Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India

by Sir James McGrigor

The clothing of the Indian army conduced much, in our opinion, to their healthiness. They landed with their white cotton dresses, which were admirably adapted to the warm season in which we came to Egypt; favourable to cleanliness; and, by consequence, to the exclusion of pestilential contagion.

From the time of the army first landing at Kossier, in every situation where it could be done, bathing was enjoined throughout the army. In every corps it was regularly done under the inspection of a commissioned officer, and any neglect of cleanliness was most severely punished. In any country or climate, attention to cleanliness will be found a principal means of preserving the health of troops; but, in Egypt, where contagion was lurking in every corner, it became indispensably necessary.

In the cold season, and while we were in Lower Egypt, warm comfortable clothing and bedding were provided, not only for every soldier or Sepoy, but likewise for the women, children, and all the numerous followers of the army.

The simple diet of the Hindoo is well suited to a warm climate. It is seldom more than rice with aromatics, or clarified butter with a kind of pea, to which the luxury of a little salt-fish, of preserved tamarinds, or some fresh fruit, is occasionally added. As far as it could be done, the Europeans were made to conform to this diet; and we are convinced that it was with much advantage to them. The light wines of the Greek islands were issued to the Europeans in the warm season; but in the cold they got spirits.

In the cold season it was found necessary to make some change in the diet of the Sepoys. In the month of January they suffered so much from the severity of the weather, and a climate very unlike their own, that a portion of animal food, as well as of wine, was ordered to be issued to them.

The prejudices of country, religion, and of the different casts of Gentoos, were first overcome in the Bombay regiments. At length, the most austere yielded; and, finally, even the severe Brahmin, as well as the rigid Mussulman, gave way to the necessity imposed by their situation in a foreign country.

The length of time, which most corps had been in a warm climate, deserves to be mentioned, as a cause of the health of the Indian Army in Egypt, till attacked by the endemic diseases of the country. No corps in the army had been less than two years in a warm climate. During the late war, the value of the Cape of Good Hope, to us, was often felt and acknowledged in India. After being at this healthy settlement and there seasoned to a warm climate, the 80th, 84th, and 86th, regiments and the Scotch brigade, landed in India, in an effective state, never before witnessed with European troops in that country. This fact is not undeserving public consideration.

The fact cannot be too often repeated or too generally known, that nothing conduces more to the health of a corps, than the preserving a good internal economy in it. A good commanding officer has, in general, a healthy regiment. Every thing can be done in the prevention of disease; but, unfortunately, very often, little in the treatment when it supervenes.

One point remains still, and I know no fitter place to introduce it than here.