The latter part of
the year found him again at Stockton, publishing a work on
contagious and endemic fevers, 'more especially the contagious fever
of ships, jails, and hospitals, vulgarly called the yellow-fever of
the West Indies;' together with 'an explanation of military
discipline and economy, with a scheme for the medical arrangements
of armies.' He undertook, about this time, by desire of Count
Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, the medical charge of seventeen
hundred Russian soldiers, who were stationed in the Channel Islands
in a sad state of disease and disorganization; and so admirably did
he acquit himself, and so perfect were the hospital provisions he
made, that (1800) the commander-in-chief nominated him physician and
head of the army-hospital depot at Chatham--as he says, 'without any
application or knowledge on his part.' This appointment was the
cause of his subsequent misfortunes.
At Chatham, with the warm approbation of Major-General Hewett,
commanding the depot, he introduced that system of hospital reform
which had elsewhere operated so successfully. The changes he
effected, as soon as they were made, became known to the Medical
Board, and were publicly approved of by one of its members. However,
shortly afterwards, an epidemic broke out in the depot (then removed
to the Isle of Wight), arising from the fact, that the barracks were
overcrowded with young recruits, but which the Medical Board
ascribed to Jackson's innovations, and reported so to the
Horse-Guards.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49