304 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 7,

recognition ; with female attendants, whose countenances in-
dicated kindness and intelligence, standing around, rather as
companions and friends than the dreaded wardens of the
room ; with patients led by kind ministration to yield a ready
assent, we felt indeed, that in the science of medicine, a new
era had arrived, and that brighter hopes might awaken in the
hearts of the afflicted.

Your committee were also favorably impressed with the ex-
cellent order, judgment, economy, aptitude and general fa-
cilities, which in all the minor departments, as refectory,
&c., were manifestly visible, giving the strongest evidence of
the care and interest manifested in the institution by its gen-
erous and efficient curators.

Your committee were peculiarly pleased with the admira-
ble manner in which the temperature was uniformly main-
tained through all the wards and avenues of the spacious ed-
ifice. We looked around and found no blazing hearth or
cumbrous furnace sending forth its heat, yet in each chamber
and each lengthened avenue, the balmy atmosphere of sum-
mer seemed to float. The secret was unfolded. Beyond the
walls, and in close proximity to the building, arose a modest
structure containing a most beautiful furnace of immense ca-
pacity, and generating the balmy heat that cheered the deep
recesses of the vast and stately mansion.

Turning from this splendid specimen of mechanical genius,
our attention was directed to the vast garden spread out be-
fore us, and which, under the direction of a Superintendent;
aided by some of the more improved patients, had furnished
a supply to the Institution that would have cost some seven
hundred dollars.

The last object of attraction that ministered to our grat-
ification was the beautiful collection of housed flowers, in
which were commingled the fair japonica, the rose of various
and beauteous hues, and other blossoms of varying tint, and
rich in odorous perfume. In this bright field of flowers your
committee closed their labors, and completed the pleasant
task assigned.

Re-entering the magnificent building, your committee
were escorted to a sumptuous banquet, and partook of the
hospitalities generously tendered by those accomplished and
worthy patrons of this time-honored Institution. Having
recorded our names as the delegated visitors from the Mary-
land Legislature, beside those of the energetic and faithful
curators of the Hospital, we parted with the best wishes for
the enterprise, and felt, as we left that circle of friends, that
the poor, afflicted and benighted beings entrusted to their
care, were blessed indeed with kind benefactors ; and as we
turned from the threshhold of the edifice, we gazed with