ffered. The fever was confined to those who occupied
the houses and huts which I have described. All the brigade suffered
much, but my regiment, then the first battalion of the 12th Regiment,
and now the 12th Regiment, suffered most; and it was stationed on the
soil which had remained longest unturned and untilled on what had
been considered a park round the pucka-house, in which the brigadier
resided. I believe that I am right in attributing this sickness
exclusively to the circumstances which I have mentioned; and I am
afraid that, during the thirty-five years that have since elapsed,
similar circumstances have continued to produce similar results. I am
myself persuaded, that had the sward remained unbroken, and the
houses and huts been raised upon it, over wooden platforms placed
upon it, to secure officers and men from the damp ground, there would
have been little or no sickness in that brigade.

The second of the two causes or sources of disease, to which I refer,
is the insufficient room which is allowed for the accommodation of
our European troops in India. Within the room assigned for the non-
commissioned officers and soldiers, they soon exhaust the atmosphere
around of its oxygen or vital air, while they expire or exhale
carbonic acid, nitrogen and hydrogen gases, which render it
altogether unfit to sustain animal life; and death or disease must
soon overtake those who inhale or inspire it.

I may illustrate this by a fact within my own observation. In 1817, a
flank battalion of six hundred European soldiers was formed at
Allahabad, where I then was with my regiment to escort the Governor-
General the Marquess of Hastings. With these six hundred soldiers
there were thirty-two European officers. The soldiers and non-
commissioned officers were put into the barracks in the fort, where
they had not sufficient room. The commissioned officers resided in
bungalows in the cantonments, or in tents on the open plain. The men
were effectually prevented from exposing themselves to the sun, and
from indulging in any kind of intemperance, and every possible care
was taken of them. The commissioned officers lived as they liked,
denied themselves no indulgence, and were driving about all day, and
every day, in sun and rain, to visit each other and their friends. A
fever, similar to that above described, broke out among the soldiers
and non-commissioned officers in the fort, and great numbers died. Of
the six hundred, only