Insufficiency of Hospital Accommodation. 345 



wlio qualify for a residence in the hospital by a too great 

 devotion to the plentiful viands provided on St. John's day. 

 When the English were in possession of Manila during the 

 Seven Years' War, this range of buildings was used as a 

 barrack, for which reason the chui^ch was considered as de- 

 secrated for 90 years, and only in I80T consecrated once 

 more as a temple of God. 



There is also in the Calle de Ilospicio a Military Hospital, 

 somewhat better kept, and not like the former under the 

 charge of a brotherhood, but of a medical staff. Unfortun- 

 ately the arrangements here leave very much to be desired. 

 The rooms, insufficiently ventilated, are in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of the kitchen, the smoke and odours from which cannot 

 but be very prejudicial to the patients. In the various wards 

 there were about 150 to 200 sick, whose lot called for 

 redoubled sympathy, considering the little attention paid 

 them. 



Unfortunately no opportunity presented itself during our 

 stay at Manila of witnessing any of those processions of the 

 Church, which are necessarily so frequent in the course of the 

 year. This was the more to be regretted, as we were told of 

 many peculiarities of these costly processions. Here appar- 

 ently, as in the earlier dependencies of Spain, in Central and 

 Southern America, the Roman Catholic ritual has become 

 mingled in the most extraordinary manner with ceremonies 

 borrowed from paganism. The earliest Spanish missionaries 

 were especially prone to believe that by retaining some of 



