the kitchen, which is darker and more offensive than even the lower hail to which it adjoins, the broth, rice, soup, and vermicelli are brought in dirty kettles, first to the upper hail, and there poured into three silver bowls, out of which the patients are served. Those who are in the ward for the very sick and those of the middle rank of life are served in plates, dishes, and spoons of silver; but the other patients (who are the most numerous) are served on pewter.[1] I objected to the sweet cakes and two sorts of clammy sweetmeats which were given to the patients. The number of patients who were in this hospital during the time I was at Malta (29th March to 19th April, 1786) was from 510 to 532. These were served by the most dirty, ragged, unfeeling, and inhuman persons I ever saw. I once saw eight or nine of them highly entertained with a delirious dying patient. The slow hospital fever (the inevitable consequence of closeness, uncleanliness, and dirt) prevails here.”
Such is the description given of the arrangements of the Hospital by a man who was far before his age in all that appertained to sanitary knowledge. No doubt that at the time when Howard made his visit, viz., 1786, matters had greatly degenerated. Discipline had become very 1a, and as one of the consequences institutions like the hospital had been neglected and left to the sole charge of officials, many of whom were very sparing of their time and trouble. Still, with all its faults, and they were faults common to the time and not peculiar to the institution, the hospital of the Order of St. John was freely open to all who sought its shelter, and the kindly ministrations of its officials. Patients flocked to it from Sicily, Italy, and other countries whose shores were washed by the Mediterranean. None who craved admission were ever turned from its doors, and although many of the arrangements were rough, and its sanitary appliances rude, still they were equal in efficiency to what was usual at that period. They must be judged, not by the knowledge of the nineteenth century, but by that of a former age. Men lived in those
- ↑ This remark of Howard’s is the result of a misapprehension. A large number of the patients of the hospital were galley slaves, and it was these only who were served on pewter.
