Note 12 — Chapter XX · SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK IN PEKING, 1865-1869.

There is more truth than may appear in the bishop's paradox. Peking is singularly free from epidemics, except occasionally of smallpox. When Shanghai suffered so severely from cholera in 1862, there were two British regiments quartered there—one, the 67th, within the native city, amid filth and stagnant water; the other, the 31st, in the foreign settlement, in quarters carefully selected by the surgeon, Dr Rennie. The 31st lost a third of its strength; the 67th suffered very little. Writing in August 1860 from Peitang, a town 500 yards square in the midst of a great swamp, into which 17,000 men were huddled, Sir Hope Grant says: "Notwithstanding the pestilential nature of the place, our troops, wonderful to say, never enjoyed better health."