Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/238

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218
ADVICE TO OFFICERS

give a slight sketch of its visits on three principal occasions when I had to contend with it.

The first time I saw Cholera as an epidemic, was in the campaign against the Coles, in 1832. Soon after leaving Barrackpore, in November, it showed itself in the camp to which I was attached. For nearly a month it assumed the sporadic form, selecting for its victims the camp followers, and the weaker Sepoys only. Though a good many of those attacked were carried off, still it did not excite much alarm; and we hoped,by constant change of ground, and the cold weather increasing, to leave it somewhere behind. However, after we had penetrated about twelve marches into the interior of the enemy's country, it burst out at Luckipore with all the violence of an epidemic, and raged for several days with most appalling mortality. The hospital became crowded to excess;two, three, or four poor fellows were carried in every hour; and so rapid was the progress of the disease, that many died a few hours after they were attacked. Many of the followers, rather than run the risk of living longer in camp, fled into the forests, and attempted to find their way home;running the risk of meeting upon their path the numerous beasts of prey, and the enemy, as savage as merciless, and still more dangerous than the wild beasts, through many a