478 



NATURE 



[Apri7 iS,iSy2 



nations, and to accord the privilege of First and Second 

 Grade Science Masters in consideration of University 

 Examinations in Science, or of a satisfactory course of 

 study in colleges in which science is taught, as well as in 

 other cases of obvious scientific qualification. 



XIV. We recommend that in schools recognised as 

 Science Schools, as hereinafter set forth, facilities for the 

 employment of assistant teachers be afforded as an ex- 

 periment onalimited scale, some additionbeingmadetothe 

 emoluments of the teacher in consideration of the instruc- 

 tion afforded ; provided the Department be satisfied, on 

 the report of an inspector, that such assistant teacher has 

 received practical instruction in subjects in which it is 

 prescribed, and that he has been actively engaged in 

 teaching. 



To encourage the more advanced scholars to become 

 assistant teachers under first grade masters in such 

 schools, a small stipend, rising in successive years, might 

 be granted on condition that a like sum was raised locally, 

 subject to such conditions as the Department might deem 

 expedient. The proportion of assistant teachers should 

 not exceed one for every fifteen successful scholars in any 

 science school, and no scholar should be recognised as an 

 assistant teacher until he has passed in the first division 

 of the elementary class in the May examination. 



XV. We recommend that, with a view of training First 

 Grade Science Teachers, exhibitions of sufticient value 

 and in sufficient numbers be offered to elementary science 

 teachers and to assistant teachers who have served three 

 years, and passed in the first division of the advanced 

 class in the May examinations ; and that such exhibitions 

 should be tenable in any University, College, or Science 

 School recognised in Recommendation XI 1. 



XVI. We recommend that the grants made by the 

 Science and Art Department for buildings be extended, 

 under sufficient guarantees, so as to embrace institutions 

 for scientific instruction, although they may not be built 

 under the Public Libraries Act, or be in connection with 

 a School of Art. 



XVII. We recommend that grants similar to those 

 now made for apparatus be given for laboratory and 

 museum fittings under proper guarantees. 



XVIII. We recommend that whenever the arrange- 

 ments for scientific teaching in any institution shall have 

 attained a considerable degree of completeness and effi- 

 ciency, such institution be recognised as a Science School, 

 and be so organised as to become the centre of a group 

 of Elementary Science Classes ; and to provide the assist- 

 ance of First Grade Science Masters, the loan of apparatus 

 and specimens, and the means of instruction in the labo- 

 ratories and museums to the more advanced students of 

 the group. 



XIX. We recommend that assistance be given for the 

 formation and maintenance of such Science -Schools by 

 special grants, the conditions of which shall be determined 

 by regulations to be framed by the Science and Art De- 

 partment. 



XX. We recommend that when laboratories are at- 

 tached to second grade grammar schools in the schemes 

 issued by the Endowed Schools Commissioners, the 

 trustees of such schools be encouraged and enabled to 

 invite the formation of elementary science classes to be 

 taught therein. 



AMERICAN WAR-OFFICE REPORTS 



Report on Barracks and Hospitals, with Descriptions of 

 Military Posts. War Department, Surgeon-General's 

 Office, Washington, December 5, 1870 ; pp. 525. 



Approved Plans and Specifications for Post Hospitals. 

 Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, July 27, 1871 ; 

 pp. 14. 



' I "HESE two documents are intended to fulfil for the 

 -■- United States army the same purpose as the Re- 

 ports of the Royal Commissions of 1857 and 1863 on the 

 sanitary state of the British and Indian armies, and the 

 Report of the Barrack and Hospital Improvement Com- 

 mission were intended to fulfil for Her Majesty's troops 

 serving at home and abroad. 



The first document contains an excellent general report 

 by Assistant- Surgeon Billings, followed by adigest of reports 

 from the posts of the United States army scattered all 

 over their territory. These reports, besides dealing with 

 the general sanitary condition and diseases of troops, are 

 full of interesting general information regarding local 

 topography, surface geology, hydrography, meteorology, 

 and natural history, having reference to 151 points and 

 districts of the country extending from the lakes to the 

 mouths of the Mississippi, and from the east of Maine to 

 the far west of Oregon and California. The reports are 

 illustrated by topographical plans, showing the outlines of 

 the more important localities, and also by plans and de- 

 tails of barrack and hospital arrangements. 



The most common diseases to which troops are li.ible 

 are malarial fevers, catarrhal affections, diarrhcea, and 

 dysentery. Malaria appears to exist more or less in all 

 the military " departments," while in Arizona it produces 

 results of more importance to efficiency than this pest 

 does in India. 



The purely medical details are of more interest to pro- 

 fessional readers, but it is evident that most of the officers 

 who have supplied the local information have been fully 

 alive to the importance of scientific questions generally, 

 and hence these reports may be advantageously consulted 

 by persons interested in the physical geography of this 

 division of the American continent. In Mr. Billing's re- 

 port the general results of these district inquiries are given, 

 and the principles of local improvements are discussed. 

 Those referring to post hospitals are embodied in the 

 " approved plans and specifications," which show simple, 

 efficient, and economical, methods of erecting hospitals of 

 the denomination required. The plans are generally the 

 same as those proposed by the Army Sanitary Committee 

 in this country, but they contain one or two of those in- 

 genious adaptations of principles for which our trans- 

 atlantic cousins are famous. One of the great difficulties 

 in American climates is to keep apartments sufficiently 

 heated and yet to preserve the air from contamination. 



In improved barracks and hospitals at home this has 

 been effected by a peculiar form of fire grate, contrived by 

 Captain Galton, which, while retaining the advantages of 

 the open radiating fire, supplies the room with a large 

 body of fresh air warmed to about 60" F., the chimney 

 draught being used as a means of removing foul air from 

 the room. A modification of this contrivance for burning 

 wood is figured in the report on the Sanitary Improve- 



