224 
pany. Mr. Bruce was also, for a short 
time, secretary to the Board of Control ; 
and for some. years he sat in parliament as 
one of the representatives for the Borough 
of Ilchester. Mr. Bruce was the author 
of several valuable works, some of which, 
though printed by Government, were not 
published for sale, and therefore are not so 
extensively known as they deserve to be. 
He is said to have left in MS., at the 
State-Paper Office, several memoirs relat- 
ing to that department. Amongst his 
printed productions are the following :— 
Elements of Ethics, being the heads of 
his Lectures on Moral Philosophy ;— Plans 
for the Government of British India;— 
Report on the Renewal of the East-India 
Company’s Exclusive Privileges, 1794 ;— 
Review of the Events and Treaties which 
established the Balance of Power in Eu- 
rope, and the Balance of Trade in favour 
of Great Britain, 1796 ;—Report on Con- 
junct Expeditions to frustrate the Designs 
of the Enemy, by attacks on his Foreign 
Possessions or European Ports, 1798 ; 
Report on the Internal Defence of Rae 
land against the Spanish Armada in 1588, 
with a view to the Defence of Britain in 
1798, on which Mr. Pitt grounded his 
measures of the reversional Cavalry and 
Army of Reserve ;—Report on the Union 
between England and Scotland, with a 
view to the projected Union with Ireland, 
1799;—Annals of the East-India Com- 
pany, 3 vols. 4to., 1810. 
Mr. Bruce, during the latter years of his 
life, annually spent several months at his 
seat at Nuthill, in the county of Fife; on 
which estate, and his extensive purchases 
of Falkland and Myers, he had long been 
carrying on improvements on an extended 
and liberal scale. He had also laid out a 
large sum in repairing the palace of Falk- 
land 
BRIGADIER M’DOWALL. 
Brigadier M’ Dowall was the second son 
of the late Archibald M‘Dowall, Esq. (a 
near descendant of the ancient family of 
M‘Douall, of Logan). In February 1797 he 
Monthly Medical Report. 
[Auc. 
landed in Indiaasa Cadet, and in January 
1799 commenced his military career, under 
the command of the Hon. Gen. Wellesley. 
At the memorable siege of Seringapatam, 
he commanded one of the grenadier com-" 
panies which formed part of the storming- 
column; he was almost constantly employed, 
till October 1810, when he was promoted 
toa Majority. He again took the field in 
1812, in the Southern Mahratta country ; 
and in August 1815 he commanded the 
troops at Hyderabad, and quelled the se- 
rious disturbances in that city. The fol- 
lowing year he completely surprised and 
defeated a body of above 3,000 Pindarries ; 
and received the approbation of the Gover- 
nor-General in Council, and the thanks of 
the Hon. Court of Directors. In October 
1817 he distinguished himself at the 
battle of Nagpore. In January 1818 he 
was promoted to a Lieutenant-coloneley. 
On the Ist May 1824 he was appointed 
Lieutenant-colonel Commandant; and on 
the breaking out of the Burmese war he 
sailed with the expedition for Rangoon, 
where he was actively employed till Au- 
gust, when he embarked in the expedition 
for the reduction of Tavoy and Mergui ; 
of which possessions, after their capture, 
he was appointed Governor. Having been 
romoted to command a brigade, he again 
joined the army at Rangoon under Sir A. 
Campbell, with whom he served till the 
temporary cessation of hostilities. 
the rupture of the armistice in November 
1825, Brigadier M‘Dowall was placed in 
command of two brigades of N.I., and di- 
rected to attack a body of Burmese at 
Wattygoon.. After a night-march of up- 
wards of twenty miles, he met the enemy 
(November 16), and succeeded, although 
obstinately opposed by overwhelming num- 
bers, in driving them before him for several 
miles, till he reached some very strong 
works, which he had just reconnoitred, and 
was in the act of gallantly cheering his men, 
when he was shot in the forehead by a 
musket-ball, and died instantaneously, be- 
fore he had reached the age of forty-five. 
On . 
MONTHLY MEDICAL REPORT. 
THE excessive heat which has prevailed during the greater part of the last month 
might reasonably have been expected to create much serious disease. But the fact is 
otherwise. Notwithstanding a continuance of intense heat, greater than has been ex- 
perienced in this country for several years, the metropolis has been unusually healthy. 
No epidemic of any consequence has raged. Fevers haye rather declined. — Bilious 
disorders have not yet been met with in any notable degree of violence. Neither dy- 
sentery nor cholera morbus have shewn themselves. To what circumstance are we 
justified in attributing this singular exemption of the town from the usual consequences 
of high atmospheric temperature? The question is an interesting one ; and the reporter 
is inclined to answer it by referring the phenomenon to the peculiar dryness of the 
atmosphere, which has accompanied its heat. Scarcely a shower has fallen until within 
the last ten days; and the parched appearance of the whole country affords a sufficient 
proof of the almost total absence of night dews. The consequence naturally was, that 
individuals prolonged their evening walk to near midnight, and freely threw open their 
bedroom windows, without the risk of any sudden closure of those pores bi nt the 
heat of the day had so thoroughly relaxed. 
