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 86 PARIS VII. It occupied successively a number of buildings, frequent changes to larger quarters being necessary on account of the rapid growth of its needs. Its present structure, begun in 1868 and finished in 1874, stands on the ile de la Cit6 near the church of Notre Dame. It covers 22,000 square metres of land, and in- cludes three separate series of buildings. There are nearly 1,000 beds, under the charge of a medical and surgical staff of more than 100 persons. Other general hospitals of note are la Pitie, la Charite, Lariboisiere, the hospitals St. Antoine, Necker, Cochin, &c. Special hos- pitals are those of St. Louis for cutaneous dis- eases ; du Midi and Lourcine, for the treatment respectively of males and females for syphilitic disease ; a hospital for children ; and la Mater- nite, for accouchements. The average annual number of admissions to the hospitals is 62,500 medical and 23,000 surgical cases ; of cures, 54,000 medical and 22,000 surgical cases; of deaths, 8,000 medical and 1,400 surgical cases. The whole number of beds in hospitals and hospices is 19,600. For an account of the ad- ministration of the Paris prisons and peniten- tiaries, see PRISON. The most famous prison building remaining since the destruction of the Bastile is the Oonciergerie, on the left bank of the Seine, adjoining the Palais de Justice ; the chief modern prisons are those of the Mazas and La Roquette. For accounts of several other noteworthy features of Parisian admin- istration see CEMETERY, MONT DE PIETE, and MORQUE. Paris is still honorably distinguished for its higher educational institutions, although under the late empire they somewhat declined, at least relatively, in respect of sciences and letters, from the capital rank they had attained before 1850. The academic universitaire, the much changed descendant of the famous old university of Paris (which embraced the col- lege of the Sorbonne), consists of five schools or faculties, theology, law, medicine, science, and letters, each with a numerous corps of professors. The number of students is ordi- narily between 7,000 and 8,000. The college de France has 36 professors in all departments of letters, philosophy, and science. Their lec- tures are public and gratuitous, as are those of the 16 professors who. lecture on natural his- tory, comparative anatomy, botany, geology, chemistry, and the connected sciences at the museum of natural history, and of an equal number at the conservatory of arts and trades, the principal object of whose teaching is the application of science to the industrial arts. Among other special schools worthy of men- tion are : the polytechnic school, corresponding somewhat to the American military academy at West Point ; the school of roads and bridges (ecole des ponts et chaussees), for instruction in all branches of civil engineering ; the school of mines, for instruction in the arts and sciences bearing upon mining operations; the central school, for the practical education of civil en- gineers, architects, and directors of manufac- turing establishments; the ecole d'etat major, for the education of military staff officers ; the normal school, with 27 professors; the school of charts, with seven lecturers on palaeogra- phy, political institutions, and diplomacy ; the school of fine arts, with a museum and courses of instruction in every department of the plas- tic arts by eminent theorists and artists ; the free school of design, mathematics, and orna- mental sculpture ; the free school of design for young women under the direction of Rosa Bonheur ; the conservatory or academy of music and declamation, with 600 pupils, which counts among its 70 teachers and masters in vocal and instrumental music, and in all branches of the histrionic art, many of the most eminent composers and professional artists of the day ; six schools for the education of Ro- man Catholic priests, of which the seminary of St. Sulpice with 14, and that of Notre Dame with 17 directors and professors, are the prin- cipal; and a seminary for the education of Israelitish pastors. The six lyceums of Paris are national institutions, where the course of classic and scientific instruction is shaped with a view to the pupil's further study for one of the liberal professions on his entrance to the polytechnic and other superior scientific schools. The colleges of Ste. Barbe (on the list of whose alumni are the names of Ignatius Loyola and John Calvin) and St. Stanislas are immense private establishments. The colleges Rollin and Ohaptal, and the e"cole Turgot, are municipal institutions, where the course of study looks rather to the pupil's career in the ordinary paths of business life. There are numerous large public libraries in Paris, six of which are daily open to all comers. The lar- gest of these, having for its only rival that of the British museum, is the national (formerly royal or imperial) library. It contains more than 2,000,000 printed volumes, 150,000 manu- scripts, 300,000 maps, charts, and topographi- cal views, 1,300,000 engravings, and a cabinet of coins and medals numbering over 150,000 objects. This invaluable collection is constant- ly increased by gifts and purchases, and by the action of a law as old as the time of Henry II. (1556), which requires the deposit of a copy of every new thing printed in France. The libra- ries next in importance for the number and value of their printed and manuscript treasures are the Mazarin, the Arsenal, Sorbonne, and Ste. Genevieve. The large libraries belonging to some of the schools, ministries, and other national institutions are rich in special depart- ments of science and literature. They are not freely open to the public, but every reasonable application for access to them is generally granted. For an account of the five academies composing the imtitut de France, see ACAD- EMY. The observatory has been briefly de- scribed as " the headquarters of astronomical science," a name it long deserved. Besides public institutions, some of the more important of which are mentioned above, there is hard-