The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

JULY 31.

Gren. Grds. Coldstream. Scots Fus.
Fever
Diarrhoea
Cholera
Other complaints... 10

107. 61 77
Total sick, 245 ; including convalescent, 334.
AD GUST 1.

Gren. Grds. Coldstream. Scots Fos.
Fever
Cholera

Diarrhoea
Other complaints... 9

Total
Total sick, 283 ; including convalescent, 333.

A uGUST-2.

Gren. Grds. Coldstream. Scots Fus.
Fewer
Cholera
Diarrhcea
Other complaints... 13

Total
Total sick, 292 ; including convalescent, 395.

. .
AUGUST_ 3.
Gren. Grds. Coldstream. Scots Fos.
Fever
Cholera ..
Diarrh0ea........... 74
Other complaints... 12

Total ...

.. 137

Total sick, 304; including convalescent, 399.

The above relates to sickness. The reports of
deaths in the same brigade, since the cholera and
fever set in, have been as follows :

Gren Gds. Coldstm.Scots Fns.
Deaths previous to July 27 6
July 27 l.
Of 28
f, 29
f 1 30
It 31
Aug. 1
7) 2 1
I, 3 1

Total 22 12 7
Total, 39 deaths, including two women of the Scots
Fusilier Guards. _ _

The proportion of deaths, it will be perceived, has
hitherto been comparatively small taking the ratio
of mortality usually expected when fever and cholera
rage simultaneously. Still the visitation is very dis-
tressing, and the more so when it is considered that
the regiments just mentioned are composed of picked
men, including probably (with thellighland troops)
the finest and healthiest soldiers in the service. The
calamity is aggravated by the manner in which the
medical officers are thwarted through the impossi-
bility of obtaining adequate supplies of medicine
and other articles necessary for the effectual treat-
ment of the sick. They are incessantly begging and
praying for things which cannot be had, and they
are met with the old excuse--the want of means of
transport.' Lamentable, indeed, it is that the dis-
stance—only 10 miles—between this place and
Varna should operate as an " insurmountable"
obstacle in the way of sending on supplies all-im-
portant to the safety of the army. I do not here
refer alone to the absence of the " comforts" in the
shape of porter, &c., about which such ostentatious
parade was made some time since ; I allude like-
wise to the deficiency of medical stores in general.
If 10 miles be a commissariat impossibility,
hopelessly insuperable .would be that impossibility
if the army had, as it might have done, pushed far
into the heart of the roadless, trackless, miasma-
reeking swamps of Bulgaria. how
Amongst those lately dead is Col. the Hon. Lau-
derdale Maule, brother to Lord Panmure, and
Assistant Adjutant-General to Sir De Lacy Evans's
Division. Poor Col. Maule, whowas highly esteemed
by his fellow-soldiers of all grades, was buried the
day before yesterday. The funeral was attended by
a large concourse of officers. and.men. A vast num-
ber of officers are seriously indisposed. Lieut.-Col.
Onslow (who had only just arrived out) and Lieut.-
Col. F. Seymour are dangerously so. Amongst
the officers now on the sick list are Col. Trevelyan,
Lieut.-Col. Crombie, .Lieut.-Col. V. Dawson, Capt.
Armitage, Capt. Bouverie, and Capt. Mackinnon,
Coldstream Guards; Lieut.-Col. F. Berkeley, Capt.
W. Bulwer, Lieut. Blanc, Lieut. Lindsay, and
Assistant-Surgeon Robinson, of the Fusiliers ; Lie ut.
Anstruther, Lieut. F.
Quin, and Assistant-Surgeon
Blenkins, of the Grenadiers, are also ill. A medi-
cal board will sit-on Saturday, to consider the steps
which it may be necessary for the two officers last-
named to take for the recovery of their health.
Through the recommendation of medical boards a
number of officers have lately obtained leave of
absence for England. Amongst them are Assistant-
Commissary-General F. Watt, Major Johnstone,
33d Regiment ; Captain Munro, Grenadier Guards;
Lieuts. Balfour and Alexander, Rifles ; Lieut.-
Colonel Flude and Lieut. H. Percival, Royal Artil-
lery ; Deputy-Commissariat-General Gowran, &c.
That much of the sickness and mortality has been
occasioned by non-attention to the precautions re-
quisite to guard against predisposition to disorder,
is very certain. The days are still excessively hot,
and the nights,, brings on change in temperature so
sudden and complete that, without the utmost vigi-
lance, cold And influenza, tending to fatal disorders,
are contracted. In reference to this particular sub-
ject the following general order was issued some
days ago by Lord Raglan
"At the present season, when summer heats have set
in, the Commander of the Forces deems it expedient to
caution the men against a too free use of vegetables,
and to urge them entirely to abstain from fruits, and the
wine of the country. It is also important to avoid ex-
postire after subset. -At that time a great-change-takes
place in the temperature of the atmosphere, and it is I

necessary to cover up to the neck, and to button the
jacket. In calling the attention of the men to these
points, the Commander of the Forces desires to remind
them that they must, for themselves, take the necessary
precautions to avoid those things likely to produce• ill-
ness.

The utmost vigilance is necessary on the part of the
officers ; yet that will have no avail, unless the men will
be themselves prudent.
"The Commander of the Forces, therefore, calls upon
them to attend to these admonitions, and to be careful."

A second order relating to the issue of a daily
glass of grog, and to the increase of the meat ration,
has, it will be readily believed, given unmingled
satisfaction to all concerned ; the only drawback
being the fear expressed at the end that, like
other " comforts' " the thing may be "too good to
last." I quote the order in extenso :
"It having been recommended by a board of medical
officers that, during the present season, a small supply of
spirits should be issued to each man, the Commander of
the Forces is pleased to approve of the same, and to
direct that the commissariat department issue spirits in
the proportion of half a gill fur each non-commissioned
officer and soldier.

"In issuing to the troops this allowance, which is a
free ration, it is to be mixed with water, in the propor-
tion of one of spirits to two of water, in the manner
which will be directed by commanding officers. The
time of issue immediately after dinner.
"The Commander of the Forces further desires that
the coffee lately ordered for the troops should be made
to produce a cup in the morning, before going out on
any duty, and in the evening before retiring to rest.
" The Commander of the Forces likewise sanctions
that, as a temporary measure during the present un-
healthy season, the ration of meat should be increased
from lib to lib. The army, however, will understand
that this is only a temporary arrangement, and that the
Commander of the Forces may be obliged, by circum-
stances beyond his control, to discontinue the issue at a
time when he might think it desirable that it should not
cease."

" Cholera belts" to the number of about 450 to
each regiment, have been sent out from England ;
and a further supply, it is said, is to be sent until
every man has his belt. Why was not the required
complement forwarded at once ?
I hear to-day that the sickness statistics are taking
a turn for the better. Pray Heaven the improve-
ment may continue ; but on that there is no calcu-
lating. On Saturday and Sunday last a great deal
of rain fell, and the scorching rays of the sun
raised up noisome exhalations in which lurks peril
to life and health. Let me never more hear the
climate of Old England abused for its fickleness and
the suddenness of its transitions. An autumn's
camp-lodging in Bulgaria would marvellously
change the tone of some of our weather•censors,
who are cynical about the chills and damps of the
'tight little island. The climate of this country
tells even more severely on our French allies than
on our own men. lam sorry to hear, on no mean
authority, that the deaths in their armynear Varna
have lately been as high as forty and even fifty
within twenty-four hours.

No doubt Can exist that the helpless inactivity,
the irksome, harassing tedium of the idle hours,
assist the pestiferous effects of climate and locality.
The constant sight of men, stricken down by di-
sease, borne on stretchers to the hospitals, is but too
sure to engender a desponding notion, even in the
mind of a healthy man, that he himself may
be the next victim—that he and his comrades
have come to this inhospitable region to rot miser-
ably instead of fairly taking the chances of death
on the field. Nor is it so easy as it used to be
to raise the spirits of the troops by holding out the
prospect of a brush with the enemy. These hopes
have been so often indulged, and so often disap-
pointed, that a gloomy, spiritless, sickly smile of
incredulity has too generally taken the place of the
buoyant eagerness with which " news" was wont to
be looked for. A portion of the troops have been
for some days employed in throwing up field-works,
making gabions and fascines, and in siege practice
of various kinds. Of course, the name of Sebasto-
pol is heard once more in connection with these
operations, which, if they have no other result than
that of keeping the men's thoughts from dwelling
•on the sombre present, will not be useless ; but
with respect to the probability of active belligerent
steps being at hand, a certain kind of languid scep-
ticism begins to prevail. I have myself heard an
officer, high in the service, and who has not the
character of dealing in empty bravado, offer to wager
immense odds that the army v% ill not see the Crimea
this year.

I mentioned in a former letter that the Duke of
Cambridge had been unwell from diarrhoea. Hav-
ing happily recovered from that complaint, his
Royal Highness is now annoyed by an equally un-
welcome visitant in the troublsome shape of gout.
He has been confined to his tent these last two
days, but is, I hear, getting better.
We extract the following from another letter on
the same subject :—" The cholera is, I grieve to
say, still prevalent at Varna and in the camps, but
its attacks are not so fatal as before. The change
of encampments has done some good ; but the dis-
ease has not been diminished by the removal of the
men to new and healthier sites. It is my painful
duty to communicate the loss of Colonel Mania,
who died this week of an attack of cholera,
which was brought on by an injudicious dose
of blue pill and black draught. The gallant
officer threw up tjie post of Surveyor-General
of the Ordnance to come out here, and dur-
ing the performance of his duties as As-
sistant Adjutant-General he had gained the good-
will and esteem of all around him. Poor Major
Levinge, too, is gone. He died of an overdose of
opium, administered by himself, when suffering
from diarrhoea. He was a universal favourite,
gay, light-hearted, and amiable, an excellent of-
ficer, a thorough soldier, and a kind, open-hearted
man ; his loss will be felt by all who knew him.
The men of his troop of Horse Artillery have
evinced the deepest sorrow at his untimely death,
for he was yet a young man in all the pride of life.
Mr. Newberry, the paymaster of the Rifle Brigade,
2d battalion, an old officer who had seen much
service, is also dead • and to this list must be added
a young man cut oin early manhood, Mr. Gregg,
of the 55th Regiment. Mrs. Bolton, mother of
Mr. Bolton, of the Artillery, who accompanied her
son, here is also no more. The mortality among
the troops is considerable, and sometimes the victims
succumb with fearful rapidity. The hospital is
quite full, and, numerous as our medical staff is,
and unremitting as are our medical officers in doing
all that skill and humanity can suggest for the suf-
ferers, there are painful cases, of not rare incur-
rence, in which the men cannot have the attention
they require paid to them till it is too late. Many
of the poor fellows, too, who desire the attendance of
a clergyman or priest at their dying hour are denied
that last consolation, for the chaplains aro few, or
at least are not numerous enough for the sad ex-
igencies of the season.
The 50th regiment, who are hardly worked, as
they furnish fatigue parties for the town, lost nine
men last night. I was told by one of the officers
that his men were working from 5 till 8 o'clock in
the morning, and that up to the time he spoke
they had received no rations I This is almost in-
credible. It is useless to alarm friends and re-
lations akhome by talking of the number of sick or
by giving their names, but it is evident we are in a
very unsatisfactory state as regards health. The
beach stinks abominably, and more of the natives of
the town die pro rata than of the men. It is reported
that General Canrobert's division, up beyond Bazard-
shik, lost more than 200 men. Theypassed through
a marsh where the Russiani had left dead men and
horses, and that very night the cholera broke out.
We are getting up large flatbottomed boats here
from Malta and Constantinople. It is a pity—if it
can be helped—to send out the whole disposable
British army here to linger for months in inactivity
—to push them on for a few miles from camp to
camp—and then to let them remain " eating their
hearts" for week after week of idleness—till they
sicken and die. Therefore we rejoice to hear of
flatbottomed boats, of screw steamers, of trans-
ports, of anything to take us off to sea out of this.
Lord de Ros is recovering from his fever, but it
is generally thought that his Lordship will seek
the retirement of home when he has recovered
sufficiently to undergo the fatigues of a voyage.