view to obtain medical aid and other assistance, which his perilous condition required. At first he was refused admission, prohibited by the laws of the place, lest he should communicate his sickness. But as soon as it was made known to the governor, that he was from Boston, he was removed on shore, and the best medical aid, and every assistance and courtesy granted him, till he was recovered; for which, all compensation was refused--the governor alledging, that he was warranted in his conduct, by the humanity and great kindness Capt. Clien and his crew had experienced, when shipwrecked at Cohasset, near Boston.' p. 26.

The other passage is as follows.

'Near the base of a large mass of solid rock, on Cooper's Island, so called, is a curious excavation, which has the name of the Indian Pot. Its cavity is as round, smooth, and regular as a well formed seething pot; and will hold about 12 pails full. On the same mass of rock, is another excavation, called the Indian Well. The inside of the well, from the bottom about four feet upward, is a circle; the rest of it, about six feet more, is semi-circular, opening to the east. The pot and well were nearly in their present state, when the town was first settled. The former, it is conjectured, was made by the Indians for the two fold purpose of pounding their parched corn, and boiling their food. Heat was probably, communicated to water in it, by heated stones, after the manner of the Islanders in the Pacific Ocean. The latter might serve as a reservoir of fresh water, received from the clouds; as there is no stream very near. In the ground near the well have been found axes and other tools, made and used by the natives, which prove the place to have been once the residence of many of that people.' p. 27.

ARTICLE VIII.

Address of the Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospi tal, to the subscribers and to the public. 8vo. pp. 34. THE Hospitals which have been within a few years past established in this metropolis and its vicinity, have a strong claim upon the liberality of the benevolent public, and we are desirous of doing every thing in our power to direct attention to them, and to place in the proper point of view the advantages and benefits which they promise to the community, if generously endowed, and put into operation unshackled by the restraints of embarrassed funds and a narrow income.

Like every other form of charity, the establishment of hos pitals has only taken place in Christian countries; and not only New Series-vol. IV.

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so, but they are even more directly the offspring of the Christian Religion, since in their first origin they were essentially religious establishments, were solely under the direction and government of the officers of the church, and were entirely supported from its revenues. In the early ages the functionaries of religion were ex officio the guardians of the poor, whether sick or well, and of all widows, orphans, strangers, &c. and a certain definite proportion of the revenues of the church, came afterwards to be devoted to their relief under the superintendance of its ministers. Houses were erected for their reception, maintenance, or cure, which were denominated hospitals-a term originally applied as much to places destined for the accommodation and support of the infirm and needy, as to those for the recovery of the sick. In pro cess of time, the current of private benevolence came to be turned into the same channel, and similar institutions were founded and supported by the benefactions of laymen; whilst it was too often the case that the greedy hand of the priesthood diverted the revenues, intended for their support, into the private coffers of those whose duty it was to watch over and protect their interests. Hospitals became thus little better than a sort of benefices, which were held by the priests at pleasure, whilst the greater part of their income was reserved to their own use, and but a small proportion devoted to carrying into effect the original design of the institutions. Gradually however, as reformation was introduced among the priesthood, this abuse, among others, was corrected, and the government of hospitals and the management of their funds were committed to the hands of judicious and responsible laymen.

At the present day the term Hospital is more confined in its acceptation, and includes only those institutions which are intended for the recovery of the sick and insane; and, in some cases, those which are destined for the reception of the aged and the young. In our own country, we believe, it has been applied in the former sense only; whilst in Great Britian there are many, a part of whose object at least, is the support of the aged, the infirm, and the young; such are the Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, for disabled seamen and soldiers; the Foundling and Magdalen Hospitals, and several others of less extent and notoriety; some of them corresponding, in every thing but name, to the two excellent establishments existing in this place, for the relief of indigent and orphan children of the two sexes, under the denomination of Asylums-institutions, which in other countries would probably come under that of Hospitals.

The government of the Massachusetts General Hospital was first efficiently organized in the year 1813, and first undertook

the task of collecting funds for effecting the objects of the institution in the year 1816, though an act of incorporation had been passed in 1811; at which time the state authorities had also granted to the Hospital the estate in Boston usually called the Province House. In 1816, an earnest and powerful call was made upon the liberality of the public, and was attended with distinguished success. As large a sum was collected as could have been anticipated, and, including some subsequent liberal donations, raised the funds of the Institution to something more than two hundred thousand dollars. This sum has been principally expended in the purchase of land and the erection of buildings, for the two distinct objects of charity in view, the General Hospital in Boston, and the Insane Hospital in Charlestown. Both have been erected upon a liberal and extensive plan and have gone into operation, the latter in the month of October 1818, and the former in the beginning of the fall of the last year. The buildings, which have been erected for these different objects possess a beauty, completeness, and convenience exhibited by few which have been devoted to similar purposes. They are admirably adapted to secure the ease, comfort, and health of the subjects of the institution. But, unfortunately, the paucity of funds is such at the present moment as in some degree at least to defeat the object for which a hospital is principally intended, the reception and treatment of the sick poor. And although the trustees, with a generosity of spirit which does them much honour, have, upon their own responsibility, appropriated six beds for the reception of patients, who are unable to make any remuneration for the charges of their maintenance, yet all others who seek relief are obliged to pay a greater or less sum for their board according to their abili ty. This is a serious evil, and one which it behoves the public in some way or other to remedy. It is no doubt a great public benefit that a hospital should exist, where those in middling or humble circumstances, can be received and attended in sickness at a moderate expense. It is more especially a great public benefit, that there should be such an institution as the asylum for the Insane, where individuals, of all classes, who labour under mental alienation, may be sent with an assurrance of kind and judicious treatment, and a certainty that every probable measure will be put in force to remove this humiliating infliction. But these are not objects which alone would have called forth to such an extent the liberality of our fellow citizens -these alone would not have authorised the demand, which has been made and answered, upon the rich and benevolent. Something more was intended, something more is expected, and some

thing more is to be done. We do not believe that a second appeal will be made with less efficiency and success than the first.

The object of the Address before us is to call the attention of the community to this subject; and is well calculated both in matter and manner to answer the intended purpose. Its contents and the information which it communicates are such as must satisfy every one, of the benefits which may be expected to result, when the institution comes into full and free operation, and of the good management of those who have hitherto directed its affairs.

Some of the advantages, as it respects the treatment of disease, which are to be expected from the establishment of the Hospitals, are illustrated by the reports of the physician and surgeon of the General Hospital, in which they enter more into the detail of the cases which fall under their care, than is usually done. It is certainly apparent, both from these reports, and from a consideration of the favourable circumstances under which patients are placed, that nowhere, not even in the houses of the most opulent, could the same diseases have been treated to so great advantage, or their cures have been so speedily effected. No private accommodations, at whatever expense they may be fitted up, can probably exceed in convenience and adaptation those of the Hospital; and nowhere else can the patient be put so completely under the hands of his physician, nowhere else can he be removed from the interference, the prejudices, the interruptions of his injudicious friends, or what is equally bad from the effects of his own whims, caprice, or obstinacy; no where else can he be every moment under the exact regimen, the exact course which his physician has prescribed, and which in private practice is constantly, to a greater or less degree, varied and departed from, in consequence of the folly of the patient or his friends.

'We entreat all those into whose hands this address may fall, to reflect well upon the advantages which this Institution offers-more especially we appeal to those, who, like some of us, are not altogether unacquainted with sights of sickness and suffering amongst the poorer classes. We beg all to consider what misery is daily experienced from the want of room and attendance, and from bad air and food; and how little those can be prepared for sickness, who even in good health and with constant labour, are just able to earn a tolerable subsistence for their families. Again, we ask those who are led by duty or humanity to visit the sick, what is the condition of poor persons, when overtaken by sudden and painful diseases, or afAlicted with tedious and uncertain ones? What, under such circum

stances, is the situation of their wives and children, and what means have their families of nursing and supplying them with proper food and medicines? They surely cannot be ignorant that whether the poor man escapes by death, from the sight of those calamities which he has brought upon his unhappy family, or whether he lives on through disease and despair, to witness and partake in them, one ingle fit of sickness, even if it does not utterly ruin him, commonly gives him a check from which he seldom recovers duri. g his whole life; and the evil effects of which are seen to the last hour in the poverty or perhaps the vice and depravity of his wife and children. Ask the numerous Charitable Societies in this town, that distribute food, wood, clothes, and medicines, what principally makes the poor -is it imprudence ?-is it want of labour?—is it dearness of the necessaries of life? No-it is sickness. Ask the members of the Howard Benevolent Society, who personally visit the sick, and who have not assumed that name for fashionable and ostentatious purposes.They will tell you-it is sickness. They who lived in the early ages of our religion, well knew this; and one of their most blessed cares, as well as highest Christian virtues, was to found Hospitals for the sick, a description of public charity unknown to heathen or pagan nations. We feel well assured that sickness, at least in this part of our country, is the principal cause of poverty, and often of much worse consequences. Where then shall the poor sick amongst us go? The Alms House was not intended for them; and though at this time possessing no accommodations whatever, it is usually encumbered with at least fifty patients-the Dispensary furnishes only medicine and medical attendance. We offer to you then the Hospital; and we cannot deceive ourselves when we say that you will find there clean apartments, well heated and well aired, kind nurses, whose only duty and occupation it is to watch and provide for the sick; proper and nourishing food; rest and tranquillity; and a removal from those sights of distress, poverty and despair, in the midst of which a poor man's wife and children are suffering and sinking, which always make his sickness so cruel and severe,and his cure so tedious, uncertain, and expensive. In the Hospital there is no family deranged and thrown into distress and confusion,when any of their number happens to fall sick-no patient waiting in wretchedness till physicians, or medicine, or nurses, can be found, harrassed and disturbed by the noise and bustle of his house, and the anxiety and ignorance and concern of those about him. On the contrary, physicians, nurses, medicines, and food, are ready at any moment, night and day. In private houses it is often impossible, from a great variety of causes, to procure for a patient a suitable kind of food,and to confine him to the exclusive use of it; but in the Hospital it is obvious that any kind of food can be furnished, and as the patient is constantly in the presence of his nurses, it is out of his power to deviate from it.