LETTER LXXIV. Museum of Natural History, or _Jardin des Plantes_--Is much enlarged since the revolution--One of the first establishments of instruction in Europe--Contrast between its former state and that in which it now is--_Fourcroy_, the present director--His eloquence--Collections in this establishment--Curious articles which claim particular notice. LETTER LXXV. The Carnival--That of 1802 described--The Carnival of modern times, an imitation of the Saturnalia of the ancients--Was for some years prohibited, since the revolution--Contrast between the Carnival under the monarchy and under the republican government. LETTER LXXVI. _Palais du Sénat Conservateur_, or _Luxembourg_ Palace--Mary of Medicis, by whom it was erected, died in a garret--It belonged to _Monsieur_, before the revolution--Improvements in the garden of the Senate--National nursery formed in an adjoining piece of ground --_Bastille_--_Le Temple_--Its origin--Lewis XVI and his family confined in this modern state-prison. LETTER LXXVII. Present slate of the French Press--The liberty of the press, the measure of civil liberty--Comparison, between the state of the press in France and in England. LETTER LXXVIII. Hospitals and other charitable institutions--_Hôtel-Dieu_--Extract from the report of the _Academy of Sciences_ on this abode of pestilence--Reforms introduced into it since the revolution--The present method of purifying French hospitals deserves to be adopted in England--Other hospitals in Paris--_Hospice de la Maternité_--_La Salpêtrière_--_Bicêtre_--Faculties and Colleges of Physicians, as will as Colleges and Commonalties of Surgeons, replaced in France by Schools of Health--School of Medicine of Paris--France overrun by quacks--New law for checking the serious mischief they occasion --Society of Medicine--Gratuitous School of Pharmacy--Free Society of Apothecaries--Changes in the teaching and practice of medicine in France. LETTER LXXIX. Private seminaries for youth of both sexes--Female education --Contrast between that formerly received in convents, and that now practised in the modern French boarding-schools. LETTER LXXX. Progressive aggrandisement of Paris--Its origin--Under the name of Lutetia, it was the capital of Gaul--Julian's account of it--The sieges it has sustained--Successively embellished by different kings --Progressive amelioration of the manners of its inhabitants--Rapid view of the causes which improved them, from the reign of Philip Augustus to that of Lewis XIV--Contrast between the number of public buildings before and since the revolution--Population of Paris, from official documents--Ancient division of Paris--Is now divided into twelve mayoralties--_Barrières_ and high wall by which it is surrounded--Anecdote of the _commis des barrières_ seizing an Egyptian mummy.