The Policlinico, on the Macas, is one of the finest hospitals in Europe. It is on part of the large site, east and south of the Castro Pretorio, requisitioned by the Government for building a new University, and bringing together various institutions scat tered about the city. Of this scheme the hospital forms part. The military hospital is on the Coelian. In 1910 in honour of the jubilee of the unity of Italy, the formation of an archaeological park, extending from the Via Appia to the foot of the Aventine and almost to the Aurelian Wall, was approved by the Parliament. It contains the Baths of Caracalla. Among the important modern buildings are the Cassa del Risparmio, in the Corso ; the Palazzo Negroni, near the Piazza Nicotia, the Chamber of Deputies, with its principal front on the new Piazza del Parlamento and the Palace of Justice, near the castle of St. Angelo. It was proposed in 1922 to make the barracks and storerooms of the Castle of St. Angelo into a topographical museum. In the same year a museum of antiquities from the Forum was arranged in a building adjoin ing the church of Santa Francesca Romana ; and the Museo Petriano, containing objects connected with the foundation and development of St. Peter's was opened in 1925.
Municipal Administration.—After 187o, those who remained loyal to Pius IX. took no part whatever in public affairs, and the municipal administration was entirely in the hands of the mon archists. The expression "ne eletti ne elettori," meaning that Catholics are to be neither voters nor candidates, which came to be regarded as a sort of rule of the party, was invented at that time by an epigrammatic journalist, and it seems at first to have been applied also to municipal matters, whereas it was later under stood to refer only to parliamentary elections. Leo XIII. en couraged the formation of a Catholic party in the municipal administration, and the municipal government then drifted largely into the hands of Catholics. In the year preceding the present regime the three democratic parties, known as the monarchist, socialist and republican, united to form a popular coalition, and succeeded in completely excluding the conservative, aristocratic and Catholic elements. Prior to 1926 there was a municipal or Communal Council chosen by the electors and a Syndic (Mayor) drawn by the Municipal Council from its members. In all Italian communes except Rome and Naples there has been substituted for these a Podesta, but Rome itself has a governor.
Population.—The population in 1870 was 226,022, by 1901 it had reached 462,743 (communal population). It therefore more than doubled in thirty years. The increase, however, did not take place at a regular rate, owing to the changes in the rates of immigration and emigration. In 1931 the population had reached 1,008,083 an almost as rapid increase as during the earlier period 1870-1901. There are in the city population many military and ecclesiastical officials.
Climate and Hygiene.—Rome is mild and sunny, but the varia tion in temperature between day and night is very great. Decem ber to February appear to be the coldest months, the ther mometer then averaging 47° ; the greatest heat, which averages 75°, is felt in July and August. The surrounding Campagna is still not all habitable during the summer, though the dangerous malaria has been much checked by the planting of numerous eucalyptus trees. A remarkable instance of the effect produced upon the marshy soil by these plantations may be studied at the Trappist monastery of the Tre Fontane, situated on the Via Ar deatina, about 4 m. from Rome. Whereas in former times it was almost always fatal to spend the whole summer there, the monks have so far dried the soil by means of the eucalyptus that they reside in the monastery throughout the year. The municipality has made strenuous efforts, attended with marked success, to reduce the mortality due to malaria. The hygienic conditions of Rome itself have greatly improved, largely through the ceaseless efforts of Commendatore Baccelli, a distinguished man of science, who repeatedly held office in the Italian Ministry. Ninety per 1,000 deaths occurred in 1871 from typhoid (the so-called "Roman fever"), but the average has now fallen to a low constant. Since the introduction of compulsory vaccination deaths from smallpox may be said not to occur at all. The death rate in (1928)
averaged about 19 per 1,000.
Charities and Education.—A great number of small charitable institutions for children and old people have been founded, which are organized on the most modern principles, and in many of these charitable persons of the upper classes give their individual assist ance to the poor. There are also private hospitals for diseases of the eye, in which poor patients are lodged and treated without payment. There are two hospitals entirely maintained by private resources, where infants are treated whose mothers fear to send them to a public hospital, or in cases refused by the latter as not being serious enough for admission. Of course, the numbers of the poor greatly increased with the growth of population, espe cially after the failure of building speculations between 1888 and 1890, though great efforts were made by the municipality to send all persons then thrown out of employment back to their homes. One of the difficulties under which Rome labours is that while it attracts the population of the country, as other capitals do, it possesses no great mechanical industries in which the newcomers can be employed. Efforts to create small industries in the pop ulous quarters of the poor met with little success. Before 1870 a society was formed, which has since greatly developed as an intelligent private enterprise, to provide the poor with sanitary tenements; but its success is much hampered by the absence of employment, which again is partly due to the heavy taxation of small industries. A number of trade schools are also main tained by private funds, such as the Instituto degli Artigianelli, managed by the Fratelli della Dottrina Cristiana, and the Rico vero pei Fanciulli Abbandonati (home for friendless children), which is under lay management and has flourishing work shops. The character of official charities has certainly improved in prin ciple, so far as their educational and moral scope are concerned, for whereas in former times the limited number of the poor made individual and almost paternal relief possible, that form of charity had a pauperizing influence. If anything, the present tendency is to go too far in the opposite direction, and to require too many formalities before any relief is granted; and while the union of the principal charities under a central management on advanced theories improved the methods of administration, it destroyed numerous small sources of immediate relief on which the poor had a traditional right to count, and was in that way productive of hardship. At the same time, however, mutual benefit societies (society di mutuo soccorso) have been organized in great numbers by the different crafts and professions, and are chiefly distinguish able by the political parties to which they belong. It is character istic of the modern Roman people that the most widely different elements subsist without showing any signs of amalgamating, yet without attacking each other. Some of these societies have an exclusively clerical character, others are merely conservative, some consist of monarchists, and some of avowed republicans.
Popular education is principally in the hands of the munici pality, but besides the public schools there are numerous religious institutions attended by the children of the lower classes; they follow the curriculum prescribed by the government, and are under the constant supervision of municipal inspectors, both as regards their teaching and their hygiene. The pope also expends large sums in the maintenance of the people's schools, managed en tirely by laymen, and also under government inspection. For education of the higher grade, besides the regular lyceums and gymnasiums, there are many private schools similarly designated from which pupils can present themselves for the regular govern ment examinations. The University of Rome was established in 1265 and in the session 1924-25 there were 4,500 students. There is also a Higher Institute of Economic and Commercial Education founded in 1906 with some 2,000 students. Rome has also an Engineering college, a Women's Training college and a School of Architecture. The State regulates public education and maintains either entirely or in conjunction with the municipality public schools of every grade. (X.)