LOCAL DISTEMPERS. 13 



elephantiasis, commonly called the disease of 

 San Lazaro, The Spanish government sup- 

 ported in New Grenada an hospital built on 

 the bay of Carthagena, without the walls of 

 the town, in which the unhealthy were kept 

 entirely separate from the rest of the people; 

 but the Spanish General Morales, distin- 

 guished by his ferocity, enjoyed, in 1815, 

 the barbarous pleasure of setting fire to the 

 habitation of the lepers, and of burning many 

 of them. From that period they spread 

 themselves through the province of Cartha- 

 gena, one of those most afflicted by that 

 species of leprosy. The Spaniards re-esta- 

 blished the hospital ; but the greater part of 

 its funds, which arose from the tax on spirits, 

 being destroyed, it made very little progress 

 while under their control. It has, in like 

 manner, subsisted since the republic took 

 that town ; but the monopolies of spirits 

 being entirely suppressed, the funds scarcely 

 suffice for a very few patients. 



