G8 On the Sickness and Mortality 



been observed since, not even among the Buffs in 1841. xigain 

 in 1829, a European troop of Horse Artillery had half its number in 

 hospital from fever, in September, and the mortality was great ; yet in 

 the two succeeding years, the health of the troops was comparatively 

 good, and H. M. 31st Regt., which first occupied the lines about this 

 period, continued healthy during its stay at Kurnaul. Now, during 

 the whole of this period of twenty years, the canal was present, and 

 yet the baneful effects of it were only felt at intervals of five or six 

 years ! In 1841, the Buffs suffered severely from fever at Kurnaul, 

 and the mortality was very great ; to account for this sickness, 

 the canal was brought forward! The succeeding year 1842, was 

 equally sickly to the 1st European Light Infantry, and the canal 

 again blamed. The cantonments near it were abandoned, and for 

 the first time, during twenty years, the canal could not be laid hold 

 of to account for the sickness, though the latter had exceeded that 

 of the two former seasons." 



I have mentioned, as militating strongly against the opinion that the 

 canal is chargeable with the production of the febrile diseases which 

 prevailed and decimated the troops in 1841, that the Horse Artillery 

 and H. M. 3rd Dragoons, the corps that were located on the left 

 flank of cantonments, or at the greatest distance from the canal, were 

 even more, or as sickly, as the H. C. 1st European, or H. M. 3rd 

 Buffs, who occupied barracks in the right flank of cantonments, and 

 in the immediate vicinity of the canal — and that the cases in the 

 hospitals of the Horse Artillery, and H. M. 3rd Dragoons, were 

 more severe and intractable, than those in the hospitals of the 

 Infantry regiments above-mentioned. These circumstances are sub- 

 versive of the opinion, that the cause of the sickness and mortality 

 of Kurnaul is mainly attributable to the presence of the canal. 



Remedial Measures. — From this view of the causes of the sickness 

 of the soldiery at Kurnaul, it is evident that some of them are capable 

 of remedy, and others irremediable. I coincide with Dr. McGregor, 

 who has alluded in almost every number of the Quarterly Medical 

 and Surgical Journal, to the subject of the cause of the sickness 

 and mortality at Kurnaul of late years, in the opinion he has given, 

 — that, as long as Kurnaul continues a Military station, it will, most 

 probably, never be free from endemic fevers, with such apparent and 



