Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India — John Shaqi
Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from IndiaMcGrigor, James, Sir
History
Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India
McGrigor, James, Sir
Great Britain. Army -- Sanitary affairs; Medicine, Military
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.
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