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and the Pennsylvania Hospital. The first I did not see in consequence of having postponed my application till I had but one forenoon at command, and then the hour of admission did not suit me. I was assured however, that it was in almost every respect similar to that at Boston, which has been already described. One of the managers stated to me that the defects of the present system are so numerous and apparent, that they intend to erect a new prison, on a scale large enough to admit of almost every inmate being kept in solitary confinement. The criminal code of Pennsylvania is merciful to a proverb. Murder ' of the first degree,' that is, when proved to have resulted from cool and deliberate design, is the only

4

* This design has been carried into effect since my return home, and an attentive correspondent has favoured me with the following particulars of the construction of the prison. The new Philadelphia Penitentiary is surrounded by a strong wall 30 feet high, enclosing a space of ground 650 feet square; the entrance gate is fortified with a portcullis, and on each side are flanking towers containing the keeper's apartments; at the corners are bastions for sentinels. The cells 250 in number and one story high, are disposed in a circle, 75 feet from the nearest part of the outer wall; the open ground at the corners is planted with vegetables. The cells look inward with an iron railing in front, and a round observatory for the superintendent, 60 feet in diameter, occupies the centre of the ground. Each cell measures 10 feet by 12, and they are separated from each other by walls rising 4 to 6 feet above the roof, and projecting 20 feet in front, capped with stone and armed with iron pikes. A common sewer passes under the cells. There is no possibility of intercourse between the prisoners, so that the efficacy of solitary confinement will now undergo a fair trial. (1822.)

capital crime. The Quakers however, have a rooted aversion to return such a verdict, in any circumstances, and a jury is so seldom altogether free from this feeling that capital convictions are exceedingly rare-it is a common saying here, that it requires more interest to get hanged, than to be made Governor of the State.

Pennsylvania Hospital serves at once the several purposes of a Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary, Lying-in and Foundling hospital. The building is large, and although of brick not inelegant; it stands in the centre of one of the square divisions formed by the crossing of four streets, and the whole of the surrounding space is the property of the institution. In front is a circular grass plot, in the centre of which is a statue of William Penn, with the 'charter of privileges' in his hand—it strikingly resembles his portrait in West's well known painting of his treaty with the Indians.

This institution although partially charitable is not altogether so. No patients are admitted gratuitously, except those of the poorest classes; all others pay a regulated board, which varies from about 15s. to 45s. sterling a week. There are however a number of out-door patients, who are attended and supplied with medicines gratuitously, at their Own houses. Clinical lectures are regularly delivered to students of anatomy, and the fees are devoted to the support of an Anatomical Museum and Library, to which the students

PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL-PEALE'S MUSEUM. 195

have access. The museum contains many valuable preparations, models, casts, and drawings; the library consists of about three thousand volumes, and both it and the museum are rapidly increasing. The institution is now possessed of another permanent source of revenue, in West's splendid painting of "Christ healing the sick in the temple," presented by the venerable President of the Royal Academy, who is a native of Pennsylvania, as a pledge of his regard for the benevolent institutions of his native country. A small building has been erected for exhibiting this picture, and a quarter of a dollar is required for admission.5

Peale's Museum is another object of popular interest. This is a private collection, and like many similar establishments, contains a good deal that is worth seeing, mingled with many miscellaneous monstrosities which are not worth house-room. My attention was chiefly attracted by the gigantic skeleton of the mammoth or mastodon.

A human being shrinks into insignificance beside the bony fabric of this enormous antediluvian; for such we may safely call it, notwithstanding of the fashionable scepticism of those who are in all things too philosophical to accept of ex

5 A more recent traveller states that the exhibition of this painting "yielded 8000 dollars, £1800 sterling, the first year, and 5000 dollars, £1125 sterling, the second; and it is supposed that it will hereafter afford to the hospital an annual revenue of £500 sterling." Howison's Upper Cangda, p. 338.

planations of natural phenomena from the sacred volume. It is not a partial inundation, nor any supposable succession of them, which could have covered the whole earth, to the tops of the loftiest mountains, with the spoils of the sea, and with the remains of animals, some of them altogether unknown even to historical tradition, and others incapable now of existing in the regions where their bones are found. The deluge is an explanation of all these wonders, to which the Christian will devoutly and satisfactorily recur, leaving comfortless infidelity to its own pathless wanderings.

The skeleton of the mammoth resembles very much that of the elephant, carrying like it two great tusks in front. The principal difference is found in the grinders; which in the elephant are flat on the top, with the enamel penetrating the whole material, but in the mammoth rise into ridges, or processes as anatomists term them, somewhat as in those of the sheep, with the enamel in the form of an outer crust or case, enveloping but not penetrating the bone. Some naturalists have supposed from this peculiarity that the mammoth was a carniverous animal; but a scientific gentleman remarks to me that this was impossible, as it has like the elephant no front teeth, and its neck is too short and its tusks too long, to have admitted of its holding and devouring its prey as carnivorous animals do. He thinks it probable that it lived upon shrubs, and the smaller branches of trees,

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197

for crushing which, the grinders seem to be well adapted. It only occurs to me in reply to this remark, that the enormous trunk of the mammoth may have served to catch and crush the smaller animals, and convey them into the mouth. Conjecture however in such cases is both unavailing and unimportant; it is sufficient that we have in the existence of these bones unanswerable demonstration, that in earlier times an animal has existed, much more enormous in bulk than the largest that is now known to tread the surface of the globe. This skeleton which is, I believe, not so large as some others that have been found, is 11 feet high over the shoulders, and measures 31 feet from the extremity of the tusks to the end of the tail, following the curve. It was found in 1801, in

6 An attentive correspondent has been so kind as to procure and forward me the following additional particulars respecting the skeleton of the mammoth:

Height over the shoulders,

over the hips,

Length from the chin to the rump,

From the point of the tusks to the tail, following the curve, 31

The same in a straight line,

Feet. Inch.

11 0

9 0

15 O

0

17 6

Length of the humerus, or large bone of the fore leg,

2 10

Largest circumference of the same,

N 3

3 21

Smallest