Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 8). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![ing nearly 4000 children, 17 for pauper or deserted children, end about 240 parish schools, in which clothing and education are supplied to about 12,000 children. The chief public endowments, of the first description, are, St. Paul's school, Christ's hospital, Westminster school, Merchant Tailors' school, and the Charter house. St. Paul's school, founded in 1509, be- stows a classical education upon 153 pu- pils. Christ's hospital, founded by Ed- ward VI, in 1547, can accommodate about 1100 children, of both sexes, who are clothed, boarded and educated for seven years. Some of the boys are prepared for the university, most of them for commerce. Westminster school, founded in 1560 by queen Elizabeth, receives a large number of pupils of high rank and respectability. Merchant Tailors' school, founded by the company of merchant tailors in 1561, educates about 300 pupils at a very low rate of payment. The com- pany nominate to 46 fellowships in St. John's college, Oxford. The Charter house, endowed in 1611, supports and educates scholars for the university (where they receive a liberal annuity), or for com- merce, besides instructing about 150 other pupils. Many other charitable institutions for education are supported by voluntary contribution, as are, also, the parochial schools, which usually provide clothing and elementary instruction for the poor children of the respective parishes. The children of these schools are annually assembled in the vast area of St. Paul's, on the first Thursday in June. The cen- tral national school, with its 40 subsidiaiy schools in London, educates there about 20,000 children. The British and for- eign school society, at its central and sub- sidiary schools, of which there are, in London, 43, educates about 12,000 chil- dren. The Sunday schools, taught by about 5000 gratuitous teachers, instruct between 60,000 and 70,000 children. The foundling hospital is capable of receiving about 200 children. There are also or- phan asylums, an asylum for the deaf and dumb, one for the indigent blind, and many others. Alms-houses are numer- ous. There is a small debt relief society, a mendicity society, a philanthropic socie- ty for giving employment to the industri- ous poor, a prison discipline society, &c. There are also VJirious hospitals; St. Thomas's, with 490 beds; St. Bartholo- mew's, capable of accommodating be- tween 400 and 500 patients ; Guy's hospi- tal, with 400 beds; St. George's, with 350; Middlesex hospital, able to contain 300 pa- tients ; the London hospital; small-pox hos- pital ; various lying-in hospitals, &c. The Bethlehem hospital and St. Luke's hospita] receive insane patients. The humane society has 18 receiving-houses in differ- ent parts of London, with apparatus for restoring suspended animation. Dispen- saries relieve more than 50,000 patients annually. There are at least 30 of them, besides 12 for the sole purpose of vaccina- tion. The college of physicians and the college of surgeons examine candidates for the professions of physic and surgery, in the metropolis and the suburbs. The museum of the latter body contains the collections of the celebrated John Hunter, amounting to 20,000 specimens and ana- tomical preparations. The apothecaries' company grant certificates, without which no one can practise as an apothecary in England or Wales. The number of booksellers and publishers is more than 300. The number of newspapers is 55. (See JYetvspapers.) The British museum (q. v.) is a spacious brick structure, in the French style of architecture. It was, originally, the palace of the first duke of Montague, built in 1677; its dimensions, 216 ft. length by 70 ft. depth,and 57 ft. height. The ground floor is appropriated solely to the reception of the library of printed books. The principal or upper floor con- tains the miscellaneous articles of curiosity for public inspection ; such as collections of minerals, lavas, volcanic productions, shells, fossils and zoological specimens, British and foreign, and also various arti- cles from the South sea Islands, and North and Western America, &c. The ground floor is connected with a more modern building, called the gallery of an- tiquities, divided into 15 apartments, in which are distributed nearly 1000 pieces of sculpture, Greek and Roman, a fine collection of terra cottas, lloman sepul- chral urns, cippi, sarcophagi, &c. In a temporary room are deposited the Elgin marbles, purchased bv government for £35,000. The upper floor of this gallery contains the collections of Herculanean and Pompeian antiquities made by sir William Hamilton, cabinets of coins and medals, and also a rare collection of prints and engravings by the most eminent artists. The present building is destined to be razed to the ground as soon as a splendid edifice, now constructing, is com- pleted. There are various other public libraries. King's college (q. v.) was founded in 1828. The London university, founded in 1825, is not a chartered iusti tution. Its course of instruction compre](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136774_0069.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
