Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India

by Sir James McGrigor

3d, Mr O’Farrel entered the pest-house at Aboukir on the 8th of March. He continued well and did his duty there till the 3d of April; in the evening of that day, when he had rigors, which he himself attributed to cold, and says, “that sudorifics nearly cured him.” He was obstinately costive, for which he took several drastic purgatives: the rigors successively returned in the evenings of the 5th and 6th, and he continued taking antimonial powder. On the night of the 6th, he was attacked with giddiness, irritability of stomach, and low fever. Mr Dyson wrote to me, that, on the morning of the 6th, he was delirious, that he had applied a blister to his head; but that he could not get him to swallow any medicine: he expired on the morning of the 7th. No bubo appeared till the day before his death.

4th, Mr Dyson went to assist Mr O’Farrel, at Aboukir, on the 1st of April. On the evening, of the 5th, he was attacked with lassitude, and, on feeling his groin, he writes to me, “I discovered some inflammation of the glands.” After this the succession of symptoms in Mr Dyson was nearly what has been described in Dr Whyte’s case. The fever continued for several days, and became intermittent, one bubo came to suppuration. He obstinately refused every medicine but calomel, which he took as a purgative, but it never salivated him. Constant nausea and vomiting were symptoms with him from the second day of his illness, and he was a long time before he recovered.

5th, Mr Thomas, after being three weeks in the pest-house at Rosetta, attending the first plague-cases which came from the 88th regiment, while walking in the garden of the establishment, laid his hand on his groin by accident, and was alarmed to find a large swelling on one side. He soon after felt some giddiness and fell down; as soon as he recovered, he rubbed in mercurial ointment in great quantity, and every hour took as much calomel with opium as his stomach could bear. His gums were very quickly affected, his bubo came to suppuration, and, in three weeks, he was quite well.

6th, Mr Angle, after being about a month in the lazaretto at Alexandria, was attacked with fever and bubo. The bubo never could be brought forward, and he died of the disease on the 14th day. I have no notes of the treatment of this case nor that of Mr Moss; who, after having been about the same time on duty at the lazaretto of Alexandria, caught the infection. He likewise lived several days, and his bubo could never be brought forward.

It is useless to detail more cases, though I am in possession of many accurately related by several gentlemen. Nor do I mean to offer any comment on the above.

As particularly prominent and remarkable, I cannot, however, without some notice, pass over three cases where mercury, early and liberally exhibited, had very remarkable effects.

I received several accounts of the good effects of mercury from the gentlemen in the pest-houses, but none so remarkable as the following:—In the beginning of the season, on the breaking out of the disease in the crowded hospital of the 88th regiment; every man in the hospital was examined at different periods of the day, and thus the disease was detected on its very first appearance. At this time, I gave to each of three of the men, placed in the observation-ward of the hospital, (of whom Littlejohn and Egan have already been mentioned,) two grains of calomel, and the sixth of a grain of opium every hour, and made them rub into the inside of the legs, thighs, arms, and neck, half an ounce of the strong mercurial ointment three times a day. I, at the same time, made them take each half an ounce of nitric acid diluted in their drink during the day, and put their feet and hands, three times during the day, into a strong nitric bath. In about twenty-four hours, their mouths became severely affected, a tenderness in their arm-pits and groins went off, and the severest febrile symptoms yielded. The men were, however, extremely debilitated, and remained a very long time convalescent. During their convalescence, I thought it prudent to keep them in quarantine, being fully convinced, that they had had an attack of the plague, the progress of which had been arrested, and the disease cut short by the above treatment.

Corporal Francis, as already mentioned, was suddenly attacked with giddiness after coming off from duty as corporal of the guard in the pest-house. In the very commencement of the disease, on the first feeling of illness, he was brought to Mr Price, who instantly admitted him and immediately exhibited mercury, and as soon as the gums became affected, the febrile symptoms vanished. He remained some time in the hospital, on account of a bubo, which came to suppuration; but Francis suffered very little. He was never more than two days confined to bed, though the case occurred at a time when the disease was very violent.

The case of Peter the interpreter strongly evinces the success of the mercurial treatment. To this case, the mercurial pills and ointment were given; and he was, in every respect, treated as a case of syphilis and was speedily cured.