MEMOIR OF DB WRIGHT. ] 07 



-A. • 



his formal thanks to Dr Wright, for his care of the 

 sick, in general orders. 



Soon after Sir Ralph had resumed the command, 

 he ordered 500 sick from St Lucia and Grenada to 

 be removed to Barbadoes, in order to be placed under 

 Dr Wright's superintendence. Part of this number 

 was composed of the sad remains of the 31st Regi- 

 ment, which had been reduced to a miserable rem- 

 nant of 100 men, all labouring under the fever and 

 ague of the climate, or the visceral obstructions, jaun- 

 dice and dropsy, which are its usual consequences. 

 Some were so far reduced before their arrival in Bar- 

 badoes, as to die in landing on the wharf ; and many 

 of them survived only a very few days. But such of 

 them as brought any measure of strength, improved 

 rapidly in the dry atmosphere of Barbadoes, and 

 under the excellent management of Dr Wright. 

 The extraordinary mortality of the disease he ascrib- 

 ed to the great fatigue which the troops had un- 

 dergone ; to the excessive heat of a climate load- 

 ed with moisture ; and, above all, to the baleful 

 miasmata brought to them from the marshes to the 

 windward of their former stations. At the same time 

 he disapproved of the medical treatment which they 

 had hitherto experienced. The use of bark he be- 

 lieved to have been carried to excess. The exhibition 

 of opium had been neglected during the hot fit of the 

 intermittents ; and in removing obstructions of the 

 viscera, and obviating the effects of long continued 

 agues, he continued to hold that mild mercurials 

 were attended with the happiest effects. 



