History of the epidemic of cholera in Chatham, Rochester, and Strood, in 1849 / by Thomas Stratton ... in a letter to Sir Wm. Burnett ... Medical-Director of the Navy.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the epidemic of cholera in Chatham, Rochester, and Strood, in 1849 / by Thomas Stratton ... in a letter to Sir Wm. Burnett ... Medical-Director of the Navy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    racks, a soldier s son, aged eleven, died of cholera; and two soldiers ill of cholera were sent to Fort Pitt, where they died. Brompton Barracks surround a.large, beautiful, and airy bar- rack square, built at first by the Hon. East India Company, and now occupied in part by some of their depots, and by the Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery, Sappers and Miners, and also by a few men of different regiments At present * about 150 men ot the Royal Marines sleep here, as their own barracks are crowd- ed ; but they mess in the marine barracks, and are supposed to be there the greater part of the day. The Brompton barracks are supplied with water from a deep well on the spot; their si- tuation is very high and healthy. There are about 500 men here ; they had two cases of cholera, one in an artilleryman, and the other in a sapper. During the epidemic the soldiers frequented as usual the town of Brompton, but ■were not allowed to enter the town of Chatham ; this arrangement involved their not visiting Rochester and Strood. Passing through the High Street of Brompton, and descend- ing the military road, we come to the Chatham Line-Barracks are called line-barracks to distinguish them from the marine barracks. They are well situated on the slope of a hill, and, Major Smith, barrack-master, informs me, con- tain accommodation for 2800 men. At present they contain H.M. 17th regiment, the depots of a number of regiments, and many detached men belonging to various regiments, altogether about two thousand men. There are also about four hundred women and children. The garrison-hospital is well placed at the upper and east corner of the barrack-ground. The Spur Hospital, another military hospital, is near it. In the garrison- hospital a soldier of the 96th regiment and one of the 53d regi- ment, died of cholera. Thus there were two fatal cases of cholera among 2400 persons. These barracks are supplied with water from the Melville Hospital reservoir. Marine Barracks.—The lower wall of the line-barracks runs along the military road, on the other side of which are the Ma- rine barracks, exactly parallel to the other, and situated lower down the hill. On entering the gate, the visitor sees a very fine parallelogram, one side of which has a railing between it and the road; the twro ends are occupied by officers’ quarters, and the opposite side by a range of building, being the men’s barrack. In front this building is of three storeys and a sunk storey ; to the rear, as the ground falls, it is of four storeys. Behind this build- ing and nearer the river is a narrower parallelogram, on the other * I beg to observe that, except when otherwise specified, these remarks through- out tiiis account apply to the period from the middle of August to the end of Oc- tober 1849.