All cities and towns of this state shall have the power to establish, erect, maintain, and regulate jails, morgues, houses of refuge, stationhouses and prisons, public baths and bathhouses, and to own, establish, maintain, and regulate public hospitals, and to purchase and provide for any and all things which may be deemed advisable or necessary thereto and to receive donations and bequests of property or money in trust or otherwise for the exercise of all such powers, rights, and duties incident to the same.