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.