Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/566

532 fraternity, and indeed strangers of every description, could still, when sick, procure needful assistance from the Hospital of the Order, and care was taken to render that service as perfect and convenient as possible. It will be remembered that a description of its present condition has already been given, as quoted from Newton, in Chapter XII. This shews that it was bat a pigmy affair compared with the comprehensive and extensive establishment the knights had originally reared within the precincts of the sacred city.

The translation of the fraternity to Malta produced no great change in this respect. Mindful of their old traditions, one of their earliest measures, when establishing their convent upon the rocky islets of their new home, was to found a Hospital. There was already existing at Città Vecehia a small establishment, which doubtless sufficed for the limited wants of the island population prior to their advent. This was at once adapted to suit their temporary requirements. It was afterwards entirely rebuilt by the Grand-Master Manoel de Vilhena. In addition to that hospital they founded another in the Bourg. This building exists, and is now part of the monastery of St. Scholastica, the chapel being still used for ecclesiastical purposes. On it is the date 133, with the arms of L’Isle Adam. It must therefore have been completed within three years after the arrival of the Order in the island.

On the transfer of the chef-lieu of the convent to Valetta, the main hospital followed it. The selection of the new site was most unwise, being at the lower extremity of the promontory of Mount Seeberras, not far from the fort of St. Elmo, where it is sheltered from all the cooler breezes, and exposed to the southeast or scirocco wind, which, in Malta, is most trying and deleterious to the sick. It has received the unqualified condemnation of modern sanitary scientists, and although we do not look for the same knowledge in the sixteenth century as now prevails still it does seem strange that such elementary errors should have been committed in the selection of a site, the more so when it is remembered that the city was as yet unbuilt, and therefore any part of the entire promontory available. The Barrack and hospital Commission of 1863 thus reports on the matter:—“The hospital is situated on the south-east side of