THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
401 
Another curious example of a similar type was 
open to the public to within a few months ago. 
It was situated in Strada Mercanti, Valletta, 
and permission to see it was be obtained on appli- 
cation to the Comptroller of Charitable Institu- j 
tions. « 
In former days the deceased patients from the j 
hospital of the knights of St. John were buried in 
a cemetery that adjoined the hospital, and which 
was situated in one of the most populated districts 
of the city. 
Sanitary considerations necessitated the remo- 
val of this burying ground, and early in the pre- 
sent century it was broken up and the human 
remains were collected and thrown in a promis- 
cuous heap into an adjoining crypt where they 
remained for several years. In 1847-1848 the Rev. 
G. Zammit the chaplain to the Civil Hospital j 
undertook to sort the bones, and himself festooned i 
the walls of the crypt in all sorts of quaint and 
fastastie devices. 
The bones have a peculiar interest attached to 
them as most of them are the remains of the 
soldiers of the Knights, who were treated in the 
hospital of the Order. This hospital was built 
in 1628 by the Grand Master Vasconcelos, and it 
was so well kept up by the Knights that the 
patients were served on silver plate the value of 
which was estimated at £ 3000. Magnificient, how- 
ever, as were the hospital and its appurtenances, 
the philantrophist Howard, who visited it in 1786 
gives us but a gruesome account of the manner in 
which the patients were treated. u The number of 
patients,” he says, in this Hospital” during the 
time I was in Malta (March 29th to April 19th 
1786) was from 510 to 532. These were served by 
the most ragged, dirty, unfeeling and inhuman 
persons I ever saw. 1 once found eight or nine 
of them highly entertained with a delirious dying 
patient. The Governor told one that they had 
only twenty two servants and that many of them 
were debtors or criminals, who had tied thither 
for refuge. At the same time I observed, that 
near forty attendants were kept to take care of 
about twenty six horses and the same number of 
mules in the Grandmasters stables; and that 
there all was clean. 
I cannot help adding that in the centre of each 
oi these stables there was a fountain out of which 
water was constantly running into a stone basin; 
but that in the hospital though there was indeed 
a place for a fountain there was no water.” At the 
present time this building is used as a civil 
hospital. 
Minnie Cooke. 
The Collection and Preparation of 
Foraminifera 
By Edward Halkyard, F.R.M.S 
III. 
Fossil foraminifera which are embedded in 
soft shales or clay, such as Gault Clay, may be 
treated in the following manner. The clay must 
be broken into small pie es, say about three cubic 
inches in size, and dried thoroughly but not baked. 
If the dried clay whilst still warm is thrown 
into a basin of cold water it will soon become 
disintegrated and fail in the form of mud to the 
bottom of the basin. A portion of the mud must 
now be put into the gauze bag attached to the 
tin funnel mentioned before, and washed under 
a water-tap. The water flowing through the bag 
will carry with it the fine impalpable particles 
of mud, and in a short time the bag will contain 
only a small quantity of clean gritty material 
composed largely* of fi>raminifera, sponge spicules 
and fragments of shell. This process must be 
repeated till all the clay is washed. It is better 
to put only a small quantity of clay in the bag 
at once, as with a large quantity the meshes of the 
gauze become partially choked up with the /foot- 
ing mud, and the water does not find its way 
through So easily. I also find it best te let the 
foraminifera, etc., collect in the bag till I have 
washed all the clay I intend t * d<>, the water is 
then drained off and the whole apparatus placed 
near a fire to dry. When dry, the bag may be 
detached and its contents emptied out and stored 
for future examination. 
The manner of treating the material obtained 
from the interior of Hints is very similar to the 
one des -ribed above, but after the gathering is 
well dried it is necessary to vet rid of the Hakes 
