evenings, in a spacious audience room, fitted up
for the purpose, and leased by the Institute, in
the rear of the Marlboro' Hotel. None of its in-
come can be expended in the erection of buildings.

There are other literary societies in Boston
which we cannot speak of in detail. Such are
the Boston Society of Natural History: the
American Statistical Association; the New Eng-
land Historical and Genealogical Society; the
American Oriental Society; and the Boston Ly-
ceum. All these have valuable libraries, cabinets,
and collections. The Handel and Haydn Society,
the Boston Academy of Music, and the Musical
Education Society, are well-conducted and effi-
cient associations for the cultivation of musical
science and Christian psalmody.

Among the numerous charitable and humane
institutions of the city are the Boston Lunatic
Hospital, and the Houses of Industry and Refor-
mation, each of which has a commodious and
handsome edifice, located at South Boston ; the
Quarantine Hospital, delightfully situated on
Rainsford's Island; the New Almshouse, on
Deer Island, for which a most splendid, capa-
cious, and well-constructed building has been
erected, which is in the form of a Latin cross,
having its four wings, three stories high above
the basement, radiating from a central building
four stories high; the Boston Eye and Ear
Infirmary, with a beautiful structure lately erect-
ed in the W. part of the city; the Boston
Female Asylum, founded in 1800, for assisting,
instructing, and employing female orphan chil-
dren, for which a new and substantial brick
building, with ample grounds and some peculiar
arrangements for warming and ventilating, has
been provided at the south end ; also the New
England Female Medical College, established by
the exertions of Samuel Gregory, for the qualifi-
cation of females to nurse and attend upon the sick
of their own sex. Besides these there are sev-
eral societies for the benefit of seamen; among
which are the Boston Port Society, and the Bos-
ton Seaman's Friend Society, which has provided
an excellent Home for Sailors.

The Massachusetts General Hospital, situated
on an open plot of ground of four acres, on the
banks of Charles River, at the W. -part of
the city, is one of the noblest, best endowed, and
best furnished institutions of the kind in the
country. This beautiful edifice is of Chelmsford
granite, 274 feet in length by 54 in breadth, with
a portico in front of eight Ionic columns. Con-
nected with the building in the rear is a kitchen
and laundry of the most approved construction.
The whole interior arrangement is according.to
the most perfect system. The premises are deco-
rated with ornamental trees and shrubs, and laid
out in gravel walks for those patients who are
able to enjoy exercise in the open air. This in-
stitution has found many munificent patrons in
Massachusetts. Its capital, now yielding income,
exclusive of the large amount invested in the
buildings, grounds, &c., is $171,119. It has
several other sources of income, making its whole
receipts, in 1850, $38,517. The number of pa-
tients received the same year was 746.

The McLean Asylum for the Insane, so called
from John McLean, Esq., an eminent merchant
of Boston, and a liberal benefactor of the General
Hospital, is a branch of that institution, having a
separate location on a delightful eminence in
Somerville, about 1 mile N. W. of the city.

The establishment, consisting externally of a
group of five elegant buildings, makes a fine ap-
pearance from whatever direction it is viewed.
As an example of the noble manner in which
such institutions are sustained by the Boston
merchants, it may be stated that, in 1843, Hon.
William Appleton gave $10,000 “for the pur-
pose of affording aid to such patients in the
McLean Asylum as, from straitened means,
might be compelled to leave the institution with-
out a perfect cure;" and, in 1850, the same
gentleman contributed the further sum of $20,000
“ for the purpose of erecting two additional edi-
fices, sufficiently large to accommodate eight
males and eight females, with such conveniences
and facilities as shall enable each to have not
only the care, attention, and comforts, but the
luxuries and retirement which they have been ac-
customed to enjoy at home."

The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts
Asylum for the Blind is another of the great
eleemosynary institutions originated by Boston
liberality. It was first opened as an experiment,
in 1832, under the superintendence of Dr. Samuel
G. Howe. In 1833, Col. Thomas II. Perkins
made a donation of his valuable mansion house
in Pearl Street, other gentlemen in Boston
$50,000, the ladies $14,000, and the legislature
$6,000 annually, for its permanent establishment.
It now receives from the state $9000 annually.
Its average number of pupils is about 100, who
are from many different states of the Union.
The rapid growth of the institution having ren-
dered its removal necessary, the estate in Pearl
Street was exchanged for the present large and
beautiful edifice at South Boston, formerly known
as the Mount Washington House. To this splen-
did building, five stories high, and from its lovely
eminence overlooking the city, harbor, and sur-
rounding region, many conveniences have since
been added, making the establishment, in respect
to its accommodations, all that can he desired.
It is open to the public on the afternoon of the
first Saturday in each month. ■

Several of our national societies for religious
and benevolent purposes have their seat of oper-
ations in the metropolis of New England.
Among these are the American Board of Com-
missioners for Foreign Missions, the American
Baptist Missionary Union, the American Educa--
tion Society, the American Peace Society, the
American Unitarian Association, the Prison Dis-
cipline Society, and the old Society for Prop-
agating the Gospel among the Indians and others
in North America. Several others, though not
national in their organization, are truly such in
the extent of their operations; such as the Mas-
sachusetts Home Missionary Society, the Amer-
ican Tract Society of Boston, and the Massa-
chusetts Sabbath School Society.

There are upwards of one hundred churches
in Boston, of the different denominations ; 98 of
which have their regular places of worship. Of
these, the Unitarian Gongregationalists have 22;
Orthodox Congregationalists, 14 ; Baptists, 13 ;
Methodists, 12; Episcopalians, 11; Roman Cath-
olics, 11; Universalists, 6 ; Presbyterians, Swe
denborgians, and several other denominations,
one each. Most of the church edifices are ven-
erable and costly structures, which contribute in
no small degree to beautify the' city. Several
have lofty spires, which have a fine appearance
on an approach to the city by land or water.