64 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



1500 dressings, for the cavalry, remains generally with the wagons attached 

 to the corps, and is kept ready to supply the active section with any article 

 that may be wanted. The latter is again subdivided into ambulance depot 

 and flying ambulance. 



The depot ambulance settles down at a convenient distance from the 

 battle-field, and the attendants immediately take down the cases from the 

 wagons, prepare the linen, lint, dressings, &c. They light a fire, and imme- 

 diately make, with their solidified broth, a good saucepanful of soup. This is 

 called the precaution soup, and thus they have at once what we should call 

 beef tea for the wounded. Everything being thus prepared, a red flag is un- 

 furled, to apprise the wounded men where they can get relief. The flying 

 ambulance goes, in the meanwhile, to the immediate rear, within the enemy's 

 range, to attend to the men who receive dangerous wounds. At the same 

 time clerks, under the command of commissariat officers, and accompanied by 

 medical officers, proceed along the lines, and cause the wounded to be taken 

 up by the attendants and the drivers. This latter arrangement is especially 

 intended to prevent the soldiers from yielding to compassion, and succoring 

 their fallen comrades, no man being allowed to leave the ranks, however 

 desirous of aiding the wounded. 



The ambulances just described are called the European ambulances, but 

 there is another kind, called African ambulances, which latter have been in- 

 stituted to servd in countries devoid of roads and destitute of accommodation. 

 An ambulance of this kind, calculated for a corps of 10,000 men, contains 

 6500 dressings, and requires 364 pack mules. Twenty-four of these carry 

 iron litters, on which soldiers who have had a limb amputated may be placed ; 

 and 250 carry little arm chairs made of iron and leather, which may be 

 unfolded, slung, and fastened to the pack saddle, and will take a patient on 

 each side of the mule. The rest of the mules carry the casks of diet drinks, 

 the stretchers, the blankets, the leather covers for the sick, the tents, the 

 surgical boxes, the cases containing the drugs, &c. Sixteen medical officers, 

 seven clerks, and 104 attendants on the sick or wounded, are attached to this 

 'ambulance, which is mainly intended by its fleetness for vanguard service 

 and for picking up the wounded on the field of battle. Both the European 

 and African ambulances were used in the Crimea with the best effects. 



Light carts have also been sent to the seat of war. Three wounded men 

 can be accommodated on the front seat ; there is a case behind, properly 

 secured, which is so made as to contain two stretchers; and boxes, sur- 

 rounded by wire work, are intended for the guns and sacs of the soldiers. 



Such are the characters of the ambulances, the peculiarity of which is to move 

 rapidly from place to place, and to be ready for ah 1 the emergencies of war. 



DEVELOPMENT OF HEAT IN STEAM BOILERS. 



The editor of the Railroad Record thus describes the results of some expe- 

 riments undertaken by him, for the purpose of testing the alleged rapid 

 development of heat in steam boilers when covered according to Harshman's 

 method with a loose copper casing. He says: Our boiler is an upright 

 tubular one, with flues of one inch opening each. The boiler was thoroughly 



