hospitals for the reception of these marked victims of debauchery.

Near the Smolnoï Convent there is a gigantic Establishment much on the scale and plan of the Bicêtre, and Salpetriere, of Paris, for incurable diseases, octogenarians, and widows, in which upwards of 1400 people of both sexes are collected in wards, kept exceedingly clean, well ventilated, and in the best order imaginable. It is a very creditable institution, and managed with great judgment and humanity. Dr. Arendt and myself went over the whole establishment with the resident Physician and Econome, the latter of whom is an Italian; and I derived considerable satisfaction from every thing I saw. Several women, upwards of one hundred years old, were pointed out to me, prolonging a comfortable existence. There is connected with this institution a species of house of correction, in which the prisoners are made to do service at the former. This establishment is called the Bogodelnia.

I fear that from all that I have said on the subject of civil hospitals in St. Petersburgh, my readers will be apt to entertain an opinion that those establishments are not on as good a footing as the Military hospitals. This would be true as a general assertion, were it not for the existence of one Civil Hospital which remains yet to be described, and which alone is capable of redeeming the character of superiority of the Civil over the Military Establishments. The hospital to which I allude is called "Hôpital Imperial des pauvres Malades, (Bolnitza dlia Bednikh)" founded in 1803, by the late Emperor Alexander, at the suggestion and after the plan of her Majesty the Empress-mother, who having remarked the insufficiency of the existing hospitals of St. Petersburgh, in relieving all those who stood in need of medical aid among the poorer classes, with that spirit of philanthropy by which we have seen her to be distin

guished, proposed to employ the excess of capital arising from the revenue of another charitable institution, under her patronage and direction, to the creation of an hospital for the poor.

The situation of this hospital is in the Rue de la Fonderie, not far from the Nevskoï Prospekt. The front, which is sixty feet long, is separated from the street by an open court enclosed by an iron palisade, and has a very handsome octostyle portico of colossal dimensions. The elevation is composed of a sub-basement story, partly sunk, with a high basement and a principal story. On each side, but at some distance from the main building, there is a large house for the residence of the officers of the Establishment, beyond which there are several offices. Behind the main building, a garden, measuring twentytwo acres, laid out in walks and shrubberies, forms a convenient place for exercise and recreation to the convalescent. The portico leads to a vestibule which separates the female from the male side of the hospital.

In the sub-basement story the apartments are vaulted, and serve for the different purposes of housekeeping, cooking, store-rooms, bakehouse, and the wardrobe, where the dresses belonging to the patients are deposited. At each extremity there are warm and cold baths. It struck me that the passages in this part of the building were damp and some of the offices dark. Most of the servants of the establishment are lodged there. The basement story, which is seventeen feet and a half high to the ceiling, consists of the surgical and convalescent wards; those in which patients are kept who have undergone important surgical operations; and the receiving-room and the dispensing-room. All these are distributed on each side of a long corridor. In the princi pal story the wards for internal or medical diseases are arranged likewise on each side of a long and wide corridor, lighted by a large window placed at each extremity. The

elevation of the medical wards is twenty-one feet. There are in the two stories twenty-eight wards and two hundred and forty beds; but as the patients admitted seldom exceed two hundred and twenty, it follows that there are always a certain number of beds vacant for cases of emergency. The communications between the two stories and the sub-basement are placed at the two external ends of the institution. By means of this interior arrangement, and owing to the existence of the corridor already mentioned, which extends from one extremity of the building to the other, a most perfect state of ventilation is kept up in every part of the edifice,—a ventilation of which the wards themselves partake, by means of the doors that lead into them, as well as through the movable fanlights placed above the doors. These fanlights also serve to add to the lighting of the corridor. In no other hospital has the system of ventilation been carried to greater perfection than in this; for independently of the measure just noticed, there is in each ward a contrivance in the upper part of one of the windows for letting air in and out. Tubes communicating with the external air are placed within the walls; and besides a stove, according to the Russian method of heating rooms, there is a French chimney, which is heated in the more usual way, alternately with the other, for the purpose of establishing a wholesome current in case of necessity The result of all this is, that on entering the hospital, or any of its wards, one is not in the smallest degree sensible of any offensive smell or close atmosphere: add to this, that the degree of cleanliness pervading every part is quite extraordinary, and that the walls are frequently whitewashed, and the floors scoured and kept very clean.

The objection which I advanced against those lengthened avenues or perspectives, under the name of wards, which exist in the hospital Obuchoff, and in the French

and some other Continental hospitals, does not apply to this institution. Better sense presided at its erection; and in their stead capacious rooms have been provided, containing only from twelve to fifteen beds, placed at a considerable distance from each other. This distribution of rooms admits of a similar distribution of cases of disease; so that in no instance are infectious disorders mixed with those that are not so, or cases of aggravated malady associated with those of a milder description.

The system of admission adopted at this hospital is perfectly in character with its original purpose of benevolence, and exclusive assistance to the poorer classes. Sailors, soldiers, insane persons, lying-in women, persons afflicted with acknowledged chronic disorders, or other complaints the result of debauchery, and gentlemen's servants, are not received on any account. Each of these has been provided with proper means of medical assistance in other institutions, and have no claim to occupy a place destined to far more necessitous objects. The poor of every other description are admitted without any ceremony, on the ground only of their poverty, and on simply exhibiting their passport with which people of the lower classes should always be provided.

It is the physician in chief who determines the admissibility of patients; and before they are sent to the wards they are put into a bath, washed and attired in the hospital dress, which is of wool in winter, and of a light linen cloth in summer, both of which are frequently changed.

I visited, one by one, all the medical and surgical wards, as well as every other part of the hospital, particularly the Pharmacie, which was newly finished, and is in the best order imaginable. Dr. Ruhl, who was kind enough to escort me, explained to me the manner in which the patients are treated, and the mode of keeping an account of the progress of the complaint in a paper written in Latin, left at the head

of the bed of each patient, in which are also inscribed, as well as on a slate suspended above the bed, the number of the bed, the name of the patient and date of admission, and the nature of the complaint. The bedsteads are of iron with a palliasse, a horse-hair mattress, two pillows, sheets of fine linen, and a coverlet.

The patients are visited twice a day, early in the morning and in the evening. They are nursed by females, wearing a particular dress and a cross, called Veuves de la Charité, taken from another institution founded by the Empress-mother, in behalf of the widows of officers, who have been left in indigent circumstances, and whom that most excellent-hearted Princess has assembled, lodged and fed, in a part of the Smolnoï Convent. Those only amongst them are employed for this service of charity, who voluntarily offer to do it; and for that service they not only receive both pecuniary and honorary recompense, but are more distinguished than the rest. These nurses are particularly useful, and answer the purpose of the Sœurs de la Charité, to be seen in the French hospitals. The happy idea of establishing a class of women who profess to soothe and take care of the afflicted sick poor, and of patients in general, is due to the Empress-mother, as no professed sick nurse till then existed in St. Petersburgh.

Independently of the in-patients, this hospital admits, in the manner of our Dispensaries, out-patients; the total number of which last year is said to have amounted to 30,000.

An English surgeon, Mr. Beverly, is attached to this hospital, in the capacity of consulting and operative surgeon. He enjoys a well-merited reputation.

The funds of this hospital amount to two millions of roubles, lent to the Lombard at an interest of six per cent., besides which it has some other resources. of the establishment vary from one

penses

The annual ex

hundred to one