EDITORIAL. 
189 
An Address on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the founding of the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, delivered June 10th. 1851. By George B. Wood, 
M. D. Published by the Board of Managers. Philadelphia, 1851. pp. 141. 
Karely have we seen the history of a public institution so clearly, con- 
cisely and unostentatiously delineated, where the subject involved interests 
so important, and a period so extended in the past, as in this address of 
Dr. Wood. We have finished its perusal with a far better understanding of 
the origin, progress, and present position of the Pennsylvania Hospital, than 
ever before, albeit our opportunities have not been deficient. We believe 
every reader will have to acknowledge the debt due to our fathers, when he 
learns, through the interesting pages of this Address, the wide reaching be- 
nevolence which this Hospital, their bequest to us, is annually extending 
to hundreds of the maimed, the insane and the sick poor, restoring them to 
their families without cost, or charge ; and whilst thus directly beneficial, 
(as the author justly observes,) thousands of the afflicted in distant places 
derive indirect relief, from the lessons there received, and the experience 
there gained by the numerous Graduates of Medicine who every season wit- 
ness the treatment, and listen to the clinical instruction within its walls. 
An appendix to the Address embraces the Charter, and By-laws, and lists 
of the Managers, Physicians, Contributors, etc, who have been connected 
with the Institution by service or contribution since its commencement, with 
the terms of service of each, and amount contributed by each of the latter. 
The volume, is illustrated with two well executed engravings, the Hos- 
pital buildings in the City, and those of the Insane Department west of the 
Schuylkill, and a figure of the statue of Penn, is impressed on the cover. 
A Notice of the Origin, Progress, and Present Condition of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. By W. S. W. Ruschenberger, Surgeon 
U. S. Navy. Read before the Society Feb. 10th, 1852. pp. 78, octavo. 
The work, of which the above constitutes the title page, is now before us, 
through the politeness of the author. Without claiming any pretensions to 
a regular history of science, it succinctly sets forth how it has happened 
that, within the last forty years, a scientific institution of very considerable 
magnitude, whether measured by the ability of its members, or the volume 
and value of its collections, has grown up within our city, without one dol- 
lar's contribution from the Municipal, or State, or National Government, 
through the untiring zeal of the votaries of science, assisted by the munifi- 
cence of private patrons, until now, when its transactions have a Euro- 
pean circulation, and, in some respects, its museum may vie with the noblest 
government-supported accumulations of Europe. 
The museum embraces 148,876 specimens of natural history, whilst the 
library, which includes a most valuable collection of works on natural 
science, periodical and special, numbers 13,382 volumes. « The collection 
of birds, which is exhibited in the principal hall of the Academy, has grown 
