From my own observation, from accurate reports made to me, as well as
from an extensive correspondence with the medical gentlemen of the Indian
army in Egypt, I have presented a faithful, and I believe an accurate,
narrative of the medical occurrences of the late campaign.
Perhaps it may be thought that I have descended to a great degree of
minuteness: however, I conceive, that, from the facts stated, important
and useful deductions may be made. I think it a matter of regret that
such journals are not more frequently kept; with a little industry on
the part of the profession they might always be so. Had such records
been always faithfully kept, many practical points would not, as they
now are, be involved in doubt and uncertainty. We should not now be so
ignorant of some diseases, of the countries where we have so often made
campaigns, or of which we have so long been in the possession.
Humble as the labours may seem, and confined as the abilities of an
individual may be, were he only faithfully to relate observations made
with care, to compare them with those of his contemporaries, and by these
to correct the opinions of his predecessors, he would perform no mean
service to his art.
I shall, in this part, advert to what appeared to be the principal causes
of the diseases which prevailed. Previously to this it will be necessary
to take notice of the state of the different corps, composing the army,
as they landed at Kossier.
With the exception of the Sepoys from Bombay, every corps disembarked at
Kossier in the most healthy state. Rarely, indeed, have troops on any
expedition been landed in the degree of health in which the Indian army
landed in Egypt.
There is little doubt that their situation on ship-board was the cause
of the sickness which prevailed among the troops from Bombay. The Sepoys
were but a short time encamped at Kossier when they began to recover;
yet the situation there was by no means what we would recommend, or make
choice of, for the recovery of health.
The army under General Baird was composed, as already observed, very
nearly of one half Europeans, and of one half natives of India. We shall
begin with the Europeans.
A detachment of the Royal Artillery came with Sir Home Popham from
the Cape of Good Hope, where they had been stationed for nearly four
years. The Honourable Company’s artillery, collected from the different
presidencies in India, had all of them been a considerable time in that
country. Of the artillery, the Bombay suffered the most; next to them
the Royal; next the Madras; then the Bengal; and, least of all, the
horse-artillery. The prevailing diseases were dysentery and hepatitis. At
one period, indeed, fever prevailed among the Bombay artillery.
The troop of the 8th Light-Dragoons was landed in a very healthy state,
and continued healthy throughout. The dragoons came from the Cape of Good
Hope, where the regiment had been for five years. The only man they lost
in Egypt was from hepatitis.
The 10th foot had been a short time at Madras and had been two years
stationed in Calcutta, whence they were embarked for Egypt. At Calcutta
this regiment was at first very unhealthy, and lost a number of men; but
they landed in a most healthy state at Kossier. The 10th regiment, but
for having lost their way, and making some prodigious marches across the
greater desert, would have suffered less, perhaps, than any other corps.
In consequence of this march, soon after they reached Ghenné, a number
of cases of fever appeared, all of which terminated either in hepatitis
or in dysentery. Half the sick of the army, on leaving Ghenné, was from
the 10th regiment; and the diseases contracted by their march across the
desert continued, at Rosetta, to croud their sick-reports for four months
after.
The 61st regiment was, in several respects, the finest corps in the army.
The men were all young and very healthy, and the regiment joined the army
in a state of high order and discipline. They came from the Cape of Good
Hope, where the body of the regiment had been for nearly three years.
This regiment continued healthy till they were encamped at El Hammed, and
they lost very few till they came to Alexandria. They were quartered in
the Pharos, and the surgeon attributed much of the sickly state of the
regiment to the situation of this quarter. The situation is indeed a very
damp one, surrounded every where by the sea, except on the side of the
mound which connects it with Alexandria. However, this corps had not yet
lost those men which every corps loses on its arrival in a warm climate,
and which, in some shape, seems necessary to their naturalisation to
it. The diseases by which the 61st regiment suffered were dysentery and
hepatitis; and, after their arrival in Alexandria, they were wont to
lose, on an average, four men a week, for some time.
The 80th regiment came from Trincomalée, in Ceylon, a very unhealthy
station, and where, during a five-years stay, they lost a very great
number of men. This regiment was very healthy on landing. It was composed
of what are usually termed old Indians; draughts from the 36th, 52d,
71st, and 72d, regiments, which had been sent home after a stay of
fifteen or twenty years in India. The 80th suffered most of their loss
after crossing the desert. At Ghiza, at El Hammed, and at Alexandria,
they were the most healthy corps. However, there were many old men in
this regiment who never recovered the fatigue of the march, nor the
illness at Rhoda island, and who felt most severely the cold weather at
Alexandria. A fact regarding this corps deserves mention. Mr Brown, who
was in charge of it, informed me, that many men, who, at Trincomalée,
were never free from liver-complaint, and were almost always in the
hospital with this disease, never complained at Alexandria. This fact, on
inquiry, I found held good in most other corps, and I had observed many
instances of it in the 88th regiment.
The 86th regiment landed in a healthy state. This regiment had been six
years in a warm climate. They came from Bombay, where they had been in
garrison for the two last years. They continued very healthy till they
were encamped at Rhoda island; there, and at El Hammed, they suffered
much: subsequently, no corps in the army suffered less or lost fewer. The
frequent movements of this corps contributed to their being in a more
healthy state than some other corps were.
The 88th regiment had been about three years in a warm climate. They
likewise came from Bombay. This regiment crossed the great desert with
the loss of only one man. They were very healthy at Ghenné, and continued
so till their arrival at Rhoda. The 88th was the first regiment from the
Indian army that arrived at Ghiza, where they found the 89th regiment,
and the ophthalmic hospital of the English army. In the course of the
first week after their arrival at Ghiza, the 88th regiment sent one
fourth of their strength into the hospital; all of them cases of fever or
ophthalmia. At El Hammed, in proportion to the strength of this corps,
ophthalmia prevailed more in it, and the regiment suffered more from it,
than any other corps, except the 10th regiment. It will be remembered,
too, that it was in the 88th regiment that the plague first broke out;
and this regiment had more cases and more deaths from it than any other
European corps. Mr Tonrey and myself, who attended these first cases,
were among the few medical men who were exposed to the contagion and
came in contact with the patients, and yet escaped the disease. The 88th
regiment became at last one of the most healthy corps in the army. From
the 1st December, 1801, to the 1st May, 1802, they only lost two men; of
these, one was from the plague, and the other from sudden death, cause
unknown.
With the exception of the two Bombay corps, all the native Indians lost
fewer men than the European corps. After they marched from Kossier, and
till the plague appeared in the two Bombay battalions, where it committed
the greatest ravages, they were the two most healthy corps in the army.
The Bengal volunteer-battalion, composed of volunteers for the expedition
to Egypt, from different regiments of Sepoys in Bengal, was a fine body
of men, and they were mostly what are called old or made soldiers. They
were in general very healthy, and during the campaign their loss was very
inconsiderable. Though the plague at one time appeared in this corps,
yet, by the system established throughout the army by this time, and by
the active vigilance of the officers of the corps, the contagion was
extinguished; and, though the plague prevailed in every other corps, it
never subsequently visited this battalion.
The Artillery-Lascars were, on the whole, very healthy throughout the
campaign. The few deaths which they had were from dysentery.
The 1st Bombay regiment, after recovering from the fever contracted on
ship-board, continued healthy, and suffered few deaths but from the
plague. It was remarked, that this corps effected the march across the
desert of Thebes, as well as that over the isthmus of Suez, with less
difficulty than any corps in the army. In general, we observed that the
native troops endured this better than the European. It ought not to be
forgotten, that, under Captain Mahoney, detachments from the native corps
were employed, some time before the march of the army, in clearing the
roads, digging wells, and on other duties of fatigue more harassing than
any that fell to the lot of any other part of the army. Nevertheless,
these men continued in a high state of health.
At the period when the plague attacked the 7th Bombay regiment, they were
far from unhealthy. The prodigious loss of this corps, which appears in
the annexed table, was at first from the fever which raged at sea, and
subsequently from the plague, which continued to persecute this corps
from December, when it broke out among them, till the whole army was
embarked at Suez.
The pioneer-corps was uncommonly healthy till they came to El Hammed.
Here they had much severe duty. They were employed in building the
hospitals, and very often in cutting the reeds by the river-side, or
in conveying them through marshes. A very considerable share of the
intermittents that prevailed in the army was from this corps.
The departments (under which title are included about five hundred men
employed by the commissaries of cattle, of provisions, and of stores, and
by the quarter-master general) were, from beginning to end, more healthy
and had fewer deaths than any one corps in the army. They lost none but
from the plague; and, when this was discovered, such precautions were
taken that the contagion was very speedily eradicated. The extraordinary
health of this body of men, as well as their escape from the plague,
though particularly exposed to the contagion, I could only attribute to
the commissary of cattle, who had the greater part of them in his charge.
Captain Burr was constantly among these men, and was most singularly
attentive to every thing that regarded their internal economy.
I am decidedly of opinion, that in the peculiar soil and climate of Egypt
we are to look for the principal causes of the diseases which prevailed
the most in that country.
On grounds that appear not slight, we suspected that several of these
diseases were propagated by contagion. But I have no intention of
entering on the discussion of the theories of contagion; an obscure
subject, and on which I do not presume to think that I could throw
any new light. If ever the veil which covers it be removed, the late
discoveries in chemistry bid fair to do it. The accurate knowledge which
we have acquired of the composition of bodies, and in particular of the
constituent parts of the atmosphere, have opened new fields of inquiry
to the philosopher and to the physician. The successful application of
these discoveries to the practice of physic by the Doctors Beddoes and
Thornton, by Dr Rollo, Mr Cruickshank, Dr Wittman, and other eminent
surgeons of the artillery, and more particularly by the philanthropic Mr
Scott, of India, deserve the gratitude of the profession and of mankind
at large. Hereafter, most probably, and when introduced into general
practice, they will be looked upon as the greatest improvements that the
healing art has received in modern days.
In respect to the soil and climate of Egypt, as giving rise to disease,
they are of considerable variety. In a country of such extent, stretching
from the tropic, on the one side, to the shores of the Mediterranean, on
the other, this might be expected. If, in Lower Egypt, and on the bleak
shores of the Mediterranean, we saw the diseases of Europe, and met
with the inflammatory diathesis; in Upper Egypt, and as we approached
the tropic, we met with the same diseases, and succeeded with the same
treatment, as in the peninsula of India.
Perhaps no country is better known, or has been oftener described, than
Egypt. I therefore presume that every thing regarding the climate and
soil is generally known.
Upper Egypt, that is, the cultivated part of it, is a narrow stripe, laid
out sometimes on one and sometimes on both sides of the Nile, which,
in its course from Abyssinia till it passes Cairo, is on both sides
enchained with a ridge of mountains.
Lower Egypt is, in general, a fine, rich, flat, country, interspersed in
different places by branches of the Nile, and overflown by this river at
a particular season; at which time the country is in the situation of
Holland, or of the fenny counties of England.
The soil in most places is argillaceous or sandy, and in some calcareous;
but every where there is a strong mixture of a salt: in most places there
are incrustations of it to some depth. The quality of the atmosphere,
and the proportions of its different constituent parts, I regret that I
never had an opportunity of ascertaining.
The cultivated part of Egypt, particularly the Delta, is a very rich
country; in fertility and luxuriance of soil yielding to none under the
face of heaven. The art of husbandry is there but imperfectly known;
and at their harvests there is a very great destruction of vegetable
matter, from which hydrogene gas, or hydro-carbonate, is extricated in
great quantities. Under similar circumstances, in America as well as in
India, I have seen a bad fever of the intermittent or remittent type
appear. But in Egypt, after the subsiding of the Nile, which in many
places had covered a great extent of country, there is a great exhalation
from the mud, and from the putrid animal and vegetable matters left
behind. The effluvia of these substances, acting on the human body, will
readily account for much disease. If we add to these the extreme filth
of the inhabitants of Egypt, their poor diet, their narrow, close, and
ill-ventilated, apartments, generally much crouded, with the extreme
narrowness of their streets, and the bad police of their towns, we will
not be astonished if a fever, at first intermittent or remittent, should
have symptoms denominated malignant, superadded to the more ordinary
symptoms of the disease. If an imported contagion should make its
appearance at the same time, and under the above circumstances, we expect
a most terrible disease.
The dry parching wind, which comes over the desert, and which at certain
seasons blows in Egypt and in Arabia, is well known, and was often
severely felt by the army on their march, both across the desert and the
isthmus of Suez. The whirlwinds of sand roll with great impetuosity, are
very troublesome, and insinuate fine sand and dust every where. It is
hardly possible to keep the minute particles out of the eyes.
The dews, which fall in Egypt, I always heard were very heavy, and were
a cause of the diseases of the country. I had occasion too, more than
once, to hear the natives attribute much to them as the cause of their
diseases; with what justice I will not pretend to decide. From some
experiments which I made in India, on the Red Sea, and lastly in Egypt,
I am inclined to think that they are equally heavy in the two former as
in the latter quarter. After weighing it carefully, I took a piece of
lint, twelve inches square, exposed it for a night to the dew, and, by
weighing it in the morning again, ascertained the quantity which it had
gained. I am aware that this is by no means a nice experiment, and that
in the performance of it several particulars demand attention; but it is
sufficient to our purpose, and I learned by it, that, in the island of
Bombay, on the Red Sea, and in Lower Egypt, the quantity of dew which
falls is nearly equal.
It ought to be mentioned, that, during the year we were in Egypt, the
season was not the usual one. There was a greater overflow of the Nile.
It rose higher on the Nilometer than it had done for several former
years, and it was remarked to be much later in subsiding at Rosetta.
The fall of rain at Alexandria was greater than on former years; and, at
Rosetta, the rains were in setting in later than usual. The season of the
plague set in much earlier than usual.[2]
In general, the Thebaid, or Upper Egypt, is healthier than the Lower.
Never were troops more healthy than the army when encamped near Ghenné.
Ghiza, the ancient Memphis, at the time the army disembarked there from
Upper Egypt, we found to be a very unhealthy quarter. For a considerable
time, and immediately before the arrival of the Indian army, it had been
the station of large armies: alternately of Turks, Mamelukes, French, and
English. From all these armies a number died at Ghiza, and there was much
filth and noxious effluvia. We saw there enough of putrid animal matter
to generate contagion. Whether this was or was not the cause of the fever
which prevailed, I will not attempt to decide. One circumstance may be
mentioned. We were here joined by a detachment of the 86th regiment under
Colonel Lloyd, which, for some months before, had been doing duty with
the Vizier’s army, which never was healthy. That the circumstances which
existed at the time of our occupying Ghiza were the cause of the fever is
manifest from this, that, subsequently to the army going to the coast,
the garrison left in it found Ghiza a most healthy quarter. The same
objections are to be made to Rhoda that are applicable to any marshy
situation.
The 86th regiment found Damietta healthy, till the Turkish troops came
down in great numbers from Cairo; but, at this period, the British troops
were removed from it.
Rosetta is not a healthy quarter. It is one of the largest and
worst-built towns in Egypt. There is hardly one street in it. There are
only narrow dirty lanes, with high houses overhanging each other, and the
passage frequently interrupted by houses in ruins. It is, on two sides,
surrounded with swamps. The river is in the front, and behind, it is
nearly encompassed with burying grounds.
The place of the encampment at El Hammed was an unhealthy spot. About
half a mile in the rear of it there was a great extent of swampy ground;
but there was no choice: it was necessary to encamp where there was
water.
As a station for the army, Alexandria had every recommendation. It is
built on a peninsula which formed the antient harbour, on a fine dry
and open situation. Some squares, and several of its streets, are open
and spacious; very unlike an African or Asiatic city. Its numerous
mosques afforded us large and airy hospitals and barracks. In point of
health, the inundation of the water from the lake Maadie was favourable.
It insulated Alexandria; but the water was in motion, and at such a
distance, that nothing was to be apprehended from exhalation. All
the hospitals at first were within the walls of the modern city. The
situation of the Pharos is well known to every one. I have said, that it
was complained of as a quarter for troops, and with justice. The state of
the 61st regiment shewed this. Subsequently to their being removed from
it, they were encamped on the outside of the walls. From this period both
the sickness and mortality in this corps disappeared. The 10th regiment
found Fort Triangulaire a dry, spacious, and airy, barrack. In the fort
they had the means of keeping the men constantly in their quarters; they
were at some distance from Alexandria, and thus it was in their power to
preserve a regular internal economy and prevent drunkenness. When the
regiment came to take possession of this quarter they had a numerous
sick-list: it decreased daily after they came here; and, finally, the
10th was as healthy as most other regiments. The barracks of the 80th
regiment, and of the Bengal volunteer-battalion, were situated close to
Fort Triangulaire; and they possessed all the same advantages, but that
it was not so easy to confine the men to the barracks.
The barracks of the 88th regiment, at Fort Cretan, were dry and airy.
Though in a different quarter they possessed nearly the same advantage
as Fort Triangulaire, with the disadvantages of the quarters of the 80th
regiment.
The horse-artillery and 8th dragoons were, along with the 26th dragoons,
stationed at Damenhoure, which had every advantage of a country quarter.
It was situated in a fine, open, cultivated, country. The station was
thought so good, that at last we sent the sick of the army to this
quarter; and old cases of dysentery and hepatitis, as well as some
of fever, recovered here with astonishing rapidity. By the time of
their arrival there was in many a great amendment. They were conveyed
in waggons constructed for them, and made three days easy journey to
Damenhoure.
In the difference of Upper Egypt in June, and El Hammed and Rosetta in
December, is included perhaps more than change of season; there was
change of climate and of heat from 108° to 49° of the thermometer. We
have said that, in many instances, the causes of disease at El Hammed
could be traced to the march across the desert and the encampment at
Rhoda. Very much, however, was likewise to be attributed to the change of
weather experienced in November and December.
In every part of the world, with change of season, some diseases pretty
constantly make their appearance; but in no part is this so observable as
in the countries under the tropics. In the West-Indian islands, as well
as on the shores of India, I have repeatedly and uniformly observed the
sick-list of European corps more than doubled by the third week after
the setting in of the monsoon.[3] In these countries a very considerable
increase of sick is likewise found to take place on the change from the
rainy to the dry season. The change of season in Egypt had nearly an
equal influence on the health of the army while there.
In a memoir, which, four years ago, I had occasion to present to the
Military and Medical Boards at Bombay, on the state of health of the
88th regiment, and of detachments of the 75th, 77th, 84th, and 86th,
regiments, under my care, one passage is so very closely applicable to
the subject I am now on, that I will extract it. After pointing out the
smaller proportion of sickness in different corps, and in proportion as
they had been in India from one, two, three, to twenty, years, and the
very great proportion of disease and mortality which the European bore to
the native Indian corps, the memoir goes on:
“Though, perhaps, a residence for a certain length of time, or a
naturalisation to the climate, be necessary, yet one reason may, with
probability, be brought forward to account for the very great difference,
in point of health, between European and Indian corps, viz. the great
intemperance of the European in eating and drinking. A native of India is
astonished, at first, to see the meals of animal food devoured, and the
quantity of spirits drank, by Europeans. There can be little doubt, that
the nearer we approach to the mode of living of the natives, the more
nearly we shall attain their state of health.
“On looking over the returns, and observing the proportional sickness of
different periods, a periodical increase was very striking. The eight
or ten days that followed the payment of the men, on the twenty-fourth
of every month, regularly produced much sickness. The soldier’s pay in
India, as in England, and perhaps every where else, allow him at times
to indulge in excess. He is most amply supplied with meat and bread, and
generally he has a portion of vegetables; but the allowance of spirits
issued to him is too great. In the dry season it is a quarter of a
pint daily, and in the rainy months it is double this quantity. As the
price of arrack is low, the soldier very often procures as much as he
can use; besides which, he has often access to farrey, or toddey, the
fermented juice of the cocoa-nut tree. Some degree of intoxication and
intemperance, in a corps in India, is perhaps unavoidable. Intemperance
has hitherto always appeared as a principal cause of the diseases which
have prevailed.
“The difference, in point of health, between the hot and the cold, the
dry and the rainy, months is striking. For the last eighteen months, in
the hot season, the men had much duty. They were daily marched two miles
to the fort of Bombay; while there, they were much exposed to the sun
on the garrison-duty; and, in the heat of the next day, were marched
back to their barracks on the island of Colabah. Yet it appears, by the
accompanying tables, that the hot months were the most healthy by far. If
heat be very noxious, something in this instance obviated its effects.
Was this exercise?
“The first year after the arrival of the 88th regiment, in India, they
suffered considerably. During the month after that on which the monsoon
set in, one hundred and forty, or more than one fourth of the corps, were
ill of hepatitis or dysentery. In the second year of the regiment being
in India, only seventy were admitted into the hospital in the course
of the same month, and this number was not quite one tenth of the then
strength of the corps. Here, then, we appear to have gained considerably
by being one year inured to the climate.”
In Egypt I found that all the above-quoted remarks held good;
in particular that relating to heat. Though the degree of it be
very considerably increased, I believe that, unless combined with
intemperance, or some other cause, it very rarely is the exciting cause
of disease. At Kossier, and in crossing the desert, the degree of heat
was very great, and both the officers and men, from Madras, as well as
Bengal, complained that it was more insupportable than they had ever
felt it in the hottest seasons. Yet, at the above period, the army
enjoyed an uncommon degree of health, though they necessarily were much
exposed to the sun: but their minds as well as their bodies were at
this time exercised. Not only on crossing the desert, but for some time
after we reached the Nile at Ghenné, we all thought that we were in the
neighbourhood of a division of the French army, and the Indian army was
for some time kept in the constant hopes of being engaged.
That simple moisture is noxious, the situation of the 61st regiment, in
the Pharos, shewed; and that moist exhalations from marshes were active
as causes of the diseases which prevailed, from the arrival of the army
at Rhoda till their departure from El Hammed, the journal gives abundant
proof.
We received still farther confirmation of the very great influence which
intemperance has as a cause of disease. We had demonstration how very
little spirits are required, in a hot climate, to enable the soldier to
bear fatigue, and how necessary a regular diet is.
At Ghenné, and on the voyage down the Nile, (on account of the difficulty
of at first conveying it across the desert,) the men had no spirits
delivered out to them; and I am convinced that, from this, not only did
they not suffer, but that it even contributed to the uncommon degree of
health which they at this time enjoyed. From two germs, or boats, the
soldiers one day strayed into a village, where the Arabs gave them as
much of the spirit which they distil from the juice of the date-tree, as
induced a kind of furious intoxication. It was remarked, that, for three
months after, a considerable number of these men were in the hospitals.
On the causes of the plague I do not mean to dwell. I may just mention,
that, after seeing the first cases which occurred in the Indian army,
and attentively studying the histories of some of the cases which
subsequently appeared, it struck me that there were many points of
resemblance between this disease and the destructive fever of the West
Indies, which, some years ago, I saw a good deal of in several of the
islands there. I would by no means, however, have it implied that I
consider the diseases as the same.
One of our medical gentlemen persevered in an opinion that the plague
was not contagious. He made the first, and we sincerely hope the last,
experiment of the kind to determine this question. Dr Whyte fell a victim
to his own temerity.
Never were the effects of fear, in the treatment of diseases, more felt
than at one period in the Indian army in Egypt. At the time the plague
first broke out, (as shall be more particularly noticed hereafter,)
the dread of the disease, particularly among the native troops, was a
bar to every kind of treatment. They exclaimed that they were sent to
the pest-houses merely to die; and some of them refused every kind of
medicine or sustenance.
I shall now advert to some of the principal measures of prevention of
disease in general: some regulations regarding the plague are mentioned
under the head of that disease.
Within the last thirty or forty years the improvements made in the means
of preserving the health of seamen have been great. These had their rise
from the great Captain Cooke; after him, very much was done by Dr Lind,
of Haslar-hospital; since, by Dr Blane; and, more lately, by the present
able physician to the fleet, Dr Trotter.
Under the eminent surgeon-general of the artillery, a very great deal
has been done in the ordnance-department. Abroad, as well as at home,
their hospitals and the medical department are in a state not unworthy of
imitation.
Since the time of the Carthagena expedition, a good deal has been done in
the army likewise. To the present commander-in-chief the army owes very
much; and the Army Medical Board have, of late, corrected many abuses,
and introduced much improvement into the medical department: but much
remains to be done for the soldier, especially when embarked for service.
Often, during the late war, have we seen troops suffer much in
transports; and, on one or two occasions, a confinement of two or three
months on ship-board has crippled regiments, if not armies, and left them
unfit for service.
At no time, I believe, have troops on any expedition been so long
confined on ship-board as during that of which we are treating; and in
none I believe, not even in the shortest, has there been a smaller loss
of men.
This is to be ascribed entirely to the very liberal policy of the great
character at the head of affairs in India, and to the gallant general
selected to command on this expedition. It was the governor-general’s
order, that every convenience and comfort, that might conduce to the
health of the soldier, should be most amply provided. In consequence of
this, a sufficiency of tonnage, and that calculated for a warm climate,
was procured. Large, lofty, and roomy, ships were fitted up, and the
greatest care was taken to embark only such as were in perfect health.
The transports were liberally provided with every requisite or comfort
for a long voyage: the quality of the water was particularly attended to.
Besides a large stock of fresh provisions, vegetables of every kind were
shipped. There was a large stock of potatoes, of onions, bread-fruit,
pickled vegetables, of tea, rice, and pepper, which were regularly served
out to all. Besides these, for the sick there was provided a large stock
of wines, of fermented liquors, and of every other comfort.
To the very liberal manner in which the transports were fitted up, and
to the regulations established in every transport of the fleet, which
were rigorously enforced, is undoubtedly owing the very healthy state in
which most corps remained, for half a year, on ship-board; and that, on
landing, they were fit to march on any service.
At Bombay there was, at first, a scarcity of shipping. One ship sailed
thence much crouded; and, in a three-weeks passage to Ceylon, those
on-board suffered much: there occurred much sickness and several deaths.
On their arrival at the island of Ceylon, Mr North immediately ordered
two more vessels for the troops with which this vessel (the Minerva) was
crouded. The good effects of this measure struck all: thereafter, during
a three-months passage to Kossier, there died not a man in the Minerva.
The clothing of the Indian army conduced much, in our opinion, to
their healthiness. They landed with their white cotton dresses, which
were admirably adapted to the warm season in which we came to Egypt;
favourable to cleanliness; and, by consequence, to the exclusion of
pestilential contagion.
From the time of the army first landing at Kossier, in every situation
where it could be done, bathing was enjoined throughout the army. In
every corps it was regularly done under the inspection of a commissioned
officer, and any neglect of cleanliness was most severely punished.
In any country or climate, attention to cleanliness will be found a
principal means of preserving the health of troops; but, in Egypt, where
contagion was lurking in every corner, it became indispensably necessary.
In the cold season, and while we were in Lower Egypt, warm comfortable
clothing and bedding were provided, not only for every soldier or Sepoy,
but likewise for the women, children, and all the numerous followers of
the army.
The simple diet of the Hindoo is well suited to a warm climate. It is
seldom more than rice with aromatics, or clarified butter with a kind of
pea, to which the luxury of a little salt-fish, of preserved tamarinds,
or some fresh fruit, is occasionally added. As far as it could be done,
the Europeans were made to conform to this diet; and we are convinced
that it was with much advantage to them. The light wines of the Greek
islands were issued to the Europeans in the warm season; but in the cold
they got spirits.
In the cold season it was found necessary to make some change in the
diet of the Sepoys. In the month of January they suffered so much from
the severity of the weather, and a climate very unlike their own, that a
portion of animal food, as well as of wine, was ordered to be issued to
them.
The prejudices of country, religion, and of the different casts of
Gentoos, were first overcome in the Bombay regiments. At length, the
most austere yielded; and, finally, even the severe Brahmin, as well as
the rigid Mussulman, gave way to the necessity imposed by their situation
in a foreign country.
The length of time, which most corps had been in a warm climate,
deserves to be mentioned, as a cause of the health of the Indian Army in
Egypt, till attacked by the endemic diseases of the country. No corps
in the army had been less than two years in a warm climate. During the
late war, the value of the Cape of Good Hope, to us, was often felt
and acknowledged in India. After being at this healthy settlement and
there seasoned to a warm climate, the 80th, 84th, and 86th, regiments
and the Scotch brigade, landed in India, in an effective state, never
before witnessed with European troops in that country. This fact is not
undeserving public consideration.
The fact cannot be too often repeated or too generally known, that
nothing conduces more to the health of a corps, than the preserving a
good internal economy in it. A good commanding officer has, in general,
a healthy regiment. Every thing can be done in the prevention of
disease; but, unfortunately, very often, little in the treatment when it
supervenes.
One point remains still, and I know no fitter place to introduce it than
here.
It has been mentioned, that liver complaints rarely recovered in Egypt,
and, likewise, that cases of hepatitis and flux, which, in India, had
long remained obstinate, here yielded of themselves and without medicine.
This fact leads me to the suggestion of a measure, which, I conceive,
would save many useful lives. It is, whenever a case of fever, dysentery,
or liver complaint, in India, is obstinate, or continues for a long time
on the reports, to send such cases to sea or to Europe.
It is a truth, well known to every medical man in India, that, after
continuing ill of these disorders a certain time, soldiers or sailors
never do well there. They linger, and are, at length, carried off, either
by a suppuration in the liver or ulceration of the intestines. In India,
when patients, whose situation in life permits them to take a voyage
to Europe, are in this state, they never fail to take it, and, most
commonly, are recovered by it; but there is no hope for the poor soldier
or sailor there.
The same benefit might, however, be acquired for the soldier, and with
little, or, perhaps, no, expense: it is not always necessary that the
voyage be a long one, or, that the change of climate be to Britain. Were
the cruisers of the company or the king’s ships, from time to time, to
take on-board some of these chronic cases, for one cruise, the men would
be frequently recovered by it, and, in many cases, they would soon be
capable of doing duty on ship-board, where, in time of war, Europeans
are very much wanted, but cannot be found in India. Whenever a voyage
in India is not attended with complete success, a voyage to Europe
still offers one chance for life. The prospect of this, by removing that
despondency which, in chronic diseases is a never-failing attendant,
and which we have too often found baffle every mode of treatment, would
cheer the patient, and of itself do infinite good. Men of his Majesty’s
regiments might be brought home, and attached to the recruiting companies
there, whence able healthy men might be sent in exchange for them, while
the invalid from India would at the same time recover his health in a
country-quarter at home, and be equally useful as another man on the
recruiting service.
Humanity, as well as policy, loudly calls for something to be done. From
what I have seen, I fear that invalids and ineffective men are sometimes
detained by far too long in India.
END OF PART II.