are musical schools established for the instruction of children in the profession of music. There are four of these at Venice, designed for the education of girls, and three at Naples, for the education of boys. It has been suggested that the operation of castration was performed in the conservatorios; but the practice is absolutely prohibited; and the young castrati are brought from Lucia in Puglia; but before the operation is performed, their voices are tried in a conservatorio. The scholars of the Venetian conservatorios have been chiefly celebrated for taste and neatness of execution; and those of Naples have had the reputation of being the first contrapuntists, or composers, in Europe.