mild. On the 4th, a Sepoy of the 1st Bombay regiment, on duty with the

pioneers in the desert, was attacked with the disease, and was the only man who died of it during the month. On inquiry afterwards, it was found that the Sepoy had got the infection from one of the interpreters, named Peter, and that Peter brought the disease from the Turks in Cairo. The case of the interpreter was so mild, that it was treated by Mr Dick as a venereal complaint. He took mercury to produce salivation, the bubo came to suppuration, and Peter recovered. As soon as the Sepoy died in the desert, every article belonging to him was burnt with the body. A perfect separation was effected, and every precaution taken in consequence. No other case appeared in this detachment.

On the 12th, another case appeared in the 7th regiment, now encamped at a village opposite Boulac. No plague could be discovered to have been in the village. The occurrence of this case, therefore, could be accounted for in no other way than that the seeds of the disease still lurked in this very unfortunate corps, and that they brought it from Aboukir with them. A pest-house was established under the charge of Dr Henderson at Boulac, and two other mild cases were admitted into it towards the end of the month.

On the 23d, the disease was discovered on a Madras tent-Lascar at Moses Wells. On the 26th it was discovered on a serjeant of the 86th regiment in crossing the desert. This was the last case which appeared previous to the embarkation of the army.

The weather, during the month, was uncommonly fine. The thermometer was greatly on the rise. During the month it was from 60° to 68°: at Alexandria from 60° to 78°: in the tents on the desert, and at Moses Wells, from 60° to 98°. The wind was generally from north to north-west. In the desert, and at Moses Wells, we had the dry suffocating wind that we found in the desert of Thebes, at Kossier, at the same time in the former year; and the atmosphere was generally cloudy. The army was very healthy.

Ophthalmia now, however, became a more frequent disease, particularly among the Europeans, and it might be said to be the only disease which prevailed.

JUNE.

On the 2d, the embarkation commenced, and by the 15th the whole army was embarked, and had sailed for the different presidencies, except the 7th regiment, which, on account of the plague still prevailing in it after the rest of the army had embarked, was ordered to remain two months. Most of the corps in the army embarked in the most healthy state. There was hardly a sick man, except a few cases of the venereal disease which had resisted mercury.

To conclude, never, perhaps, was there an army embarked for any service more healthy than the Indian army was when it re-embarked on its return from Egypt.

Previously to the arrival of the army from Egypt, in order to provide against the introduction of the plague into India, quarantines were established at the presidencies of Bombay, Bengal, and Madras, as well as at the island of Ceylon. The principal of these was at Butcher’s island, near Bombay, where there were pest and quarantine establishments, of which, on my arrival in June, I took the charge. At this period, letters from Dr Short, at Bagdad, and from Mr Milne, at Bassorah, described the plague as raging in Persia, and particularly at Ispahan and Bagdad: in consequence of this information every vessel, both from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, was ordered to Butcher’s island.

As the ships arrived, the troops from the Red Sea were landed; but the artillery, 86th regiment, 1st Bombay regiment, and the commissariat department, were so uncommonly healthy, that I detained them but a very few days on the island.

The 7th Bombay regiment landed at Butcher’s island in August. As this was the corps in which the plague had principally prevailed, though they were not unhealthy, I judged it prudent to detain them a month. On my last inspection of them before they left the island, of a total of seven hundred, including Sepoys, their wives, and the public and private followers of the corps, I found only four sick, and these I believe were all catarrhs.

Dr Henderson, with the pest-establishment, and all those whom we had left at Suez, arrived at Butcher’s island on the 1st September. The convalescents from the plague, as well as the guard, and the pest-house servants, were, on their arrival, all of them very healthy; but I thought it safe to keep them in quarantine on the island till October, when, like all the others who had been in quarantine, they were provided with new clothing and sent over to Bombay.

The company’s packets from Bassorah, and the vessels which arrived from the Persian Gulf, had none of them the least suspicious appearance, and I found that their crews were all very healthy.

I had likewise the satisfaction to receive accounts from the medical gentlemen employed in the expedition, after their arrival at Calcutta, Madras, and Ceylon: their accounts were so late as November. In none of the corps did any death occur from the time of embarkation at Suez. The deaths which appear in the annexed table, in the 80th regiment, were men lost in the wreck of one of the transports.

END OF PART I.