CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
were driven to seek its shelter, and had been the subject of constant complaint for years. At last, in 1768, a house was purchased from a native gentleman for the purpose of a hospital. It stood to the south of the Esplanade, the Maidan, practically in the country. This house, with various alterations and additions including two other buildings erected in 1795, remained in use as the Presidency General Hospital up to the last few years, when it made way for a new hospital on the same site, in keeping with the requirements of modern science.
The considerations of public health which suggested the removal of the hospital to a more open situation and purer air led also to the closing of the old burial-ground, and the opening of the new cemetery at a distance from the town, that now known as South Park Street Cemetery. The records of the "Consultations" for the 25th of August, 1767, contain this entry: "The President acquainted the Board that, the New Burying Ground near Mr. Vansittart's garden being now ready, they desired the clergyman to consecrate it, as the sickly season is approaching"—a reference to the fever which prevailed at the close of the rains.
On the same date—August 25, 1767—the first interment took place in this ground, that of
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