The cases of this disease that occurred were very few. I have said that the small-pox broke out at sea, in the division of the army commanded by colonel Murray. Mr Philips told me, that it was very fatal to the natives: he sent every case as soon as discovered into the Julia hospital ship, which was unfortunately lost, in the Red Sea, with all on board.
The Europeans, who were attacked in Egypt with this disease, all did well; but it proved a very fatal disease to the few Indians whom it attacked.
As in India, we remarked, that in Egypt the contagion did not spread so widely as in Europe. Though, at different periods, it broke out in the hospital of the 10th regiment, at Rosetta, in the department of the commissary of cattle, when encamped near the lake Mareotis, and in the garrison of Ghiza, yet in none of these instances did the disease spread. The cases that did occur were all of them very confluent. When, on the eve of our march to Suez, I received vaccine matter, sent from Constantinople by order of Lord Elgin: it arrived too late, however, for us to introduce the new inoculation either in the army, or the country; it was likewise too old and unfit to be carried into India, as we intended.[9] At one time I expected to see a curious question in physiology resolved, by observing the united agency of the variolous, and pestilential contagions. In one instance, these two poisons were in action in one corps, and at one time. A case of the small-pox, and another of the plague, broke out, in the camp of the commissary of cattle, at the same time. By the active vigilance, and the system established there, the progress of both contagions was soon stopped, and a second case of either disease did not afterwards occur.
DIARRHÆA.
I have said, that, from the quality of the water, this was a prevailing disease in crossing the desert of Thebes. It occasionally appeared, at other times, in some corps, particularly after a change of provisions, or after changing quarters, as from El Hammed to Alexandria.
SCURVY.
This disease was but little seen in the army. About twenty cases occurred in the 61st regiment while quartered in the Pharos, and one case occurred in the 80th regiment at Alexandria. At the time the disease occurred, the army was regularly supplied with fresh vegetables, and there was no scarcity of provisions in the market.