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.