l building with two wings, each three and a half
stories in height, with a Mansard roof. The entire building is 354 feet
long, and 122 feet wide. The eastern wing is occupied by males, and the
western by females. The hospital is divided into 29 wards, the smallest
of which contains 13 beds, and the largest 39. Twelve hundred patients
can be accommodated with comfort. There are separate wards for the
treatment of different diseases, and the medical attendance is the best
that New York can afford. The whole establishment is a model of
neatness, and is conducted in the most systematic and skilful manner.
About seven thousand patients are annually treated here, the majority
being charity patients. The average number of deaths is about four
hundred and fifty.

[Picture: SMALL-POX HOSPITAL.]

Back of the Charity Hospital, and extending north and south, or parallel
with the course of the island and river, is the New York Penitentiary,
the first public institution erected on the island. It is a gloomy and
massive edifice, constructed of hewn stone and rubble masonry. It is
four stories in height, and consists of a central building and wings.
The central building is 65 by 75 feet, and the wings each 200 by 50 feet
in size. The entire building is exceedingly strong. The floors are of
stone, and the stairways and doors of iron. It contains 500 cells for
men, and 256 for women, but the number of convicts is generally in excess
of the number of cells, and still greater accommodations are needed. It
is probable that a new and larger Penitentiary will be erected on Hart's
Island, in Long Island Sound, about twelve miles from Blackwell's Island.
The prisoners at this institution are sent here by the city courts, for
terms of from one to six months. Some, however, are sentenced to
imprisonment for several years. The convicts are all required to labor.
Formerly the men were required to engage in excavating stone from the
rich quarries with which the island abounded, but which have now been
exhausted. The erection of the new buildings on Randall's, Ward's, and
Hart's islands, furnishes constant employment to the convicts, who are
daily conveyed between the prison and these institutions. Those who are
able to work at the ordinary trades are allowed to do so in the workshops
of the Penitentiary. The women are required to do sewing, housework, and
the like.

[Picture: CHARITY H