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 depôt 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 depôt, 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 depôt (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. The commander-in-chief directed an inquiry to take
place before a medical board impannelled for the purpose, and the
result of that inquiry may be guessed from a communication made by
the War-Office to the commandant of the depôt. This states 'the
unanimous opinion of the Board to have exculpated Dr Jackson from
all improper treatment of diseases in the sick,' and the
commander-in-chief's gratification, 'that an opportunity has thus
been given to that most zealous officer of proving his fitness for
the important situation in which he is placed.' The result of this
wretched intrigue, however, was that Jackson, disgusted with the
whole affair, requested to be placed on half-pay, to which request
the Duke of York, with marked reluctance, at last (March 1803)