There are many charitable institutions in the city for the care of unfortunates and the amelioration of suffering. There are orphan asylums, free clinics for the treatment of various troubles, an institution maintained by the society formed to combat the plague of tuberculosis, and institutions for the care of the deaf and dumb, blind and insane. The largest hospital in Rio de Janeiro, and perhaps on South American soil, is the Santa Casa de Misericordia, which was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1545. The buildings now occupied by this noted institution have been in use for nearly three-quarters of a century, but they have recently been overhauled and remodelled. The buildings are in a classic and beautiful style of architecture, as are most of the public buildings in Brazil. It has accommodation for more than twelve hundred patients. One of the strange and unusual features of this hospital is a revolving wheel made for the reception of unwelcome infants. In this wheel a cradle is so arranged that when an infant is laid on it the wheel turns around, and the little stranger finds a welcome it did not find elsewhere. No questions are asked, no effort is made to find out who placed the infant in the cradle, and the babe is taken care of until it is ready to go forth and work for itself, or has been adopted by some good family. If this institution does nothing else, it takes away the incentive to infanticide which prevails in many places. There is also in the city a Strangers’ Hospital, which is mainly supported by the foreign residents of the capital, and it is an institution that has done a great deal of good among those who are expatriated from their homes by the exigencies of business.