At the commencement of this month affairs wore a very unfavourable aspect. The plague, which first appeared in Rosetta, and had hitherto, with little exception, been confined to that place, at the present period had travelled as far as Aboukir on the one side, and as far as Rahamania on the other side, of Alexandria; and we had information that most of the intermediate stages, betwixt us and these two places, were infected. With so much severity did the disease rage at Rosetta, that, at the end of last month, it was found necessary to withdraw the commandant and every person from it, and the inhabitants shut themselves up. From information received by the Board of Health, they likewise found it necessary to place all those coming from Cairo and Ghiza under quarantine.
It was well known, that, in Upper Egypt, the plague was making dreadful ravages among the Mamalouks. The few cases which occurred in Alexandria made every one alert there, and a very strict police was kept up in the town by the commandant and by the Scorbatchie.
The weather in the beginning of the month was variable. The thermometer rose a little. It was rarely so low as 60°, and only once as high as 71° 50″. We had much high wind on twelve days. It rained on fifteen days, but the quantity which fell was not so great as in the last month. The sky was cloudy throughout the month.
On the 20th there was much loud thunder.
On the 1st, sixty-four invalids, from the Indian army, were embarked for England. The greater part were cases of blindness.
Both Mr Price and Mr Rice, who dissected the body of Signior Positti in the lazaretto, had been ill ever since; and this day they were so ill that Dr Buchan was sent in to relieve Mr Price, and Mr Moss to relieve Mr Rice.
On the 3d, a case of the plague appeared at Ghiza on a private follower, and another case was detected in the hospital of the 26th Dragoons at Alexandria.
On the evening of the 14th, Mr O’Farrel, who had charge of the pest-house at Aboukir, was attacked with the disease. This day all the hospitals were moved out of town, and encamped under the walls of Alexandria.
On the 6th, a Jewess dropped down dead in the streets of the city, and it was discovered that she had been ill for four days of the plague. Her husband, who concealed it from the Board of Health, was bastinadoed; and afterwards was sent, with his whole family, into quarantine. On the same evening an Arab’s family reported that one of them was ill of the plague. The person affected was sent to the pest-side, and the rest of the family to the observation-ground, of the lazaretto.