324 Public Establishment for 



assistance has been asked, not only does honour to the 

 liberality of their sentiments, but calls for my per- 

 sonal acknowledgments and particular thanks. 



I shall conclude this essay with an account of the pro- 

 gress which some of the improvements introduced at 

 Munich are now making in other countries. During 

 my late journey in Italy for the recovery of my health, 

 I visited Verona ; and becoming acquainted with the 

 principal directors of two large and noble hospitals, la 

 Pieta, and la Misericorde, in that city, the former con- 

 taining about 350, and the latter near 500 poor, I had 

 frequent occasions to converse with them upon the 

 subject of those establishments, and to give them an 

 account of the arrangements that had been made at 

 Munich. I likewise took the liberty of proposing some 

 improvements, and particularly in regard to the arrange- 

 ments for feeding these poor, and in the management 

 of the fires employed for cooking. Firewood, the only 

 fuel used in that country, is extremely scarce and dear, 

 and made a very heavy article in the expenses of those 

 institutions. 



Though this scarcity of fuel, which had prevailed for 

 ages in that part of Italy, had rendered it necessary to pay 

 attention to the economy of fuel, and had occasioned 

 some improvements to be made in the management of 

 heat ; yet I found, upon examining the kitchens of these 

 two hospitals, and comparing the quantities of fuel con- 

 sumed with the quantities of victuals cooked, that seven- 

 eighths of the firewood they were then consuming might 

 be saved.* Having communicated the result of those 

 inquiries to the directors of these two hospitals, and 



* I found upon examining the famous kitchen of the great hospital at Flor- 

 ence, that the waste of fuel there is still greater. 



