Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India

by Sir James McGrigor

In the next case which occurred, though a cure was not completely effected, the same treatment was, for some days, attended with good effects. In the island of Grenada, a negro, attached to our pioneers, received a contusion and a slight wound of the head, which was soon followed by locked jaw. The warm bath, and the liberal use of mercury, were ordered. He, for some time, appeared to be better, and I flattered myself with the hopes of another cure; but the disease gaining ground, the cold bath and the tonic treatment were had recourse to. The patient died.

The next was a sailor, who, a few days before our embarkation, in the Minerva, at Bombay, had been slightly wounded in the foot by a copper nail. On my first seeing him, his symptoms were slight, but were gaining ground fast. On the 10th of December, the day after our embarkation, he had the most violent symptoms of the disease: the jaws were firmly locked; the muscles of the neck, before and behind, were strongly convulsed; and he had twitchings of the muscles of his face. He pointed to the region of the stomach, where, he afterwards told me, that he had intolerable pain and sickness. This man was immediately put under the same treatment as was employed in the case of Sergeant Kirkland, with this difference, that, instead of broth, a bath was made from fat, or what is, on ship-board, called the slush. The same success attended; but the symptoms yielded more slowly, and it was several months before the sailor recovered.

From hearing me relate these successful cases, by the warm bath and mercury, some cases in the Bombay general hospital were treated in the same manner. My friend, Dr Keir, informed me that he tried it in three cases of tetanus, in the garrison hospital. It succeeded in one, but failed in the other two.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YELLOW FEVER, AND THE RESEMBLANCE WHICH THIS DISEASE BEARS TO THE PLAGUE.

When I had nearly brought these sketches to a conclusion, I met with two books which I regret that I did not see earlier, viz. Dr Chisholm’s work on the Pestilential Fever of the West Indies, and Dr Wittman’s Travels. In perusing these works, I have had great satisfaction to find a coincidence with me in some opinions which I had formed, and which I have introduced into this treatise.

It is matter of regret to me, that I did not meet Dr Wittman in Egypt. Most of my observations, I find, coincide with his; and I am glad to have mine confirmed by authority so respectable.

The frictions with oil we did use to a small extent, in an infected corps of the Indian army; but the report made to me, by the surgeon, was unfavourable, and I never recommended its use in any other corps. Since reading what Dr Wittman says on the subject of friction with oil, I think it not improbable, that, in addition to the great care which captain Burr took of the commissariat department, another circumstance may have conduced to their exemption from the plague. The camels of the army, to the number of some hundreds, were, as well as the horses and buffaloes, under the charge of the commissary of cattle, captain Burr; and his people were entrusted with the care of them. In the cold and wet season, which commenced in November, the camels became very sickly, and many of them had an eruption over the body. In the course of three months, I believe, more than three-fourths of these useful animals died. Captain Burr employed some Arabs, who were reputed to be skilful in the treatment of the camel. The plan which they followed I remember well. It was, after shaving or cutting the hair very close, to rub them all over with oil, daily. The men of the commissariat department were, during the day, constantly employed in these frictions, or in tending the cattle: and the great mortality among the camels happened in November, December, and January, the months in which the plague raged the most in the army. The circumstance I think not unworthy of notice; I leave others to ascribe to it what degree of importance they think it deserving of.

I have mentioned, that I thought I could see a characteristic similitude in many of the symptoms between the plague and the destructive fever which has for some years devastated the continent of America and the West India islands; and to the end of the account which I gave of the plague, I add a table of the principal points where it appeared to me that the two diseases agreed.[10] I am now glad to find, that in this opinion I do not stand alone; I have been particularly gratified to find that this is the opinion of so very respectable authority as Dr Chisholm.

I have had the greatest satisfaction in the perusal of the very complete history of the West India fever which Dr Chisholm gives. In most points, the result of my observations on this, coincides with the doctor’s. My experience, in a particular situation, supplied me with some very strong facts, touching the question of the contagious nature of this fever.