The Insular Government has taken up the question of the Lepers, and in 1904 a tract of land was purchased in the Island of Culion (Calamianes group) to provide for their hygienic isolation. According to the _Official Gazette_ of March 2, 1904, Vol. II., No. 9, the total number of lepers, of whom the Insular Government had obtained cognizance, up to December 31, 1903, was 3,343. Besides these there would naturally be an unknown number who had escaped recognition. There is apparently little _Insanity_ in the Islands. From the Report of the Commissioner of Public Health for February, 1904, it would appear that there were only about 1,415 insane persons in a population of over seven-and-a-half millions. Since the American advent (1898) the _Death-rate_ is believed to have notably decreased. The Report of the Commissioner of Public Health for 1904 states the death-rate per thousand in Manila to have been as follows, viz.:--Natives 53.72; Europeans other than Spaniards 16.11; Spaniards 15.42; and Americans 9.34. The Commissioner remarks that "over 50 per cent. of the children born in the city of Manila never live to see the first anniversary of their birthday." The Board of Health is very active in the sanitation of Manila. Inspectors make frequent domiciliary visits. The extermination of rats in the month of December, 1903, amounted to 24,638. House-refuse bins are put into the streets at night, and an inspector goes round with a lamp about midnight to examine them. Dead animals, market-rubbish, house-refuse, rotten hemp, sweepings, etc., are all cremated at Palomar, Santa Cruz, and Paco, and in July, 1904, this enterprising department started the extermination of mosquitoes! In the suburbs of Manila there are now twelve cemeteries and one crematorium. CHAPTER XII The Religious Orders