10 Report from the Select Committee appointed to consider 



how the first patient caught it ; but it was discovered that the 

 plague existed then in Rosetta where hospitals were situate. 

 The hospital in which the first cases of plague appeared, viz. that 

 of the 88th regiment, was situate in Rosetta, and the plague was 

 there at the time. Believes the plague to be contagious by con- 

 tact ; should have some doubts of a very close atmosphere, but 

 has no direct evidence of thatj could often trace it to contact. 

 Should think most cases are by actual contact. Means actual 

 contact both with the body, and with clothes infected with mi- 

 asmata. Gives as his reason for considering it contagious, his 

 having traced it clearly from one subject to another, on the first 

 appearance of the disease in Egypt in 1801. As before stated, 

 there were about 165 men affected in the army; immediately 

 after the discovery of the plague, all the cases of it were sent to 

 a pest house; the suspicious cases, those with symptoms of fe- 

 ver, were placed in observation rooms; and then the whole of 

 the remainder of the 165 men were, without loss of time, re- 

 moved to another hospital prepared for them. Before any man 

 was removed to the new hospital, the strictest precautions were 

 used ; his hair being cut off, he was put into a bath, and the 

 whole of his clothing left outside the hospital and destroyed ; 

 each man was then provided with new and fresh clothing. The 

 consequence of these precautions having been rigidly enforced 

 was, that after entering the new hospital, no new case of the dis- 

 ease appeared. Has known instances where contact with plague 

 patients has taken place, but no disorder has occurred; on the 

 first appearance of the disease in the months of September, Oc- 

 tober, November, and December, when the disease was virulent, 

 knew of very few cases where the disease did not follow contact; 

 but afterwards, when the most rigid precautions were taken, and 

 towards the end of the season, and when the disease was in a 

 mild form, people went sometimes together with impunity; a case 

 of plague has been detected, and people in the same tent have 

 not liad it. Of those aflflicted with the plague soon after the first 

 part of the season, none recovered ; indeed the subjects of the 

 first part of the season were mostlv native troop<<, the Sepoys; 

 and many unfavourable circumstances along with the virulence of 

 the disease attended. Tiie Indian army consisted of 7,886; of 

 tlio'se 3,759 were Europeans, and ^,127 natives of huh'a. There 

 died of the plague, of Europeans 'SS, and of natives of India 127. 

 The inhabitant-; of Egypt have an idea that the plaiiiie generaUy 

 ceases on S» John's dav, the summer soKstice. The general be- 

 lief is, that the extremes of heat and cold arrest the plague. It 

 subsides gradnallv; from perhaps Echru.niy or M:Mch till June. 

 It is a pretty general opinion that the disease is never entirely 

 extinct in the country, but that it is called into action by causes 



which 



