Like the water supply the drainage of Paris is in an unsatisfactory state, and seems on the way of being thoroughly executed. In old times the city was drained by open sewers. The first covered sewer was made in 1374. In the 16th century the palace of Tournelles had to be abandoned in consequence of the malaria arising from the open drains around it. In the time of Louis XIV. the uncovered drains were four 'times as long as those that were covered. Napoleon I. began the subterranean canalisation of the city ; but in 1854 there were only 102 miles of sewerage completed to 276 miles of public ways. In the interval however all the open sewers have been covered in, and some other important improvements have been effected. These are the establishment of arterial sewers parallel to the Seine; a grand sewer encircling the city into which several tributaries open; the purification of the Bievre; and the commencement of the great sewer under the Rue-de-ltivoli (13 feet high and 8 feet wide), which will extend from Chaillot to the Faubourg St.-Antoine, and communi cate with the sewer of the enceinte; and an arterial sewer on the left bank of the Seine, which when finished, will extend from the Bievre to below Gros-Caillot. But even with all these aids the surface drainage of Paris is very imperfect, though two drains have been constructed outside the barriers to carry off the superficial waters from the streets. To remedy all the defects of the system it is proposed, in connection with the improved water supply above noticed, to form grand lines of sewerage under the principal streets furnished with rails for the passage of waggons and carts; out of these secondary lines, also furnished with rails to the less important streets, with smaller conduits to encircle each group of houses, and to communicate with each house by means of pipes.
It must not be supposed however that the streets of Paris are now as they used to be in a dirty elate. Thanks to the regulations made since the re-establishment of the empire, not only the principal streets but the emaller thoroughfares are kept remarkably clean. Street eweepers are appointed to every district of the metropolis. Between 8 o'clock in the morning and 9 o'clock in the evening no one is allowed to throw anything out upon the pavements; after the last mentioned hour all that is thrown out is collected and carted away before morning.
Paris possesses about 100 Catholic churches and chapels. There are few ecclesiastical communities for men, but several for women, the principal of which is the seminary of the congregation of the Sisters of Charity in the Rue-du-Bac. This establishment is of vast size, and has between 2000 mid 3000 inmates, who here prepare themselves for the active discharge of their important duties—tending the sick in the hospitals, and instructing the children of the poor. There are two Calvinist and two Episcopal churches, one Lutheran church, a synagogue, and a Methodist meeting-house.
Besides the free library before mentioned there are several largo and important libraries open to the public :—The Imperial library in the Rue-Richelieu near the l'alais-lioyal, with above 1,500,000 volumes, 80,000 manuscripts, 1,600,000 engravings, 100,000 medal, and coins, and 300,000 maps; time library of the arsenal, with 180,000 volumes and 5000 manuscripts ; the Mazarine library (120,000 volumes and 4500 manuscripts); the City library; that of the museum of Natural History at the Jar-din-des-Plantes, and others.
The charitable institutiona are numerous. There are 17 hospitals, most of them of great extent and admirably regulated. The most important of the non-military hospitals is the Hotel-Dieu, in the island of La-Cite; of the military hospitals, the 116tel-des-Invalides. The patients in nearly all the hospitals of Paris are tended by the admirable Sisters of Charity. There ere also 13 asylums, including houses for the blind and for deaf-mutes. Each Arrondissement has an office (Bureau-de-Charite) for relieving the destitute at their own habitations. Two hospitals have been lately established by decree of the Emperor for receiving the workmen maimed or disabled at the great works in course of construction in the capital. There are a variety of other institutions for affording relief, and vast sums are distributed every year through the medium of the clergy, and the Brotherhood of St-Vincent de Pau), a lay society, for visiting the poor at their own houses.
Paris contains numerous places of amusement. There are several theatres, the most remarkable of which are the Acaddmie-Impdriale. de-Musique, or French Opera House ; the Italian Opera; the Opera Comique ; the Theatre-Francais ; the Odeon ; the Theatre-Lyrique; the Gymnage ; Do-Vaudeville; Des-Varietes, &c. The principal equestrian spectacles are the Cirque-Napoleon in the Boulevard-du-Temple ; the Cirque in the Champs-Elysees, a spacious polygonal edifice built of stone and surmounted by a bronze horse ; and the Hippodrome outside the barrier, opposite the south front of the triumphel arch de-l'Etoile. The last has seats for 10,000 spectators. Public balls are common in summer and winter ; and the gardens of the Tuileries and of the Palais-Royal, the Bois-de-Boulogne, and the Boulevards are much frequented by promenaders.
Among the prisons of Paris, besides Sainte-Pelagie before named, St-Lazare in the Rue-Faubourg-St.-Denis, which was formerly the house of the congregation for foreign miaaions, established by SL-Vincent of Paul, whose remains originally deposited in the chapel of St-Lazare, were translated from Notre-Dame to the chapel of the Lazarists in the Rutz-de-SZvres after 1830. Other prisons are La-Force, near the Place-Royale ; La-Roquette in the Faubourg-St-Antoine; the Abbaye in the Rne-Sainte-Marguerite, on the left bank of the Seine.
(Dulaure ; Malte-Brun ; Balbi ; Didionnaire Gtographique Uairersel Paris and its Historical Scenes ; Dictionnaire de la Prance; Revue Municipale ; Official Papers published in the Monitor"; Guide to Paris, Ice.)