f these unfortunate little ones die, or, with
their mothers, are dragged down to great depths of wretchedness and
crime.

What can be done for them? The first impulse is, naturally, to gather
them into an Asylum. But what is the experience of Asylums?

ASYLUMS.

The London Foundling Hospital, one of the most famous of these
institutions, was founded in 1740. During the first twenty years of its
existence, out of the 14,034 children received in it, only 4,400 lived
be apprenticed, a mortality of more than seventy per cent The celebrated
St. Petersburg Hospital for Foundlings contained, between the years 1772
and 1789, 7,709 children, of whom 6,606 died. Between the years 1783 and
1797, seventy-six per cent died. We have not, unfortunately, its later
statistics. The Foundling Hospital of Paris, another well-known
institution of this class, was founded by Vincent de Paul in 1638. In
the twenty years ending in 1859, out of 48,525 infants admitted, 27,119
died during the first year, or fifty-six per cent. In 1841, a change was
made in the administration of this Hospital, of which we shall speak
later.

In this city there is, under the enlightened management of the
Commissioners' of Charities and Correction, an Infant Hospital on
Randall's Island, where large numbers of illegitimate and abandoned
children are cared for. In former years, under careless management of
this institution, the mortality of these helpless infants has reached
ninety to ninety-five per cent.; but in recent years, under the new
management, this has been greatly reduced. In 1867, out of the 928
"nurse's children" or children without their mothers, who were received,
642 died, or about seventy per cent In 1868, 76.77 per cent of these
unfortunates died, and in 1869, 70.32 per cent; while in the same
hospital, of the children admitted with their mothers, only 20.44 per
cent died during that year--a death-rate less than that of the city at
large, which is about twenty-six per cent; while in Massachusetts, for
children under one year, it is about thirteen per cent.

It will be observed that the mortality of foundlings and orphans in this
institution was reduced in 1869 from 76.79 per cent. to 70.32. Again, in
1870, a still greater reduction was made to 58.99. This most encouraging
result was brought about by the erection of an Infants' Hospital by the
Commissioners, the employment of a skillful physician, and, above all,