At the Small Pox Hospital, Blackwell's Island. White males, 2; black males, 1; black females, 1; total, 4.

At Alms House Hospital, Bellevue.

White males, 298; white females, 292; total, 459.

Nursery Hospital, Randal's Island.

Nursery Buildings on Randal's Island.

The Nursery Establishment, or Juvenile Department of the New-York Alms House, is located on Randal's Island, which lies in the East River, at the mouth of the Harlem River, about eight miles from the City Hall. The buildings of this establishment, twelve in number, are plain and substantial, designed more expressly for use than for show. Five of the buildings are situated irregularly yet symmetrically on a line at intervals of one hundred feet, forming the front of the group, and having a southeasterly aspect; these five, together with two standing 260 feet in advance, at the extreme right and left, and an eighth, located eighty feet in the rear of the centre one, constitute the Nursery proper-the remaining four buildings, grouped centrally in the rear of the front line at about four hundred feet distance form the Nursery Hospital. The whole is enclosed by a neat picket fence in a plot of ground eight hundred by twelve hundred feet, with the sides at right angles to the front line of buildings. The buildings are pleasantly lo cated at about the centre of the Island, at an elevation of thirty feet above tide-water, the ground in front sloping to the water at a gentle inclination in a south easterly direction, affording a view of Flushing Bay, the intervening islands and adjacent country-one of the finest prospects in the vicinity of New-York.

Of the eight buildings forming the Nursery Proper, the centre one in front is devoted to the Schools and Superintendent's residence. The one immediately in the rear of this is the kitchen, and the remaining six are dwellings for the children. The School-house, 45 by 105 feet, is constructed of blue building-stone in a superior style of rubble masonry; but all the other buildings are of brick, and painted of a color resembling blue stone. In the basement of the School-house is the Steward's office, the private kitchen of the Superintendent and various store rooms. In the principal story is the Primary School, 41 by 53 feet, and 14 feet high, entered by the children at

the rear of the building, one step only above the ground; here is also, in front, the Superintendent's apartments. comprising his office and rooms for his family. The floor of these apartments, in front, is elevated three feet above that of the Primary School, being on a level with the teacher's platform, and upon this visitors are received from the hall which connects the schoolroom with the Superintendent's office. In the second story is the boys' school-room, 41 by 70 feet, and 17 feet high; this room is entered by the children at the rear, and by visitors from the front. Immediately in front of this room are six apartments occupied by the teachers, chaplain and others; three of these rooms are obtained by introducing a floor at mid-hight of the story, producing a mezzanine or middle story-as also at the rear of the boys' school-room, where a sewing room is located over two recitation rooms. The attic of this building, one room, 41 by 101 feet, is occupied as a dormitory by the female paupers, who serve the Institution as cooks, &c. The floor of this room is supported by the framing of the roof, leaving the fine school-room below quite unobstructed, as it otherwise would be, by columns and girders. The ventilating apparatus for the school-room is at once simple, neat and efficacious; this consists of two series of flues included within the thickness of the external walls, one series for the admission of cold air from a reservoir in the cellar, the other for the escape of vitiated air at the roof-the entrance to both from the rooms being protected by metallic plates perforated with numerous and small apertures; the reservoirs for pure air in the cellar are supplied by flues reaching to the top of the building. The building is comfortably warmed by two hot-air furnaces. The school-rooms are fitted with desks and other furniture, which are equal if not superior in point of neatness of finish and utility to those of any other school in the county, and which reflect the highest credit on the New York Public School Society, at whose expense and under whose direction they were furnished.

Of the four other buildings on the front line, the two next adjacent ones, north and south, are each 33 by 96 feet, and three stories high, having verandahs eight feet wide on both sides of each story. The southerly one of these two buildings is occupied by the larger boys of the establishment, the other by the girls and smaller boys; they are precisely alike in their construction, the first story containing a dining-room, 31 by 70 feet, and ten feet high, a room for washing hands and bathing, and a kitchen for the Matron or Steward. Beneath this is a cellar for the hot-air furnace and fuel. In the se cond story is a dormitory, 31 by 70 feet, and eleven feet high, and two apartments for the officers of the institution. The third story is in one open room, a dormitory 31 by 94 feet, and eleven feet high. These buildings are ventilated and warmed in the same manner as the school house. The apparatus for bathing and washing hands in the first story is original and complete; a circular tub, ten feet in diameter, is supplied with water, cold and warm at pleasure, and is thus used for bathing by a dozen of the children at once. They use the same tub for washing their hands and face; a leaden pipe coiled on the inside just below the top being perforated with apertures which discharge the water toward the centre of the tub, the children standing around, twenty or more at once, wash their faces with the water they catch in their hands as it flows from the pipe, thus dispensing with wash bowls, an infinite source of trouble and vexation in large public institutions. And what is of more vital importance, no two are permitted to wash in the same water, or even one to use the same water twice, which cannot be avoided by the old plan, to the great risk of the children's infecting each other with the ophthalmia, a dreadful scourge, which has destroyed the happiness and use. fulness of so many children in former years at this and similar institutions. For this convenient and complete arrangement the institution is indebted to

the experience and ingenuity of LINUS W. STEVENS, Esq., one of the gentlemen of the Building Committee, late President of the Board of Assistant Aldermen, and at the present time the Alderman of the Fifteenth Ward.

The two remaining buildings on the front line are similar in arrangement to the two just described, but they are of a smaller size, 33 by 55 feet each; the stories, however, are of the same height respectively as those of the other two. The most southerly of these two buildings is termed the Quarantine or Reception House; the other, which is the most northerly of the front line, is the Infants' House.

The two buildings in advance of those just described, are each 35 by 100 feet, two stories high. The southerly one is occupied by the larger boys, and the other by the girls and small boys. These two buildings were erected since the original ten, as a relief for the two dwellings next adjacent to the centre building; these latter two having been found insufficient to accommodate the large number of children of this class. The two newer buildings are nearly alike in their internal arrangement, each having in the first story a living room 33 by 77 feet, 12 feet high, and a dormitory in the second story of 33 by 73 feet, 11 feet high, and at the westerly end small apartments for the officers. A sewing room 17 by 33 feet, with wardrobes attached, occupies the westerly end of the first story of the northerly building, and a bathing tub 11 feet diameter, similar to those in the other dwellings, occupies the westerly end of the first story of the southerly building, and this building has a cellar for stores, 32 by 97 feet, 7 feet high.

The eighth building, situated 80 feet in the rear of the School House or centre building, is 30 by 60 feet and two stories high. This building is devoted to cooking, washing and ironing, on the first floor, and the second floor is used for a tailors' shop, and dormitory for adult male paupers-servants and boatmen. The floor of the first story is of stone flagging, and the three apartments in this story are entirely separated by brick walls. The apparatus for cooking and heating water for washing and scrubbing has attached to it nine kettles, six in one room and three in another, each 24 feet diameter, and is all heated by one fire. This improved steam apparatus is the invention of Mr. Hatfield, the Architect of the buildings, and A. S. Bowen, Machinist. The advantages of this over other steam apparatuses for boiling, consist in the avoidance of a peculiar clattering racket-a very offensive noise incidental to the old method, and in the greater degree of heat produced; the inefficiency of the old plan to cook Indian meal mush thoroughly is fully overcome here by the superior amount of heat produced, which is quite sufficient not only for this purpose, but for roasting meat in the kettles. These kettles are conveniently arranged with pipes, to supply and discharge each at pleasure; and the waste steam from the cooking is not permitted to escape from the kettles into the room, but is conducted by copper pipes to the chimney. The wash room is fitted with a series of wash troughs, supplied and emptied at pleasure by leaden pipes.

The four remaining buildings compose the Hospital department of the establishment; they consist of two large Hospitals, one smaller building for a kitchen, and one for idiots. The two hospitals stand in front, 125 feet apart, and the kitchen is placed in the rear between these; the idiots' dwelling being still farther in the rear of the kitchen. The hospital kitchen is 25 by 60 feet, and two stories high, arranged and fitted with cooking and washing apparatus of the same description as in the larger kitchen above referred to, but of smaller capacity. The two hospitals are precisely alike, being each 36 by 60 feet, and three stories high, having verandahs 8 feet wide on both sides of each story inclosed with glass. In each of the two lower stories there are two wards or rooms 16 by 34 feet, opening at each end on the verandahs, and in the third story another ward, 24 by 34 feet, also opening on the verandahs. In the first story of one building is the physician's office, and in the other building the matron's kitchen; there is also in each first story the same de

scription of bathing apparatus as in the children's dwelling, and in addition thereto, the ordinary bathing tub and apparatus. In the second story are apartments also for the accommodation of the physicians and nurses. These buildings are also warmed and ventilated as those before described.

The twelfth building is termed the idiots' dwelling; it is 25 by 35 feet and two stories high, divided into two rooms on each floor, and with two flights of stairs, forming two distinct suits of apartments for males and femalesthe first story rooms being used as sitting-rooms, and the others as dormitories.

The buildings are supplied with Croton water brought to the island by a large and heavy leaden pipe, laid below the bed of the Harlem river; and a complete system of sewerage connected with the buildings removes all waste water, surface water and filth from the several buildings and outhouses into the river.

On the front of the school-house a marble tablet is thus lettered:

NURSERY ESTABLISHMENT.

These ten buildings erected by the Corporation of the City of New-York

FOR THE

JUVENILE DEPARTMENT OF THE ALMS HOUSE,
Under the direction of the

Committees on Charity and Alms,

The original ten buildings were commenced by breaking ground on the 13th of August last, the corner stone laid on the 23d of September, and were completed and taken possession of by the children on the 17th of April, having being constructed in the short space of eight months and a few days. The entire cost of the ten buildings, including that of the apparatus for cooking, ventilation and warming, and of the plumbing work for the Croton water, as also the cost of grading the grounds, was $74,648 09. The two newer dwellings, under the supervision and direction of the Joint Committee on Charity and Alms, and of R. G. Hatfield, the Architect, were commenced in October, 1848, and are now being finished in February, 1849, at a cost of about $9,700. The Common Councils who have erected these buildings, deserve great credit for this judicious expenditure of the public money, and too much praise cannot be awarded to the gentlemen of the Building Committees for the assiduous attention and arduous labor which they have devoted to the work.

Introduction of the Croton Water upon Randal's Island.

The water is conveyed from the foot of One Hundred and Twenty-firststreet across the Harlæm river to Randal's Island, in a leaden pipe. The river at this point is about 600 feet wide and 32 feet deep in the channel; the bottom of the river was covered with boulders, and in one place a ledge of solid rock projected. A channel to receive the pipe was prepared, by removing the boulders and blasting this point of solid rock, about 14 feet under water, and excavating from one to three feet below the regular bottom of the river.

The lead pipe is in the inside three inches in diameter and eighth-tenths of an inch thick, made in lengths of 20 feet, and put together with a soldered joint, the solder being covered with a coating of lead three-fourths of an inch thick, so that nothing but a surface of lead is exposed to the action of the salt-water. The pipes were put together on the New-York shore, and cased in a timbered box bolted and trunelled so as to prevent its being injured by drawing across the bottom of the river. About 150 feet was prepared in the first instance, when it was proved with a forcing pump, under a pressure of 300 pounds to the square inch; this was then drawn into the river by power from the other side, when another 150 feet was in like manner prepared and drawn in, and so on, until it was passed across the river, and was then covered with coarse gravel; the connection with the main pipe on both sides of the river are with brass reducers. Most of the work was of a new and novel character, and required a great deal of perseverance and patience to do it; the operation of the work has been entirely successful, and the supply from it is sufficient for 5,000 persons, and washes off all offal and refuse from the Nursery Buildings, which passes into the sewer from them.

The foregoing detail is given of the operations in effecting so important a result of furnishing an ample supply of Croton water to one of the most interesting institutions to which the distribution of the charities of this city are bestowed. The Nurseries, as the establishment is called, the inmates of which are children, left to the cold sympathies of the world, without friends or guardians; from which cause they are the peculiar objects of the care and protection of the city fathers. The city authorities have liberally and kindly provided for their health comfort, and moral improvement in said institution. Much credit is due to Mr. Peter Hastee, the Engineer, and Mr. Benj. M. Clarke, who had the special supervision of said work; together with the Joint Committees on Charity and Alms; and to the Chairman of said Committee.

The Joint Committee on Charity and Alms are as follows:

Aldermen.

L. W. Stevens,

Washington Smith,

Amos F. Hatfield.

Assistant Aldermen.
Timothy R. Hibbard,
Nathan A. Sutton,
George H. Franklin.

Penitentiary Hospital, Blackwell's Island.

In addition to many buildings already erected on this island, for public purposes, the Common Council has contracted for the erection of a building to be used as an hospital for the penitentiary. It is to be built of the stone that is quarried on the island, by the prisoners. The main building is to be 60 feet square and three stories high, with a basement and attic, with two wings each, to be 124 feet long and 50 feet wide, two stories high, with a basement, making in all 308 feet in length. The main building is intended for the use of the officers of the hospital and the necessary offices, apothecary's shop, store-rooms, &c.; the south east wing is to be occupied entirely by the female patients, and the west wing, on the first floor, for a male hospital, and on the second floor for a sewing room and general workshop for the female prisoners; the basement to be used for a wash house and laundries for all the prisoners. Mr. Richard Calrow, Jr., is the contractor for the carpenter work, for the sum of $18,887, and Messrs. Samuel Strong and Bartlet Smith, for the mason work, for the sum of $17,500. Mr. James L. Miller is the architect and superintendent; the plans were executed by him and approved by the Medical Board of Physicians, and the Joint Committee on Public Buildings on Blackwell's Island, consisting of Aldermen Adams, Crolius, and Gray; Assistant Aldermen Miller, Clark, and Sutton, who have the general supervision of the building.