204 



SANTIAGO. 



liberal scale. Besides these preparations for civilians, there are apartments for the military sick 

 also, and an anatomical saloon for the use of medical students. 



From the time that the establishment passed under the charge of the monks, its funds rapidly 

 increased ; partially through their influence, and partly through other bequests. Then the sick of 

 the better classes were often removed to it, and the ghostly nurses were not unskilled in attend- 

 ing to their own interests, as well as to. the bodily and spiritual welfare of their patients. They 

 are adepts in testamentary documents ; and there is no doubt that whilst making the latter 

 ready for a better world, their exhortations added many a rich legacy to the possessions of these 

 spiritual amanuenses. At present the institution owns estates, houses, and funds valued at more 

 than $250,000; which, together with those of the hospital San Francisco de Borja, the found- 

 ling hospital, and cemetery, are under the control of a special board organized by government. 

 The property yields an average income of nine per cent, per annum ; but, unfortunately, all 

 of those who have portions of the funds on interest are not punctual in their payments, and its 

 actual usefulness is somewhat crippled. One individual of this character was openly spoken of as 

 having been in possession of $45,000 for five years without paying a farthing ; his political posi- 

 tion preventing that recourse to law from which an humbler citizen would not have been ex- 

 empted. As the establishment also receives a portion of the diezmo (tithes), its annual income 

 is not less than $46,000, of which $16,000 is paid to the medical attendants and servants. 



On an average, six hundred patients per month were received during the year 1850; among 

 whom the most prevalent diseases were distributed in the following numbers : 



Hospital of San Juan de Dios 1 850. 



Returns have been made regularly for a series of years. These have recently been rescued 

 from oblivion by the Statistical Office, by whose permission all the valuable information they 

 contain has been condensed into the following tables. The new administrador of San Juan de 

 Dios introduced a more specific classification of the diseases in 1850, as is seen above; and 

 which, if systematically followed, cannot fail to be of much interest to students of medical sta- 

 tistics. The returns from 1846 to 1849 were either incomplete or wholly missing at the time of 

 obtaining the extracts subjoined : 



