or foundling hospital, founded in 1346, and receiving 450 children annually, was under provincial administration. The splendid legacy of the last doge, Ludovico Manin, was applied to the support of about 160 children by the Congregazione di Carità acting through thirty parish boards (deputazione fraternate). Russia Under the old Russian system of Peter I foundlings were received at the church windows by a staff of women paid by the state. But starting in the reign of Catherine II, foundling hospitals were in the hands of the provincial officer of public charity (prykaz obshestvennago pryzrenya). The great central institutions (Vospitatelnoi Dom), at Moscow and St. Petersburg (with a branch at Gatchina), were founded by Catherine. When a child was brought to these institutions the baptismal name was asked, and a receipt was given, by which the child could be reclaimed up to the age of ten. After the usual period of six years in the country, care was taken with the education, especially of the more promising children. The hospitals served as a valuable source of recruits for the public service. The rights of parents over their children were very much restricted, and those of the government much extended by a ukase issued by the emperor Nicholas I in 1837. United States , in the United States of America, foundling hospitals, which are chiefly private charities, existed in most of the large cities. See also Child abandonment Orphanage Street children References Child welfare Children's hospitals Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement