A board of general administration is held daily for the purpose of examining the patients who apply for admission. By means of this arrangement, the physician of any hospital whose attention is directed to a particular disease, or class of diseases, may send a patient to the hospital to which he is attached. The attention of the medical officers of the different hospitals is highly laudable, and worthy of imitation. They make their visits of regular attendance in the wards daily, and usually at the early hour of seven, and deliver clinical lectures on the most interesting cases at nine. I was present at these lectures, both at the Hotel Dieu and at La Charité, and was much gratified with the ability displayed by M. Dupuytren at the former, and by M. Laennec at the latter hospital. In most of these abodes of suffering, the sisters of charity exercise the kind office of superintending nurses, in which capacity, however, their humanity leads them to perform various active duties. It is quite delightful to witness the benevolence of their disposition, and the tender manner in which they pay their attentions to those under their pious care. How happily is the influence of religion here displayed, which can thus temper the mind to forego the pleasures of society, and even the common enjoyments of life, for a retirement, in which every hour and almost every moment, each thought and action, become a homage to the Creator, in the alleviation of human suffering! There is an establishment in Paris which contributes exceedingly to the comfort and convenience of that class of persons who wish to avoid a hospital, but whose means are too limited to afford all the private aids which sickness requires[4]. I quote the following account of it from Galignani’s Guide to Paris. “MAISON ROYALE DE SANTÉ. “This house was opened in 1802 by the _Administration des Hôpitaux et des Hospices_, for the reception of invalids in middling circumstances, who pay a daily sum according to the accommodation they receive, as follows, viz. In rooms containing twelve or fourteen beds, two francs fifty cents; in those with two or three beds, three francs fifty cents. A room for a woman, five francs. A room for a man, six francs. In this charge, every thing, even vapour baths, mineral waters, &c. is included.”