Physician and friend : his autobiography and his letters from the Marquis of Dalhousie / edited by George Smith.
- Grant, Alexander, 1817-1900.
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Physician and friend : his autobiography and his letters from the Marquis of Dalhousie / edited by George Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
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![IV.] m CHUSAN AND HONG-KONG 4§ During the whole of the year 1843 I remained at Chusan with regular and comparatively light duty. The troops were made as comfortable as circumstances would permit; the duty was light, undue exposure was avoided, and the issue of fresh meat was regular. In consequence of these favouring hygienic elements there was an absence of that terrible sickness and mortality which destroyed the Cameronian Eegiment in the same locality in 1840. We all suffered more or less from the endemic diarrhoea and ague of the country during the rainy season, but there were no casualties among the officers, and few even among the men. In December the weather was very severe, the canals being frozen over and the thermometer at times as low as 12° below freezing point. In my daily walks into the surrounding country, I took careful note of the Chinese system of agriculture, so admirable in many of its features. The journal of these observations was published by the Agri-Horticul- ture Society of Bengal, and a special note of thanks was forwarded to me. Early in the year 1844, the 55th, after twenty-one years of foreign service, received orders to return to England. In a letter in The Times, dated from Chusan, the writer mentions that he had visited the graves of the British soldiers buried there, and quotes the follow- ing inscription— To the memory of 11 Sergeants, 13 Corporals, 4 Drummers, and 403 Privates, of H.M. 55tli Regiment, who were killed in action or died from disease while serving in China, from the 15th July 1841 to the 22nd February 1844. a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21443518_0063.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
