Till this day no native of India, who had entered the pest-house, ever returned. But so much was the dread of the distemper now lessened, that a volunteer in-steward, for the pest-house at Aboukir, came forward from the 7th regiment.
On the 24th, the commissary’s clerk at Rosetta got the disease. Of five Europeans, whom we had left at Rosetta, two caught it and died. The disease here raged with the utmost violence.
On the 28th, Signior Positti, an Italian, came from Rosetta, and lodged at the house of Mr Fantouchi, the Swedish consul in Alexandria. It was discovered two days after that he had the plague, and he, with the surgeon attending him, was immediately sent to the Lazaretto. Signior Positti died on the day of his admission. Almost all the cases of plague, which subsequently appeared in Alexandria, could be traced to this case as a source.
The whole number of cases of plague, which occurred in the army during this month, was only twenty one. Fever appeared in all the reports. It was accompanied with the inflammatory diathesis, and it was in general slight.
Of hepatitis and dysentery, the number of cases was still less than in former months. Ulcers, which in the Indian army were hitherto very rarely seen, prevailed at this period. Of rheumatism and pneumonia there was an increase.
On the whole, in the course of the month, there was a decrease of sickness, and a considerable decrease of the mortality. On the 1st of the month there were seven hundred and five in the report; and on the 28th only three hundred and twelve, or about one in twenty-six.
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.