| Description | 'Letter and correspondence book of the Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, Portsmouth, Severn and South-West Districts', Volume 2.
Copies of letters written by McGrigor to various individuals including the surgeons under his command, the Inspector General and the Surgeon General. Many of the letters convey orders to the surgeons, refer to the delay in receiving their returns or request answers to specific queries (for example, see page 80). Those addressed to the Inspector General and other commanding officers often enclose returns of various regiments or the weekly return of the garrison, the reports of boards of medical officers or the accounts of depots. Not all the letters were written by McGrigor and some were written on his behalf by his assistants (see page 202). There is an index at the front of the volume.
1808
Portsmouth, 29 February (page 11)
Letter to General Eveleigh enclosing report on the state of the sick of the 1st Somerset Militia and providing summary of its contents.
24 March (page 20)
Letter to General Eveleigh requesting that barracks occupied by the 1st Somerset Militia may be white-washed and fumigated.
15 April (page 32, also see pages 2-5)
Letter to Inspector General regarding inspection of the three stations of the ophthalmic depot.
Portsmouth, 9 June (page 51)
Copy of circular from the Deputy Inspector of the Severn and South-West Districts to surgeons in the district regarding symptoms justifying designation of disease as ophthalmia.
Portchester Castle, 2 August (pages 73-74)
Letter to Surgeon General regarding deficiencies in five cases of medicines received from the apothecary, medicines required for 8,000 men, payment for medicines and poor quality of water and other medicines.
18 September (page 90)
Letter to Lord [Casan?] commenting favourably on his inspection of the hospitals in the south-west district.
Chichester, 22 September (page 92)
Letter regarding ophthalmic depot noting good progress of patients but that recent heavy rain had led to relapses in some patients still in tents.
Portsmouth, 2 October (page 99)
Letter to Inspector General reporting arrival at Spithead of 60 cases of ophthalmia from Cape of Good Hope.
1809
Portsmouth, 15 February (page 129)
Letter to Inspector General noting that cases of fever appear daily in some of the regiments of militia and among the medical officers. Lists those officers who have fallen ill and notes that two physicians, two staff surgeons and six hospital mates are required.
20 February (pages 137-138)
Letter to F. Knight (Inspector General): 'I have now thinned the Regimental Hospitals so much and procured such ample space and free ventilation in all of them, that I entertain no dread of contagion gaining ground in any of them. I yesterday selected 70 more cases from Hilsea, which tomorrow morning will reach the New Barrack Hospital Gosport, and this morning I selected 10 cases from Fort Cumberland for the same Quarters. So very many cases of fever have appeared in Hilsea and contagion has been so concentrated there, that I have recommended to Major General Whitham to send no more troops there until the whole of the bedding is changed...and that the Barracks are white-washed, cleaned out and fumigated'. [See copy of letter sent to Major General Whitham, dated 19 February, on page 139.]
13 March (page 163)
Copy of circular letter to medical officers in charge of hospitals in the Portsmouth district with table showing information required relating to stores received from Portchester Castle.
Portsmouth, 13 March (pages 164-165)
Letter to Inspector General enclosing weekly returns of regiments and two returns of the detachment hospital established on ships: 'Tho' there are now but few cases of fever at Hilsea yet these have appeared with such severity in the symptoms that I have been induced to recommend to Major General Whitham not to open this depot for its general purposes for some time yet. I am glad to say that during the week only ten cases of continued fever have appeared in the ten corps in garrison here, and almost every one of them is combined with pneumoinc affection'. Also notes various appointments of medical officers and deficiencies in stores received from Portchester Castle: 'In the course of service it is to be expected that there will have happened deficiencies; particularly at the Naval Hosiptal, Gosport Hospital and in the two hospital ships. As I originally signed every requisition for these articles [from] Portchester by your orders, I am desirous to have an official indemnity so as to prevent any charge against me for such deficiency being made at any period hereafter'.
17 March (page 171)
Letter to Inspector General forwarding weekly return of detachment hospital Gosport. Reports that in every hospital aswell as that of Gosport 'the progress of the sick towards recovery is very rapid'. Notes low mortality rate and that services of several medical officers are no longer required. The extra clerks employed by McGrigor and other surgeons have been, or soon will be, discharged.
Portsmouth, 24 February (page 176) [Probably dated in error and should in fact be March.]
Letter to Major General Whitham noting his concerns regarding the potential reappearance of fever in the garrison: 'I am of opinion that the usual means of washing barrack bedding and of purifying it from infection, are unequal to the destruction of contagion. I would beg to recommend that every article of bedding should be thoroughly scowered, and I know no means of doing this so effectually as by the machine used at Portchester Castle…'.
Portsmouth, 13 April (page 188)
Letter to Inspector General reporting arrival of three transports at Spithead from Lisbon carrying invalids from different regiments and 360 women and children. They have all been ordered to the depot at Isle of Wight, apart from two sick women sent to the hospital at Hilsea.
13 May (page 200)
Letter to Major General Whitham regarding the Assistant Surgeon of the 8th Royal Veteran Battalion who McGrigor deems incapable of carrying out his duties and reporting instances of his being drunk while on duty. [Also see letter dated 16 June, page 205.]
Portsmouth, 28 June (pages 210-211)
Circular letter to medical officers in Portsmouth garrison relaying various orders particularly relating to the type of information to be included in reports.
Portsmouth, 14 July (page 222)
Letter to Major General Whitham regarding lack of medical assistants at hospital at Gosport and noting request for three more temporary hospital mates and highlighting current difficulty in recruiting medical officers for the army: 'I have in vain attempted to get medical practitioners resident here to accept of the allowance of 5 s [per day], for doing the duty of temporary hospital mates and attending the military hospital'.
Portsmouth, 30 July (pages 226-227)
Letter to Inspector General reporting arrival of several medical officers with sick and prisoners from Portugal and noting number of sick to be accommodated at different hospitals. Also refers to court martial of Apothecary Morton and appointment of hospital mate Courtney to take charge of the stores at Portchester Castle. Also see page 225 and pages 228-229 and letter to Morton dated 13 August (page 235) notifying him of this appointment and requesting him to give his office keys to Courtney.
At the back of the volume are two tables detailing medical officers bills for travelling expenses and personal pay, endorsed by McGrigor and covering period February-March 1809. |