Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India

by Sir James McGrigor

A detachment of the Royal Artillery came with Sir Home Popham from the Cape of Good Hope, where they had been stationed for nearly four years. The Honourable Company’s artillery, collected from the different presidencies in India, had all of them been a considerable time in that country. Of the artillery, the Bombay suffered the most; next to them the Royal; next the Madras; then the Bengal; and, least of all, the horse-artillery. The prevailing diseases were dysentery and hepatitis. At one period, indeed, fever prevailed among the Bombay artillery.

The troop of the 8th Light-Dragoons was landed in a very healthy state, and continued healthy throughout. The dragoons came from the Cape of Good Hope, where the regiment had been for five years. The only man they lost in Egypt was from hepatitis.

The 10th foot had been a short time at Madras and had been two years stationed in Calcutta, whence they were embarked for Egypt. At Calcutta this regiment was at first very unhealthy, and lost a number of men; but they landed in a most healthy state at Kossier. The 10th regiment, but for having lost their way, and making some prodigious marches across the greater desert, would have suffered less, perhaps, than any other corps. In consequence of this march, soon after they reached Ghenné, a number of cases of fever appeared, all of which terminated either in hepatitis or in dysentery. Half the sick of the army, on leaving Ghenné, was from the 10th regiment; and the diseases contracted by their march across the desert continued, at Rosetta, to croud their sick-reports for four months after.

The 61st regiment was, in several respects, the finest corps in the army. The men were all young and very healthy, and the regiment joined the army in a state of high order and discipline. They came from the Cape of Good Hope, where the body of the regiment had been for nearly three years. This regiment continued healthy till they were encamped at El Hammed, and they lost very few till they came to Alexandria. They were quartered in the Pharos, and the surgeon attributed much of the sickly state of the regiment to the situation of this quarter. The situation is indeed a very damp one, surrounded every where by the sea, except on the side of the mound which connects it with Alexandria. However, this corps had not yet lost those men which every corps loses on its arrival in a warm climate, and which, in some shape, seems necessary to their naturalisation to it. The diseases by which the 61st regiment suffered were dysentery and hepatitis; and, after their arrival in Alexandria, they were wont to lose, on an average, four men a week, for some time.

The 80th regiment came from Trincomalée, in Ceylon, a very unhealthy station, and where, during a five-years stay, they lost a very great number of men. This regiment was very healthy on landing. It was composed of what are usually termed old Indians; draughts from the 36th, 52d, 71st, and 72d, regiments, which had been sent home after a stay of fifteen or twenty years in India. The 80th suffered most of their loss after crossing the desert. At Ghiza, at El Hammed, and at Alexandria, they were the most healthy corps. However, there were many old men in this regiment who never recovered the fatigue of the march, nor the illness at Rhoda island, and who felt most severely the cold weather at Alexandria. A fact regarding this corps deserves mention. Mr Brown, who was in charge of it, informed me, that many men, who, at Trincomalée, were never free from liver-complaint, and were almost always in the hospital with this disease, never complained at Alexandria. This fact, on inquiry, I found held good in most other corps, and I had observed many instances of it in the 88th regiment.

The 86th regiment landed in a healthy state. This regiment had been six years in a warm climate. They came from Bombay, where they had been in garrison for the two last years. They continued very healthy till they were encamped at Rhoda island; there, and at El Hammed, they suffered much: subsequently, no corps in the army suffered less or lost fewer. The frequent movements of this corps contributed to their being in a more healthy state than some other corps were.

The 88th regiment had been about three years in a warm climate. They likewise came from Bombay. This regiment crossed the great desert with the loss of only one man. They were very healthy at Ghenné, and continued so till their arrival at Rhoda. The 88th was the first regiment from the Indian army that arrived at Ghiza, where they found the 89th regiment, and the ophthalmic hospital of the English army. In the course of the first week after their arrival at Ghiza, the 88th regiment sent one fourth of their strength into the hospital; all of them cases of fever or ophthalmia. At El Hammed, in proportion to the strength of this corps, ophthalmia prevailed more in it, and the regiment suffered more from it, than any other corps, except the 10th regiment. It will be remembered, too, that it was in the 88th regiment that the plague first broke out; and this regiment had more cases and more deaths from it than any other European corps. Mr Tonrey and myself, who attended these first cases, were among the few medical men who were exposed to the contagion and came in contact with the patients, and yet escaped the disease. The 88th regiment became at last one of the most healthy corps in the army. From the 1st December, 1801, to the 1st May, 1802, they only lost two men; of these, one was from the plague, and the other from sudden death, cause unknown.

With the exception of the two Bombay corps, all the native Indians lost fewer men than the European corps. After they marched from Kossier, and till the plague appeared in the two Bombay battalions, where it committed the greatest ravages, they were the two most healthy corps in the army.

The Bengal volunteer-battalion, composed of volunteers for the expedition to Egypt, from different regiments of Sepoys in Bengal, was a fine body of men, and they were mostly what are called old or made soldiers. They were in general very healthy, and during the campaign their loss was very inconsiderable. Though the plague at one time appeared in this corps, yet, by the system established throughout the army by this time, and by the active vigilance of the officers of the corps, the contagion was extinguished; and, though the plague prevailed in every other corps, it never subsequently visited this battalion.

The Artillery-Lascars were, on the whole, very healthy throughout the campaign. The few deaths which they had were from dysentery.