4p-entices Library Company, was instituted for the be nefit of the apprentices of Philadelphia, and incorporated in 1821. The library consists of several thousand volumes, and the books are loaned, free of charge, to such boys as give satisfactory security for the safe return of the books, and the payment of fines that may accrue from any injury done them.
It will, perhaps, be unnecessary to give a particular de scription of the many other excellent charitable institutions with which Philadelphia abounds, and we shall therefore conclude this subject by a list of sonic of those not already mentioned : as, the Musical Fund Society, for the support of decayed musicians ; the Vaccine Suciet) ; Female Hos pitable Society ; three Societies for supplying the Poor with Soup ; the Associations for the Relief of Distressed Foreigners, as the St. Andrew's. St. George's, Welsh, Hi bernian, and German Societies; and numerous Beneficial Societies composed of mechanics, &c.
Literature and Literary Institutions.—Philadelphia has, at all times, included among her citizens many of the most liberal and enlightened men of the country. A spirit of literary and scientific enquiry, and fondness for intellectual pursuits, seem generally diffused throughout her inhabit ants. In the number and reputation of her literary insti tutions, and the encouragement and support given to men of letters, she has stood so pre-eminent as to obtain the proud title of the Athens of America. As an evidence of the attention of Philadelphians to mental improvement, it may be mentioned, that, during each of the two last win ters, between twenty slid thirty different courses of lectures were delivered on various subjects, exclusive of the excel lent medical lectures at the University and Alms-House.
Public and private schools for the instruction of pupils in the various branches of science and literature, are very numerous and well conducted ; indeed, there is no place in the United States where a more finished education can be acquired.
By a statement recently published it appears that eleven daily, six weekly and semi-weekly papers, and eleven jour nals of religion, science and literature, arc issued from the Philadelphia press.
Our limits will confine us to a brief sketch of some of the most important literary institutions of our city.
University of Pennsylvania.—This institution was in corporated in 1791, and was formed from the union of the old University and the College of Philadelphia, both an cient and respectable seats of learning. In the College of
Philadelphia, in 1764, Dr, William Shippen laid the foun dation of the first medical school in America, by a course of lectures upon anatomy delivered to ten students ; in the •following year, Dr. John Morgan was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine. Both these gentlemen had graduated at Edinburgh, and had previously agreed to at tempt the establishment of a medical school on their re turn. In 1768, Dr. A. Kuhn was appointed professor of botany, and in 1769, Dr. B. Rush was appointed to the chemical chair. Thus was established the Philadelphia School of Medicine, the most respectable and flourishing in America, and able to vie, in the character of her teachers and their mode of communicating instruction, with the dis tinguished institutions of a similar kind in Europe. Many of her preceptors have been illustrious ornaments of their profession, and given a weight of recommendation to her diplomas, exceeding those of any other medical school on this continent. The number of medical students for several years past has averaged near five hundred.
Besides the professorships of medicine there are eleven others, including those of moral philosophy, logic, mathe matics, natural philosophy, the ancient and modern lan guages, &c. Attached to the University is a charity school, supported by the funds of that institution.
Friends' Public Schools.—The overseers of these schools are the oldest corporate body in the state of Pennsylvania.
Their charter was granted by William Penn in the year 1697. They are fifteen in number, have fourteen schools under their care, and educate and clothe a considerable number of poor children annually, the majority of whom are not members of the society of Friends. Among the schools is an excellent classical seminary, in which arc taught the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and a school of mathematics and natural philosophy. In these seminaries some of our most learned and respectable men have received a part of their education. Attached tb the academy, in Fourth street, is an observatory, containing a fine transit instrument, a large reflecting telescope, an ex cellent achromatic telescope, and other astronomical appa rams. Public lectures are delivered in the institution, on botany, mineralogy, and natural philosophy, illustrated by an extensive collection of philosophical instruments, and a handsome cabinet of minerals.