county medical, the pathological, obstetrical, neurological society, etc.—have drawn largely from this hospital for their material, as a search of their transactions will at once make evident. The record of the pathological society of Philadelphia, as indicated in its volumes of transactions, would be meagre indeed, if the material supplied by the Philadelphia Hospital were omitted.

EARLY HOSPITALS AND ALMSHOUSES OF PHILADELPHIA.

From Watson's Annals, Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, Allison and Penrose's History of Municipal Development, and other sources, we will give a few notes and citations. with reference to the hospitals and almshouses of early Philadelphia, and the methods of caring for the poor, both well and sick, to assist by comparison, to a better knowledge of the position, history and work of the great institution with which we are particularly concerned in these pages.

While the Philadelphia Hospital is the oldest in the city, the Pennsylvania Hospital was the first separate institution of this kind, that is, the first distinct from an almshouse or other institution. In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond projected a plan for a general hospital for Philadelphia, and obtained the support of Franklin ; and this was the origin of the Pennsylvania Hospital. A charter was granted in May, 1751, and the first trustees were elected in the July following. Judge Kinsey's house on the south side of Market street (then called High street), above Fifth, was rented, refitted for the reception of patients, and opened in 1752. In 1754, the managers bought the ground upon which the hospital still stands, between Spruce and Pine and Eighth and Ninth streets, and the corner-stone of the first building here was laid May 28, 1755.

The Friends' Almshouse of Philadelphia, which ante-dated by a number of years the first institution of the kind under the municipality, is described by Scharf and Westcott.

"In 1713 the first almshouse was established. It was determined by the city council in July, 1712, that, as the poor of the city were daily increasing, a workhouse should be founded for employing the poor; the overseers to hire the bouse, and the council to determine the rent and pay of superintendence. The mayor, aldermen Hill and Carter, and councilmen Carpenter, Hudson and Teague, were appointed to take the matter in charge. In the meantime, however, before the councils acted finally, the Friends had founded their own almshouse. It was established in a small house on the south side of Walnut street, between Third and Fourth streets, where, in 1729, the ancient, well-known building, called the Friends' Almshouse, was built, to stand till 1841. The lot belonged to John

Martin and contained a small tenement.. Martin was poor, and gave his property to the society of friends upon condition that they would take care of him for the remainder of his days. A cluster of small houses was built to John Martin's tenement, and this was the Friends' Almshouse. In 1729, a front range of buildings was put up connecting with the previous structures. It was a quaint pile with an arched entrance, and all about the buildings looked antique and primitive. The Friends' Almshouse, at first in general public use, soon became a private retreat for indigent persons of the Quaker faith. Each family was separately lodged, and if any had a trade or calling, he was expected to do what he could at it and so lessen the burthen of his expense to the society."

Watson describes the first almshouse under city control:

"The original poor-house for the city was located down town on a green meadow, extending from Spruce to Pine streets, and from Third to Fourth streets. Its front was to the east and nearest to Third street. Its great gate was on Spruce street, and its entrance on Third street was by a stile. The house was much such a structure as to height and general appearance as that of the Friend's Almshouse in Walnut street; it had a piazza all round. It contained the sick and insane as well as the poor. There were also some parts of the necessary buildings formed near the corner of Union and Fourth streets, on the site now occupied by Dr. Physick, from which cause, I find, in 1758, it was called 'the almshouse down Fourth street,' and 'the almshouse square.' It was completed, as already stated, in 1731 or 1732.”

"At and before the year 1740," says Watson, "it was the practice when sick emigrants arrived to place them in empty houses about the city. Sometimes diseases were imparted in the neighborhood, as once occurred, particularly at Willing's alley. On such occasions physicians were provided for them at public expense. The governor was induced, in 1741, to suggest the securing of a pest-house or hospital; and in 1742 a pest-house was erected on Fisher's Island, called afterwards Province Island, because purchased and owned by the province for the use of sick persons arriving from sea."

The same authority has an interesting note with reference to hospitals for soldiers during the Revolution :

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In the time of the war, as has been told under its appropriate head, they made use of several empty private houses for the reception of the sick soldiery by the camp fever. The house of the present Schuylkill bank, at the southeast corner of Sixth and High streets, then deserted by the tory owner, lawyer Galloway, was filled with these feeble men of war. At the same time, the large building in Chestnut street (late judge Tilghman's) was also so used."

The following is the description by Scharf and Westcott of the second city almshouse opened in 1767 on the Society Grounds, between Spruce and Pine, and Tenth and Eleventh streets :

"The buildings were opened in October, 1767. The almshouse was laid out in the form of an L, 180 feet by 40, two stories in height, joined by a turret 30 feet square and four stories high. The house of employment was on the west side of the lot running south from Spruce, fronting Eleventh street, also in the shape of

an L, so that the entire range of buildings inclosed on three sides a quadrangular space. A large central building was erected on Spruce street, which stood between the L's. The first story of the almshouse and house of employment on the interior was a cloister of open arches. The buildings on Tenth and Eleventh streets occupied two stories and a garret.

The main central building when finished was three

stories in height, with a hip-roof, surmounted by a small cupola."

Evidently the central building was erected some time after the others, as in Watson's Annals, Vol. III, page 332, is a picture of this almshouse without the central building. Dr. Agnew locates the institution of this date wrongly between Eleventh and Twelfth instead of between Tenth and Eleventh streets.

Scharf and Westcott also describe the Blockley buildings first occupied in 1834:

"Upon this lot were erected four distinct buildings disposed at right angles with each other, and enclosing an interior space of seven hundred by five hundred feet. The men's almshouse fronted the southeast. The main building contained a portico ninety feet front, supported by eight columns, in the Tuscan order, built of brick, and roughcast, and was flanked by two wings, each two hundred feet in length. The portico being elevated on a high flight of steps, rising beyond the basement story to those of the principal story, gave to this group of buildings a commanding appearance. The women's almshouse was directly opposite the department for males, on the northwest side of the quadrangle. Between these buildings, on the sides, was the hospital, five hundred feet front, and the house of employment, of the same dimensions, immediately opposite. Court yards and yards of labor, gardens and walks, were allotted to each building for the accommodation of the inmates, the departments being separated by walls. In time, however, the inclosure became filled up with buildings absolutely necessary for the use of the establishment. The group of buildings was considered sufficient to accommodate four thousand persons, and the cost was about $900,000.”

Later we will give a description of the present almshouse and hospital buildings and grounds, the main structures being practically the same as when they were erected between 1830 and 1834. We will also describe the position and arrangement of the different departments, offices, quarters, etc.

“EVANGELINE" AND THE PHILADELPHIA ALMSHOUSE.

The old Philadelphia Almshouse and its hospital wards have not escaped the gentle attentions of the poet. The readers of Longfellow will remember the pathetic ending of the story of Evangeline; how in the wards of the old almshouse hospital in the time of one of the terrible plagues, so eloquently referred to by Dr. Agnew, after years of troublous wandering, the two lovers, now grown old in years and suffering, again met for a few brief hours