asylum every way unsuited to the recovery of any patient, the unfortunate subject is thrust in there, is in the very nature of things badly attended, and dies; whilst the one case is multiplied in public estimation by scores, and the half dozen counties adjoining, are for weeks or months in paroxysms of fear, lest the disease spread to and scourge them. Public neglect of the duties of humanity thus carries with it its own retribution, its own punishment. But suppose a building at command, like the old Lunatic Asylum, well suited for the emergency, provided with a high and substantial wall, and the enclosure within it spacious enough to permit there the erection of a temporary "pest house," where the disease might be treated with perfect safety to all concerned! Is it nothing to the community--to all who feel interested in the welfare of friends, to be assured that all contingencies, so far as human forethought can go, are provided for, that the deadly disease can be stayed at that point? Hospital of the Sisters of Charity es tablished here, in the year 1848: ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL. "This institution has only been able to accommodate from 20 to 25 patients. It went into operation in October, 1848, under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, and up to the 1st of February, 1852, about 200 persons have been nursed and tended in the house, mostly of the humbler classes of society, and from all parts of the State; a great many engaged in public works and in the nav. igation of our Western rivers. Sev. eral gentlemen, from this and other cities, afflicted with diseases, resort to the St. John's Hospital, for the purpose of having careful and tender nurses, as also the advantage of skillful physi cians. Of this whole number (200) only 13 have died, though many are brought to the hospital when almost in the last extremity. A number of severe cases of typhoid fever have been most successfully treated there by Drs. Stout, Cheatham, Bowling, Jennings and Porter, and their prescriptions be ing strictly followed, have in all instances but one restored the patient to perfect health. Several important operations have been performed, one recently, the amputation of the leg of an Italian. Most of the medical fa culty and students were present. Dr. Porter performed the operation. The patient is now in fine health, his leg healed, and will soon be able to leave the hospital. Not less than 40 have been taken from the streets and hovels about town in a dying condi In our own State Capital the number tion, and sent to the hospital by the of transient and destitute cases brought Mayor and other benevolent persons; by the river and from other points, and have thereby been saved from much would astonish the public could it be suffering and a most painful death. A correctly given. A constant and hea- greater number would have been revy tax upon our medical men, who, to ceived during the years 1849-50 had their credit be it said, will not, even at not the Sisters partially suspended their their own cost, allow their patients to labors in the hospital during the prev go without medicine and other neces- alance of the Cholera, in order to desaries, even where there is no prospect vote themselves to those afflicted with of remuneration, the number of pri- the disease throughout the city; yet this vate cases so treated cannot be exactly suffices to show what an immense ascertained. As an index however blessing a hospital is to suffering to this matter, we subjoin the follow- humanity, when well conducted. We ing from the records of the little could relate tales of real life from little Take a more selfish-if you please, a sordid view of the matter; and is it nothing, either, to trade and commerce, that the citizens of other sections can be made to feel safe in sojourning, ac cording as business may require, in the region so visited? In any view of the case, the wisdom of providing, where necessary, at the public expense for the cure of disease, is plainly manifest; to say nothing of the humanity of the thing, a point upon which every commonwealth ought to be proudly sensitive. St. John's Hospital that would chill the blood of the stoutest heart, but we forbear." On who feels for the woes of his race! Comparatively limited in means, as is the institution from the operations of which the above results have been col. lected, it has yet, as all can see, been the means of doing much good; and yet, compared to the number of those it could not relieve, the number is al-are all females; and at the foot of each most as nothing. In connection with this matter, perhaps a brief account of the Hospitals of Paris, the best managed in the world, may not be uninteresting, at this time. The whole number of them, and of all kinds, in operation, is twenty-six; and they receive yearly upon an average eighty thousand patients, of whom five thousand two hundred are always under treatment. Of eighty six thousand one hundred and four received into the hospitals by the last report, in one year, the number cured was seventy four thousand nine hundred and twenty. To support these establishments, the revenues from various sources, amounting to between three and four millions of dollars, are devoted, all public places of amusement, for instance, paying a tax of eight per cent on their receipts. bed we find the name, the age, place of nativity and the disease of each patient set forth in due form. Let us stop for a moment here, as a dark eye turns its sorrowful gaze upon us, and a lovely face, the flush of fever making its beauty more radiant, is withdrawn from the small white hands that had listlesly hung over the fair brow. We read "Hellene M, age, 19 years, native of St. Amand!" Poor maiden! What a terrible fate, at such an age to be immured in an hospital so far from home and friends—if perchance she have either-and what a mournful past must be hers, this sad spectacle a portion, probably of the last act in the tragedy, We proceed on our way, passing couch after couch, and through hall af ter hall of the immense establishment, hearing the faint moan, or the "death rattle" of those whose thread of life is about to be snapped forever, and encountering glances which we feel must abide with us for years, as sorrow and suffering writhe upon their weary But let us walk through one or two of them to form some idea of their management, beginning with the largest in Paris, the Saltpetrière. Before some alterations were made for out-door patients, it had five thousand beds, but couches. now it has only four thousand four What a lesson for the thoughtful mind hundred and thirty-eight-about five to dwell upon-what a rebuke to the hundred less. Crossing from the Gar- thousands of thoughtless ones who are den of Plants, from which it is only so ready to murmur at their destiny! separated by a narrow street, we come to the front of the establishment, six hundred feet in length, and enter a doric gateway, where, applying at the porter's lodge, an attendant is furnished us for the tour of the vast establishment. We find ourselves in an immense court surrounded by enormous buildings of stone, and crossing a por tion of this space, and ascending a stairway, we are suddenly introduced. into a spacious hall, perhaps eighty or almost a town of itself, provided with one hundred feet in length and thirty a church, a market, extensive kitchens, in breadth. What a spectacle to him a laundry, and so on, the whole man A sprightly looking young girl, as we enter one of the halls, comes dancing towards us with enquiring looks, from a group near by; but as, on recipro cating her gentle courtesy, we glance into the depths of the sparkling eye, we discover, alas, that no light of reason glimmers there, but a dreaminess of vision tells of reason dethroned, of mind a wreck. We find the immense establishment any "bowels of compassion" none whatever. He seizes hold of a stiffened joint. The poor girl shrieks as he bends it almost to breaking, and he does it with no more apparent emotion than you would feel at bending a peach twig, leaveing her in a paroxysm of tears, to proceed to the next. Surely, this one will move his com little boy, perhaps of five years old, and with golden curls. Not at all. Poor little fellow! How timidly he eyes the stony hearted operator, as the latter quickly removes the bandages from one of the lower limbs, ampu tated just below the knee, whilst a kind hearted student seeks to draw aged with a degree of exactness, of or der, perfectly wonderful. Organized as early as the year 1656, in 1662 nine to ten thousand poor people were admitted here, and it has been in active operation ever since. Heavens! what waves of human misery have year after year, and century after century swept over this single spot, and what myriads of sick have entered its por-passion-a beautiful blue-eyed child, a tals to come forth again in health, liv. ing monuments of that kindness which has provided so well for those who "were ready to perish!" A splendid charity indeed, but oppressed with the sight of so much to sadden the spirit, we are glad to find ourselves once more in the street, and on our way across to the Garden of Plants-but off the attention of the sweet little sufwho would imagine, as they encounter its gay troop of visitors from every land, sauntering around amidst shrubbery and flowers, and the music of birds and of fountains on every side, that within a few steps of the bright spot was congregated so much of heartbreaking woe, so much of agony unspeakable. ferer by a show of playthings suitable to his age! "Doing very well," is his only remark to the nurse, as he leaves the little fellow in tears, and with great drops of perspiration standing upon his fair forehead, whilst we, moved to the very heart, and thanking Heaven that we are not a French surgeon, stay behind and attempt to sooth the suffering we cannot cure. We follow onward, and other sights. of suffering and woe meet our vision. A small furnace filled with burning coals and irons at a white heat, is brought in and placed at the foot of a couch. We may witness the "actual cautery" if we desire to do so; and growing somewhat hardened by so many displays of human suffering, we linger a few moments. Chloroform is administered and the poor patient, amidst pleasant visions, and chatting meanwhile and laughing about his home in the Cote d'Or, has his knee burned almost to a cinder-blessed oblivion from agony otherwise not to be borne. We proceed next to the Hospital of St. Louis, founded in 1602 by Henry IV. It has accommodations for over eight hundred patients, who are attended by the religious order of the Dames of St. Augustine, and with unwearied assiduity too. We are here at an ear ly hour in the morning, and in time to accompany a surgeon of the establish ment, one of the most eminent in Europe, through the different wards. He is rather an insignificant looking man, very ordinarily dressed, wears a white apron like a waiter at a restaurant, and has the cuffs of his coat sleeves turned back for the occasion. If seen in a café, you would naturally enough call upon him to serve you; and yet his In all this, terrible as may be the works upon operative surgery are spectacle presented to the uninitiated, known over the civilized world, and we must remember that no bunglers are in different languages too. tolerated in the French hospitals. The He approaches, snapping and snarl-operators are the very first men of the ing, a couch. He is followed by an assistant, bearing a case of surgical instruments, and by a gentle looking Sister of Charity, the nurse. How the poor creatures shrink at his approach! Yet it would never do for him to have age in point of ability, and nothing is wanting to give every patient the best chance for a cure possible. The hospital of St. Louis, of which it will be remembered we are now speaking, is celebrated for its medicated and miner al baths, particularly for those of a sul- referred to, for the objects sought; and phurous nature; and it is said that in a so far the friends of suffering humanity single year one hundred and eighty thousand persons have availed themselves of its accommodations in this respect. We might dwell upon the many other noble institutions of this kind abounding in Paris for the relief of human misery. There is one hospital, for instance, containing six hundred beds, devoted to the cure of diseases of children alone; whilst many beside are for certain classes of diseases, and all managed in a way to extort the highest praise from all who visit them. will be gratified. But let them complete the good work by making some provision for sustaining the institution in a suitable manner. To do this a Board of Trustees should be appointed, with power to manage its affairs, a Medical Superintendant of the highest character should be placed over it with power to provide nurses and attendants, and some portion of the State tax, as in other cases, should be set aside to meet the wants of it. Let it no longer be said that in a State of the magnitude and wealth of Tennessee; the stranger who may come amongst us may perish unless private charity, happening to discover his wants, may come to the rescue-let not the few in times to come, as in times past, be taxed to sustain what by every moral consid eration, by every rule of right, human and Divine, should be borne equally by all. We honor the French government and the French people for these splendid examples of what can be done to mitigate human suffering; and how ever we may smile at their foibles in the science of government, however we may cavil at their vacillation from monarchy to republicanism, and from republicanism to monarchy, one thing they have ever been true to, through all vicissitudes, and that is to their plans for A BEAUTIFUL EPITAPH. the relief of the suffering by diseaseto their Administration of the Hos- Many beautiful tributes have been pitals. The Great Teacher of mankind given to enshrine the virtues of the dead; told his disciples-"the poor ye have a last consolation to surviving friends, always with you;" but what kind of as if they would by such acts follow practical Christianity is that which, "passing by on the other side," leaves poverty and disease to take care of itself; and who amongst us does not feel, upon reflection, that the time has now come when the question should be met, when a great State, like Tennessee, should emulate the many examples given by other communities! them beyond the confines of this world, with gentle words and loving memories. On a visit to the grave-yard here, we copied the following, to as noble a spirit as ever breathed, the late T. W. Erskine, Esq.; and as a model of its kind, and for the purpose of preserving a memori al so just,--an encomium so beautiful, we insert it here, doubting not but that the many friends of the lamented deceas ed will be glad to see it. It is as fol. At the time of preparing this article for the press; the lower House of the Legislature has passed a bill constitut-lows: ting the old Lunatic Asylum a State Hospital; and we cannot doubt therefore, but that the Senate will also do its part. At the last session of the Legislature, a petition with the names of many distinguished citizens to it, The broad Atlantic rolls between this spot and his be amongst others two of the Ex-Gover nors, was presented, and we see in the "Beneath this stone repose the mortal remains of one endeared to a numerous circle of friends, by his BRILLIANT TALENTS, HIS POETIC TEMPERAMENT, HIS UNBENDING INTEGRITY OF CHARACTER, HIS GENUINE SOCIAL SYMPATHIES, AND HIS LOVING HEART. reaved kindred; and this MONUMENT action of this session a desire manifested Is erected by those, to whom he had bound himself by to consummate the matter. The Legisla ture will doubtless turn over the edifice ties as strong as those of blood. His errors were few, and they lie buried with him.. THE DERBY DAY. off with considerable color about the temples. The scenery along the road improves in beauty. Shaded green lanes are on all sides flecked with beautiful white cottages covered with jessamine and honeysuckle, and embowered in trees. We arrive at last; and find "Epsom Downs," a most beautiful scope of open country, much like an American prairie, rolling in form, and green as emerald, the "grand stand" occupying an swarming with a multitude estimated at two hundred thousand persons! more than I ever expect to see together again. (Here I might moralize on the course of such a host to "dusty death," but I forbear-for-how many of them. all think of that?) The Metropolis in the vicinity of London Bridge is on tiptoe, for this is the "Derby" at Epsom Races; and the famous old public house on the Surrey side of the river, the "Elephant and Castle," is alive with those who have congregated there to make a start for the "Downs." Cockneydom is turning out its tens of thousands for the occasion; and there they go, behind and upon every thing that can travel, from elevated position, and the vicinity the "bit of blood" or splendid chariot of "my lord" to the broken kneed hack or the humble market cart pressed into service for the extraordinary occasion. Fifteen miles is the distance to be "done," and away they rush, the road lined with spectators from the country around, some peeping over the hedges, others eyeing the cavalcades from the gateways, others, again making a holiday of it upon the green sward of Clapham Commons, whilst at the same time they do not forget to watch the changing panorama of the road. For miles, there is such a jam that nothing can pass, at times; but the whole of the two or three lines of vehicles are compelled to move on at a walk, with an occasional dead halt until the front can make its way. Loud is the merriment on all sides"young England" cutting as many capers, as a pet bear, and almost as gracefully too, to show that come what will, he is determined to enjoy himself. Good natured sallies are the order of the day; and no one is expected to get angry, no matter how hard may be the hit; vide a specimen: The time for a start has not arrived, and I take my way around amongst booths and stands, and the numberless vehicles which have cast anchor here for the day, to watch young England at his antics under the influence of tuns of beer and spirits which have been. provided for the occasion. "Punch" is upon the ground, playing"slight of hand" tricks to the gaping crowds of infantile John Bulls, donkey races are carried on with great spirit, whilst ballad singers rival with their cracked droning, the noise of the ungreased "dog carts" which pass from time to time. But the turfmen are now mustering for the grand scene of the day, and red and green and blue jackets, as well as all other colors begin to make their appearance upon the space in front of the stand, whilst the Secretary of the "John!" says a mustached exquisite meeting, on a sturdy hack, and conon horseback, upon passing a fat post-spicuous from his red coat rides up and illion, who is quietly pushing along down with an air of amazing imporwith his master and family,"John, tance assisting the police to clear the how dare you, sir, go to the Derby," track. without a shirt collar? At length all is ready. The horses The answer is ready. "How the with their riders mounted, take their dooce could I get a shirt collar, when places, thirty and more in number, and your mother has not sent home my the signal given, there they come, washing!" charging like a rainbow torn by a whirlwind over the green sward, the colors scattered as the distance run increases, until at the conclusion, the The young ladies giggle outright, John touches the off leader with a professional air, and the exquisite sneaks |