Cholera in Jamaica / copy of a letter from C. Macaulay esq., Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, to F. Peel esq., Under Secretary of State.
- Great Britain. General Board of Health.
- Date:
- 1853
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cholera in Jamaica / copy of a letter from C. Macaulay esq., Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, to F. Peel esq., Under Secretary of State. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
79/142 (page 71)
![during which time there were about thirty cases of cholera ; of these, one third proved fatal The strength of the garrison was about 270 men. In the barracks at Montego Bay, where the average strength is about seventy men, there were in all fifteen men attacked ; of these, tour died. The first cases occurred on the l6th December, on which day four soldiers (black) were simultaneously taken ill. All the other seizures occurred during the next six days, after which the disease ceased. None of the sick orderlies or attendants suffered. In August 1851, there was a good deal of influenza among the soldiers; it was very prevalent in the town at the time. Cholera partially reappeared there in October. Only one case occurred among the troops, in an officer's servant; he was attacked on the 5th November and died on the ^xh. At Falmouth, the mortality among the troops (black), which averaged between seventy and eighty in number, amounted to four out of ten attacked. Besides these deaths, one woman and three children died. The first case was on the 19th November, a week after the disease had appeared in the town ; the next did not occur until the 10th of December. Major Finlay, the com- mander of the garrison, informed me that the barracks are infested with foul smells, not only from the decaying seaweed on the beach, but also from the filthy localities of the town. Dickson's yard, where the disease first mani- fested itself, is very near to the barrack gates. Considering the smallness of the garrison at Lucea, the proportion of attacks and deaths there was larger than at Montego Bay or Falmouth. The earliest case was on the 3d of December—several days therefore before the town was infected—in a boy about ten years of age, son of one of the soldiers ; he recovered. There was no tendency to diarrhoea at the time, either in barracks or in the town. The second case did not occur until the 21st, in an African soldier; he suddenly drop])ed down in the barrack square while returning from the guard to the barrack room ; he died in seven hours afterwards. The third case was on the 8th of January, also in a soldier ; he was attacked in the guard room, but he had been ailing the day before Vv'ith diarrhoea and cramps, which he had not reported; he died. On the same day a European, belonging to the commissariat, was seized soon after returning from the town in a state of intoxication ; he died next day in a house outside the barracks. Tlie fifth patient, also a drunkard, was taken ill on the 12th; he recovered. Another case, fatal, occurred on the 18th ; and another, which recovered, on the 21th. Besides these cases, a child died in the barrack room on the 15th ; there were also several cases of choleraic diarrhoea in the garrison, which consisted of thirty- three soldiers, exclusive of some women and children. Dr. M'Bean observed nothing to indicate the transmission of the disease from one person to another. At Port Antonio, three cases occurred within the barrack ground. The first was as early as the 12th November, and therefore a considerable time before the pestilence appeared in the town. The man was suddenly attacked on the parade ground, whilst on guard. No other case occurred till the 17th of January. The third took place in a woman, a week subsequently. All the cases did well. The garrison consisted of two officers and twenty-five soldiers; there were also two women and eight children. No attempt was made to confine the men to barracks, during the prevalence of the disease in the town. Barracks at Newcastle and Marooji Town. In a preceding page, 15, will be found an account of the outbreak of the pestilence along the mountain road, which leads to the cantonment at Newcastle. The first case in the garrison there was on the 30th of November, in a private of the 97th, who had been absent without leave on the night of the 27th. He was an intemperate character, and had doubtless been at Middleton, where the epidemic was then prevailing. He was on piquet duty, the day of his seizure. In the afternoon he became affected with vomiting and purging, but did not attract notice till he fell down from weakness. Collapse super- vened, and he died 12 hours afterwards. A woman of the regiment was attacked shortly after this case, but she recovered. No other case occurred till the 17th of December; and this also was in a man of dissipated habits, who had absconded Irom the cantonment on the 9th, and did not return till 1 4](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24751303_0079.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
