Illustrations from the Wellcome Institute Library. The new lazaretto at Siros (Syra), Greece, in 1840.

THE illustration (Fig. 1) shows the busy harbour of Siros (then called Syra) in 1837. The island lies at the centre of the Cyclades group, south-east of Athens. During the War of Greek Independence in the 1820s, it had remained neutral and had greatly benefited through increased trade and from the many refugees who settled there. The town was divided into two: the old Roman Catholic upper town, built on a conical hill and crowned by a Capuchin monastery, can be seen above a row of windmills; the new buildings of the lower town, where most of the refugee Greek traders lived, spread along the waterfront, with its bazaars and wharfs, serving the many tall-masted vessels on the right. To the east of Siros, on a similar conical hill, rises the old Greek town of Ermoupolis. On the right of the picture, in front of the church, can be seen the imposing house of Mr Richard Wilkinson, the British Consul. By virtue of its good harbour, one of the best in Greece, with a lighthouse and free port, Syra quickly gained importance in the early nineteenth century. Its population rose in three decades from a mere 5,000 to over 21,000 in 1838, and doubled again by the mid-1840s. All the trading vessels from the Levant touched there, as well as regular passenger services between such important places as Marseilles, Alexandria, and Istanbul. Since all goods and persons coming from the Near East were obliged to undergo a period of quarantine before entering Europe, such a place as this required a large, well-run lazaretto. The original lazaretto at Syra, however, left much to be desired, and it was not until late 1839 or early 1840, that an elegant and salubrious establishment was opened for the use of travellers. Fig. 2 shows the position of the building across the bay from the town and Fig. 3 shows the arcade and north-east corner as seen from the inner courtyard. The word "lazar" in English derives from the sick beggar Lazarus of the New Testament story (Luke, XVII, 20), and has been in use since the Middle Ages to describe a sick or poor person, especially the "unclean" leper. Such people were cared for in isolation in a lazar-cote, or lazar-house, which, in the course of time, changed to the Italian "lazzaretto" with the specialized meaning of a quarantine establishment for suspected plague cases. It was in such a place that travellers from the East were detained. In certain cases, it was possible to pass the quarantine period on board ship,