[1] Malaria.
[2] A strong alcoholic drink commonly made by diluting low-grade alcohol with water and flavouring it.
[3] There was one stray case in March.
“To the Editor of El Soberanía Nacional, Manila, P.I.
“Sir: In your issue of the 7th of July there appeared a paragraph embodying a shameful libel of the administration of the San Lazaro Hospital, which reads as follows:
“‘Un cuadro verdaderamente aterrador es el que prezenta el patio del Hospital de San Lazaro. Los fallecidos por la enfermedad del colera, son expuestos desnudos en el atrio de dicho Hospital con un cartel atado en los pies con la inscripción de sus respectivos nombres.’
“This statement was so grossly and ridiculously false and at the same time so extremely harmful in its effect as to bring you fairly and squarely within the reach of the law.
“Yesterday morning I sent you a courteous letter requesting you to come to my office, purposing to discuss the affair with you in a friendly manner, and hoping to find that the statement referred to had been prepared by some irresponsible subordinate and published through oversight.
“As, however, you have neither acceded to my request for a conference nor had the courtesy to reply to my letter, I now have the honour to forward you herewith a communication which embodies a reply to the false statement above referred to and at the same time conveys information as to what is actually being done at the San Lazaro Hospital. I request that you give this letter immediate publicity through your paper, and in the editorial columns or elsewhere in some conspicuous place retract immediately and fully the libellous statement relative to the exposure of the dead, above referred to.