the city, to five sous
on each _minot_ [three bushels] of salt sold in the granaries of Paris,
to a quarter of the fines from the departments of streams and forests,
to a tax on the admissions to theatres, etc. Later, the Hopital-General
was authorized to open the first _mont-de-piete_, or pawnbroking
establishment, in France.

In addition to all their other functions, the Bicetre and the
Salpetriere were created, by the regulation of April 20, 1684, _maisons
de correction_ for children of good families, of both sexes. The bureau
of the Hopital-General ordered the arrest of idle, disobedient, or
dissipated children, at the request of fathers or mothers, tutors or
guardians, or of the nearest relatives, and even, in case of the death
of the parents, on the complaint of the cures of their parishes.
"Although originally created principally as a philanthropic institution,
the Hopital-General was assuming more and more a penitentiary character;
the regulation of 1680 had already added to the list of its criminals
'vagabond individuals, whom idleness leads to an infinite number of
irregularities,' and had directed its officers to imprison them in a
special prison, either for a determinate period or for life; there, they
were to be given only the amount of food actually necessary to sustain
life, and were employed at the hardest labor that their strength would
permit. It does not appear that this frightful severity produced any
result, for, from year to year, new edicts were constantly appearing,
redoubling these rigorous measures against the mendicants."

[Illustration: IN THE GALLERIES OF THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE: A CONFERENCE
OF "AVOCATS."

After a drawing by E. Brun.]

As organized at present, the Bicetre contains three thousand one hundred
and fifty-three beds, and the Salpetriere three thousand eight hundred
and eleven. The latter includes also a clinic for nervous diseases, with
consultations for out-door patients, the former clinic of Doctor
Charcot, and one service of electro-therapeutics, for both in-door and
out-door patients, which attracts many from outside. There is a very
curious medical museum; and the institution itself claims to be one of
the great centres of scientific research.

An interesting feature of the general administration of the Parisian
hospitals is the arrangement made by the _internes_, the graduates in
medicine and pharmacy in the in-door service of the institution, for
providing themselves