Notices respecting Neiv Booh. 341 



]cct deserves to meet with a favourable reception. This 

 observation, in our opinion, is very apphcable to the pre- 

 sent work, as it relates chiefly to a country interesting to 

 Great Britain, under various points of view, and which, in 

 the present situation of public affairs, may again afford 

 British soldiers an opportunity of showing what they are 

 able to achieve, when commanded bv able and experienced 

 officers. 



These sketches are divided into three parts. The first 

 gives the medical history, or rather the journal, of the expe- 

 dition : in the second, the author, after attempting to as- 

 sign the causes of the diseases which prevailed, proposes 

 some modes of prevention : and in the third, some account 

 of the diseases is given. 



*' The first division of the army intended for the expedi- 

 tion to Egypt, under colonel Murray, sailed from Bombay 

 in .Tanuarv, I 801. Their voyage was rather a tedious one, 

 and the small- pox and a remittent fever broke out among 

 them. They touched for refreshments at Mocha and at 

 Jedda, and on the iCth May, 1801, came to anchor in 

 Ko3sier-bay ; the prevailing winds in the Red Sea, at this 

 time, rendering it impossible to get so far up as Suez. 



" The second division of troops (originally intended for 

 another time), under colonel Beresford, sailed from Point 

 de Galle, in Ce^lon, on the 19th February; and on the 19th 

 May disen)barkcd at Kossier. 



" The last division, under colonel Ramsay, sailed from 

 Trincomalee, in Ceyloii. They were later of arriving at 

 Kossier, and were not able to cross the desert before July. 



*' At Kossier there is a fort and a town, if tliey deserve 

 the name. They are built of mud, and the Arabs inhabit 

 them onlv at the season when caravans arrive with the 

 pilgrims for Mecca, and with corn for that and the other 

 ports on the opposite Arabian coast." 



Soon afler the arrival of the troops at Kossier, they were 

 all attacked with a diarrhoea, occasioned by the water, which 

 contained much sulphate of magnesia. At fir.^t the men 

 were greatly debilitated by it; but as they became used to 

 the water, it ceased to affect their bowels : on the whole, 

 however, it appeared to have produced sahitary effects, and 

 the army lor some time was uncommonly healthy. 



On the 19lh of.Julv, 1801, the 8&th, with two companies 

 of the 80th regiment, under the command of colonel Beres- 

 ford, as the advance of the army, commenced the march 

 across the desert ; hut as they had the digeing of wells, and 

 other duties to perform, they did not reach the banks of the 



Nile 



