CUBAN CITIES: HAVANA 113 



The inhabitants of Santo Domingo, however, as will be 

 shown in our descriptions of that island, are as positive as 

 the Havanese that they still retain the custody of Colum- 

 bus's body, and allege that the remains in the cathedral of 

 Havana, to which so many pilgrimages have been made, are 

 not genuine. 



There are many institutions of learning in the city, the 

 principal of which are the University of Havana and the 

 large Jesuit College de Belen for boys. The latter is an 

 observatory, where most of the important astronomic and 

 climatologic data concerning Cuba have been collected. 

 It also possesses a museum, in which can be seen preserved 

 the fauna of the island, principally land-snails, birds, and 

 many rare botanical specimens. The library is especially 

 rich in old volumes, drawings, and prints illustrating 

 Cuban life and scenery from the sixteenth century down 

 to our own times. 



There are numerous charitable and benevolent institu- 

 tions in the capital. Among these are the Casa de Bene- 

 ficencia, founded by Las Casas as an asylum for infants and 

 the aged ; hospitals for the sick of all classes ; and an im- 

 mense lazaretto situated in the western part of the city, in 

 which six nuns and two priests attend to over a hundred 

 leprous interns, besides treating dozens of unfortunate 

 beings afflicted with this dread disease who call daily at its 

 dispensary. A handsome and apparently well-arranuv.l 

 hospital for the insane is maintained a few miles south of 

 Havana, on the road to Batabano. 



Of the institutions of Havana it may be said that so far 

 as the benevolent and charitable impulses that support 

 them are concerned, they are commendable ; but the whole 

 system is utterly behind the age, inasmuch as it is not 

 based upon any thought of the preservation of public 

 health, but is solely for the alleviation of individual cases. 

 For instance, there is no isolation of those affected with 

 contagious diseases ; leprosy, smallpox, yellow fever, beri- 

 beri, and other diseases are allowed to exist in private 



