In the beginning of the month, the whole sick of the army amounted to one thousand three hundred and fifty, or more than one-fourth part of the whole strength of it. In the course of the month there appeared one hundred and seventy cases of intermittent fever, occasioned evidently by the effluvia from the low ground between the camp and the river, which retained the rain, and, before we moved, became a swamp.
On the 8th, we were again alarmed at the appearance of a case of the plague, in the department of the commissary of cattle, which was immediately put under quarantine. On the 12th, symptoms of the disease appeared in a Sepoy of the Bengal battalion, who was in the hospital of that corps. On the 13th, five more cases were discovered in the same hospital, which was ordered to be burnt, the sick having been removed into a large house near Rosetta, where the same precautions were used as with the 88th regiment, when the disease first broke out. After their removal, no case appeared in that battalion. On the 12th a case of small-pox was discovered in the hospital of the 10th regiment; and, in the course of two days more, four cases appeared in the same hospital. The first, a Portugueze servant, died. At the end of the month, the number of sick was reduced. In the weekly return from the 20th to the 26th, there were six hundred and thirty-two Europeans, and three hundred and eighty Sepoys, making a total of one thousand and twelve.
None of the tents kept the rain well out, which was often heavy. The sand, however, quickly absorbed it in most places. The fever was, in several instances, similar to a type, which we had been little used to, viz. the typhoid.
DECEMBER.
Early in this month part of the army marched to Alexandria; and, by the end of it, all the army, with the exception of the horse-artillery, 7th Bombay regiment, and the department of the commissary of cattle, was collected there. About the time that the first part of the army marched thither, detachments of the 26th dragoons, and of Hompesch’s mounted riflemen, joined us from the English army, and were quartered in Rosetta. The plague now gained on us.
On the 1st of the month, Corporal Francis, of the 88th regiment, who had been on the pest-house guard the day before, complained of slight febrile symptoms and giddiness. He had a vibex on the seat of the inguinal glands on one side, with some pain, but no swelling there. I shewed him to Mr Price, who was in charge of the pest-house, and he had no doubt of its being a case of the plague. Very soon after his admission into the pest-house, a bubo appeared in his groin, and his fever increased. Mercury was thrown in rapidly, his mouth became affected, and, the bubo suppurating, he recovered.
On the 15th, a private of the 8th light dragoons was shewn to me with a bubo in his groin and giddiness, but without quickness of pulse or any other febrile symptom. On being brought to Mr Price he was admitted into the pest-house, and the treatment and result in him were similar to those of Francis.
On the evening of the 15th, it being reported to me that a Sepoy had suddenly died of fever in the line of the 7th Bombay regiment, I examined the body, and found the inguinal glands swelled on both sides. About an hour after, Mr Grisdale, the surgeon, shewed me a case in the hospital of the same corps, which was evidently the plague, and which I instantly ordered to the pest-house.