Sir Andrew Halliday (1782 1839) served as a surgeon in the Peninsular War, and then as a royal physician. In 1832 he was appointed Inspector of Hospitals in the West Indies until ill-health forced his return to Scotland. During his time there he collected the information for this work, published in 1837. His study of the Windward and Leeward Islands in the West Indies is comprehensive. He covers the colonisation, administration, religious, social and economic history of the islands, flora and fauna, and the climate and diseases of the region. Trinidad he judged to be the most unhealthy of the...

Sir Andrew Halliday (1782 1839) served as a surgeon in the Peninsular War, and then as a royal physician. In 1832 he was appointed Inspector of Hospitals in the West Indies until ill-health forced his return to Scotland. This 1839 pamphlet contains his recommendations to the Secretary of War, concerning the major losses suffered by the army in the West Indies due to illness. It was written in response to the Tulloch report presented to Parliament on the subject the previous year. This showed that the average death rate for soldiers there was almost six times higher than those in Britain, and...