OUTBREAK IN THE MAURITIUS, 1819.
39
who had no communication with the sick; while others escaped who constantly sat on their hammocks."
It is not known what has been the earliest period, after reaching an anchorage, at which cholera has appeared on»board ship, but in the instance of the 41st Regiment, men were attacked on the very morning of their landing, which was the second day of their arrival in the Madras roads.*
Before leaving this part of our sul^ject, we have still to consider a very important case which occurred during the period under review ; I allude to the outbreak of the epidemic in the Mauritius in the year 1819. The cir- cumstances of the case are briefly as follows, taken from the journal of the surgeon in charge of the vessel : — " H.M. Ship ' Topaze' sailed from Trincomalee on the 9th of October, 1819, having fifty-seven men on the sick Hst ; and immediately after leaving, cholera broke out and attacked seventeen men, four of whom died.
" On the arrival of the ship at Mauritius, on the 29th of October, thirty-six men were taken on shore and accommodated in the Military Hospital, Port Louis; six of these men died, four from the sequelis of cholera, with which disease they had been seized on board. Three weeks after the arrival of the ship at Port Louis, the cholera made its appearance among the inhabitants, and continued to carry off from fifty to sixty persons daily, chiefly slaves. It appeared immediately after- wards in Qther quarters of the island with equal fLiry."t Not a single case of cholera occurred on board the " Topaze " after her arrival in the Mauritius, although all the merchant vessels in the harbour were losing men by this disease.
- Scott's ' Report,' p. xliv.
t ' London Medical Gazette,' vol. ix, p. 226.
