602 LONDON Jewish hospitals, and the establishments under the control of homoaopathists and mesmerists ; and there is also a galvanic institution. There are five institutions for confirmed invalids, of which the most important are the royal hospi- tal at Putney heath, founded in 1850, with 150 inmates, and contributing 20 a year each for the outdoor relief of about 300 other incurables ; and the British home, founded in 1861, with 100 inmates, and giving pensions in 150 cases. In 1872 initial measures were taken for the establishment of a national hospital for Lon- don incurables, to be erected in Oxfordshire. Private asylums for confirmed female invalids are in Great Ormond street (Miss Twining's institution), and at Mount Greville, Kilburn. Of asylums and almshouses for the aged there are over 120, mostly of remote foundation, some as early as the 15th century, and the ma- jority in existence at the end of the 18th cen- tury. Exclusive of a few asylums for mem- bers of certain trades and for widows of soldiers, there are hardly any of recent founda- tion excepting the royal dramatic college and Honnor's home, both founded in 1859, and Dr. Kippon's, in 1866. Prominent institu- tions of this kind are the London almshouses at Brixton and the licensed victuallers' asylum. Among other institutions are those for the blind, St. George's-in-the-Fields, Surrey, and in Avenue road, St. John's Wood ; the asylum for deaf and dumb children, Old Kent road, Surrey; and the Alexandra institute, Oxford street, founded in 1863. There are altogether 23 institutions for the blind in London, and 5 leading ones for the deaf and dumb. Florence Nightingale having declined to receive 50,- 000 collected for her in reward of her services in the Crimea, except on the condition that the money should be appropriated to the es- tablishment of a training school for nurses, such an institution was founded in connection with St. Thomas's hospital, where about 25 women are maintained and instructed previous- ly to serving in hospitals and infirmaries. Simi- lar institutions are supported by the establish- ment, such as the " Nursing Sisters," Devon- shire square, Bishopsgate (opened in 1840), with 100 inmates dressed in a peculiar cos- tume. The London diocesan deaconesses' in- stitution (founded in 1861) devotes itself main- ly to nursing, but also to other benevolent purposes, after the model of the Roman Cath- olic sisters of charity. The multiplicity of hospitals for children is especially remarkable. The Evelina hospital was founded in 1869 on the Southwark bridge road by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in memory of his wife, after whom it is called, and other similar institutions have arisen within the last few years. There were in 1874 about 60 dispensaries strictly limited to residents, relieving over 60,000 out patients, and they are increasing in every part of the metropolitan districts. There are nearly 50 convalescent homes, affording relief to the hard-working classes of the overcrowded lo- calities, where the impure atmosphere or in- adequate water supply and imperfect drainage would render their recovery from illness' al- most impossible. Many new convalescent hos- pitals are completed or in course of erec- tion. There are nearly 160 benevolent and provident funds and pension societies, sup- ported by various trades and professions ; and there are many other associations of the same kind. The so-called "patriotic funds" are de- voted to soldiers ; the principal one, managed by a royal commission for relieving the wid- ows and orphans of Crimean soldiers, received over 1,000,000 of contributions in 1854, half of which had been spent in 1868. The Vic- toria asylum at Wandsworth was established in 1859 for the maintenance and education of 300 orphan daughters of soldiers and sail- ors. The Indian mutiny fund's accounts on Dec. 31, 1871, showed that 250,000 had been disbursed, and the total sum raised during the mutiny was 440,000. The Franco-German, war of 1870-'7l called into life many organ- izations for the relief of the sufferers among the respective nationalities. The British na- tional society for aid to the sick and wound- ed is the most wealthy institution of the kind, and there are more than 10 others for soldiers and their children, and about 25 for sailors and their families. There are nearly 50 or- phanages and asylums for fatherless children. The most recent are the metropolitan police and the Stockwell orphanages, the latter under Mr. Spurgeon's direction. The adult orphan institution trains the daughters of clergymen and naval and military men for governesses. There are eight principal shoe-black societies, founded from 1851 to 1869, which in 1870 employed 368 boys, who earned 10,197, and saved 874. They are chosen according to merit from the ragged school union. The best known lunatic asylum, the name of which has often been generally applied to establish- ments for the insane, is Bedlam, or more properly Bethlehem hospital. (See BEDLAM.) The patients are here treated with great skill and kindness; the women are supplied with pianos and the men with billiards and other amusements. A few cells are lined and floored with India rubber and cork, against which the most insane person may fling himself without possibility of injury. It accommodates about 600 persons.. Two remote wings are reserved for the most unmanageable patients. Within a distance of 6 to 8 m. from London are the Col- ney Hatch asylum, covering 120 acres on the Great Northern railway, and Hanwell asylum, on the Great Western railway. A large luna- tic asylum for middle-class patients was es- tablished in 1874 by Thomas Hollo way on St. Anne's heath, near the Wokingham branch of the London and Southwestern railway; and the same philanthropist proposes to found two additional asylums in the vicinity of the me- tropolis, one for imbeciles. The most recent miscellaneous institutions comprise a parochial
