| Description | Letter book containing copies of letters written by McGrigor to his commanding officers (in particular the Inspector General, Surgeon General, the Army Medical Board and the Secretary to the Army Medical Board, J. Reed) and the surgeons under his command. The letters to his staff contain orders and instructions but some relate to more practical matters such as the payment of travelling expenses (see letter to Assistant Surgeon Perkins of the 63rd Regiment, page 141). Many of the letters enclose weekly returns of regiments (for example, see page 27) while some letters (letter dated 3 August 1810, page 75) refer to the ship 'Leander' which appears to have been used for the transport of medical stores. The letters to the Board often inform them of new appointments of medical staff, update them on events concerning the various hospitals and enclose reports of inspections of different hospitals. There is an index at the front of the volume and the entries are written by McGrigor and his assistants.
1809
25 August, Portsmouth (page 1)
Letter to Surgeon General informing him of arrival of detachment of 56 sick, wounded and invalids from Opporto, noting that he had to send 16 of the wounded to the hospital at Hilsea.
27 August, Portsmouth (pages 2-3)
Letter to Surgeon General referring to shipment of stores to Portugal and reports on hospital station at Hilsea: it can accomodate 400 patients, has 1 Staff Surgeon, 2 Assistant Surgeons and 9 Hospital Mates, and is fully stocked with medicines and medical stores. Also reports on other hospitals.
17 September, Portsmouth (page 8)
Letter to Inspector General reporting arrival of many transports containing about 570 sick. Notes that he has sent some patients to Hilsea and the regimental hospitals as the Naval Hospital could not receive them all.
[The letters for the year 1809 end on the 20 September (page 10) and continue on page 11 from the 11 March 1810.]
1810
11 March, Portsmouth (page 11)
Letter to Board reporting arrival for duty at Portsmouth, and noting intention to proceed to ophthalmic depot.
1 April, Portsmouth (pages 13-15)
Letter to Board reporting on state of accommodation in garrison of Portsmouth.
5 April, Portsmouth (pages 18-19)
Letter to Board enclosing copy of report following inspection of the three stations of the Ophthalmic Depot. Praises Dr. Vitch's work there and notes that of 800 cases admitted in the previous year only 3 cases lost their vision. Also lists number of cases and hospital staff at Silsey [Silsea], Aldwick [Aldwicke] and Bognor [also see letter dated 7 April on page 23].
14 June, Portsmouth (page 45)
Letter to Board reporting inspection of stations of the ophthalmic depot.
9 July, Portsmouth (page 53)
Letter to Surgeon Little, 36th Foot, requesting that he establish a hospital for the regiment in or near Kidderminster as soon as possible in accordance with regulations. He also states: 'Your fortnightly return of sick which ought to have arrived on the 30th June you will please immediately to forward'.
10 and 11 July, Portsmouth
Letters to Board enclosing accounts for lodging monies for medical staff (pages 54-55) and letter from Apothecary Courtney requesting medical stores including flannel gowns and capes (pages 56-57).
27 July, Bristol (pages 67-68)
Letter to Board reporting arrival at Bristol and his inspection of the 'numerous sick' of the North Hants Militia. Notes that he will report on the disease prevalent here by next week but that 'the disease is not typhus but a synochus' and that 100 cases have appeared in the regiment since its arrival on the 5th. Also notes number of cases in other regiments. [Also see pages 68-73 for request to apothecary for medicines and more detailed report submitted to the Board on the symptoms, treatment and causes of the disease].
23 August (page 89)
Letter to General [Whitham?] from W.W.F. reporting inspection of several transports at Shetland, noting that some were suffering from the 'Walcheren disease'. The writer notes that he thought they would benefit from a change of diet from rum, beef and pork to wine, rice and _ . Medical officers stated that the masters of transports refused to make this change and that they had orders 'not to issue the medical transports until they had been ten days at sea'.
19 August, Bristol (pages 91-92)
Letter to General Warde reporting improved state of health of North Hants Militia: 'I have every reason to think the fever which has been prevalent in this corps, which has for some time been in the decline, is now extinct...This fever had its origin from the circumstances of the regiment performing a long march in very unfavourable weather...there are now only 21 cases of it in the regiment and of these 17 are convalescent'.
17 September, [Portsmouth?] (page 110)
Letter to Board forwarding weekly return of the regiments in the garrison: 'Every corps here, has of late, in different degrees, been affected with diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery: but a greater number of cases have appeared in Northampton and E[ast] Middlesex regiments' [also see page 118].
25 September, Portsmouth (page 116)
Letter to Board forwarding monthly return of sick in the Severn and South-West District: 'I have the satisfaction to report that there are to day but two very severe cases in the hospital of the [East] Middlesex [Regiment], and that the number of sick is 81 or in the proportion of 1 in 20 to the strength'.
8 October, Portsmouth (pages 131-133)
Letter to Board [also see slightly different version of letter on page 129] commenting on arrangements made at the depot hospital at Hilsea which the Board had deemed unsatisfactory.
15 October, Portsmouth (page 138)
Letter enclosing weekly return of garrison to the Board, noting that there have been 20 cases of continued fever and 16 cases of dysentery among others admitted.
4 November, Portsmouth (page 155)
Letter to Mr. Ritson asking for explanation, as directed by the Board, as to why surgical articles were not shipped in the 'vessel of war' to Portugal.
16 November (page 170)
Letter informing _ that he has received notice from the Army Medical Board that between 800 and 1,000 of the worst cases from the military hospitals in Portugal are likely to disembark at Portsmouth [also see pages 176-177].
1 December (page 187)
Two letters referring to payment of wages of servants who had attended the sick from Lisbon. |