344 Voyage of the Nov ar a. 



of the founder receive adequate support, and the work, com- 

 menced as a labour of love, be continued and promoted with 

 energy and perseverance.* 



The great Civil Hospital, to which Dr. Fullerton, a Scotch- 

 man settled in Manila, was so kind as to accompany us, is a 

 very extensive range of buildings, with large airy rooms, but 

 so unclean and ill-kept, that it is no wonder if the report be 

 true, that many natives in bad health prefer to run the chance 

 of death without, to being brought to this infirmary. In- 

 deed most of the rooms are empty and unoccupied, there being 

 in the whole building but 30 confined to their beds, which in 

 a city of not less than 130,000 souls, with but one hospital, is 

 at all events a remarkable phenomenon. Every year on 

 St. John's day the brethren of the order give a fete, when all 

 the different rooms are scoured, swept, and garnished^ and 

 the sick in the hospital are present at the festivities, and, un- 

 restricted by considerations of diet, are regaled with food 

 and wine to their heart's content. This is likewise the 

 period at which the hospital is most extensively patronized, 

 and not only by those actually sick, but far more by those 



* Unfortunately the students of Natural Science have met with but little encoui'- 

 agement or support from Government, and many parts of the interior still remain a 

 sealed book to them, or are only accessible under great difficulties. The deficiency 

 of definite information respecting the island attracts foreign naturalists thither, and 

 of late there have been exploring it, M. M. Feodor Jagor of Berlin, Dr. Karl Semper 

 of Hamburg, and La Porte of Paris, all intent on matters connected with the natural 

 history of this Archipelago, but the majority of such visitants come back discon- 

 tented and thoroughly undeceived to land, where all activity of scientific inquiry is 

 allowed reluctantly, and regarded by the Government and the priests with an envi- 

 ous eye. 



