by the Board which
succeeded him in the medical direction of the army, and which
appears to have pursued Dr Jackson with uniform hostility.
Returning to England with the troops, it was offered to him to
accompany, in the capacity of chief medical officer, Sir Ralph
Abercromby's expedition against some of the West India islands; and
although no employment could possibly have been more agreeable to
his taste, he, much to Sir Ralph's chagrin, declined the flattering
proposal, on the grounds, that lower terms had been offered to him
than to another professional man. Nothing but a sense of
professional delicacy, it is plain, governed him in this
transaction, for he immediately afterwards embarked (April 1796) as
_second_ medical officer in another expedition to San Domingo.
During his abode in this island, he was unwearied in enlarging his
acquaintance with tropical diseases--observing the rule he had
followed in Holland of noting down by the patient's bedside the
minutest particulars of every case he attended, the effects of the
treatment pursued, and whatever else might shed light on the
intricacies of pathological science. He also gave a larger practical
operation to the scheme he had years before devised of amending the
dietaries of military hospitals.
After the evacuation of San Domingo in 1798, our physician paid a
visit to the United States, where he was received with signal
distinction, his reputation having preceded him. The latter part of
the year found him again at Stockton, publishing a work on
contagious and endemic fevers, 'more especially the contagious fever
of ships, jails, and hospitals, vulgarly called the yellow-fever of
the West Indies;' together with 'an explanation of military
discipline and economy, with a scheme for the medical arrangements
of armies.' He undertook, about this time, by desire of Count
Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, the medical charge of seventeen
hundred Russian soldiers, who were stationed in the Channel Islands
in a sad state of disease and disorganization; and so admirably did
he acquit himself, and so perfect were the hospital provisions he
made, that (1800) the commander-in-chief nominated him physician and
head of the army-hospital depôt at Chatham--as he says, 'without any
application or knowledge on his part.' This appointment was the
cause of his subsequent misfortunes.
At Chatham, with the warm approbation of Major-General Hewett,
commanding the depôt, he introduced that system of hospital reform
which had elsewhere operated so successfully. The changes he
effected, as soon as they were made, became known to the Medical
Board, and were publicly approved of by one of its members. However,
shortly afterwards, an epidemic broke out in the depôt (then removed
to the Isle of Wight), arising from the fact, that the barracks were
overcrowded with young recruits, but which the Medical Board
ascribed to Jackson's innovations, and reported so to the
Horse-Guards. The commander-in-chief directed an inquiry to take
place before a medical board impannelled for the purpose, and the
result of that inquiry may be guessed from a communication made by
the War-Office to the commandant of the depôt. This states 'the
unanimous opinion of the Board to have exculpated Dr Jackson from
all improper treatment of diseases in the sick,' and the
commander-in-chief's gratification, 'that an opportunity has thus
been given to that most zealous officer of proving his fitness for
the important situation in which he is placed.' The result of this
wretched intrigue, however, was that Jackson, disgusted with the
whole affair, requested to be placed on half-pay, to which request
the Duke of York, with marked reluctance, at last (March 1803)
acceded.
In his retirement at Stockton, Jackson put forth two valuable works,
one on the medical economy of armies, and another on that of the
British army in particular, and was much gratified by an offer to
accompany, as military secretary, General Simcoe, just appointed
commander-in-chief in India. The general's sudden death, however,
put an end to this plan; and Jackson continued at Stockton,
addressing frequent representations to government on the defective
medical arrangements in the military service--representations the
very receipt of which were not acknowledged by Mr Pitt, to whom they
were forwarded. The Peninsular war commencing, Dr Jackson was again
named Inspector of Hospitals, but was not, thanks to the persevering
enmity of the Medical Board, sent on foreign service, although he
volunteered to sink his rank, and go in any capacity. The Board even
succeeded, by calumnious statements that he had purchased his
diploma--statements he readily confuted--in preventing his
appointment to the Spanish liberating army; although the British
government had formally requested him to accept such an appointment,
and agreed to give credentials testifying to his capacity and
trustworthiness. This last disappointment led him, in an unguarded
moment--peppery to the last--to inflict a slight personal
chastisement on the surgeon-general, for which he was imprisoned six
months in the King's Bench.
But the triumph of his enemies was not of long duration. In 1810 the
Board was dissolved, and the control of the medical department
vested in a director-general, with three principal inspectors
subordinate to him. Then did Jackson return to active service, and
from 1811 to 1815 was employed in the West Indies; his reports from
whence embracing every topic relating to medical topography, to
sanitary arrangements, and to the observed phenomena of tropical
disease, are it is not too much to say, invaluable. His hints as to
the choice of sites for barracks, the propriety of giving to
soldiers healthy employment and recreation, as a means of averting
sickness, his suggestions as to the treatment of fevers and other
endemic diseases, may be found in the various works he has
published, embodying the fruits of his West Indian experience.
In 1819, he was sent by government to Spain, where the yellow-fever
had broken out, and his report upon its characteristics has been
universally admitted to supply the fullest information on the
subject that had hitherto been communicated to the public. He
availed himself of his presence in that part of Europe to pay a
visit to Constantinople and the Levant; and, retaining his energy to
the last, when a British force was sent to Portugal in 1827, he
desired permission to accompany it. The sands of his life, however,
were then fast running out, and on the 6th of April in the same year
he died, after a short illness, at Thursby, near Carlisle, in the
77th year of his age. Thus closed a long career of usefulness; for
it is not too much to say, that few men of his time laboured harder
to benefit his fellow-creatures than did Dr Robert Jackson.
* * * * *
[Footnote 2: The late Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, when in command, during
the war, of a frigate on the coast of Calabria, finding sickness
appear amongst his crew, purchased on his own responsibility some
bullocks, for the purpose of supplying them with fresh meat. Lord
Collingwood having heard of this, and considering it a breach of
discipline, sent for Codrington, and addressed him: 'Captain
Codrington, pray have you any idea of the price of a bullock in this
place?' 'No, my lord,' was the reply, 'I have not; but I know well
the value of a British sailor's life!']