April 27, 1871] 
fusion and cross circulation ona large scale in rabbits, 
and have arrived at definite results, negativing, in my 
opinion, beyond all doubt the truth of the doctrine of 
Pangenesis.” If Mr. Galton could have proved that the 
reproductive elements were contained in the blood of the 
higher animals, and were merely separated or collected 
by the reproductive glands, he would have made a most 
important physiological discovery. As it is, I think every 
one wil! admit that his experiments are extremely curious, 
and that he deserves the highest credit for his ingenuity 
and perseverance. But it does not appear to me that 
Pangenesis has, as yet, received its death blow; though, 
from presenting so many vulnerable points, its life is 
always in jeopardy ; and this is my excuse for having said 
a few words in its defence. CHARLES DARWIN 


THE NEW HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS 
II. 
HE large wards of the Hospital contained in the 
several flats of the Blocks 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7* are 
rooms of noble dimensions. In the second, third, and 
fourth floors, each ward is more than trooft. long, 38ft. 
wide, and 15ft. high ; and as this space is designed for 
the accommodation of twenty-eight patients, each patient 
will have more than 2,000 cubic feet of air to his own 
share, irrespective of change by ventilation. But the 
arrangements for warming and ventilation are also very 
complete and admirable. The entire building is, in the 
first instance, warmed to a certain extent by pipes which 
receive supplies of hot water from large boilers fixed in 
the basements of each block of building. These heating 
pipes are expanded into broad radiating coils here and 
there where immediate increase of warmth is desired. 
There are two of these radiating coils to each ward. 
But in addition to these, there are also in each three ofen 
Jire-places situated in the central line of the floor, and 
sending circular iron chimneys or flues up through the 
ceiling. These columnar iron chimneys are, how- 
ever, double. Each has an inner central pipe, and an 
Outer investing sheath. The inner pipe carries up the 
smoke of the burning fuel ; the outer case collects all the 
effete and used-up air of the chamber, and discharges it 
with the smoke at the outer orifice above the roof, the 
central heated pipe being an efficient cause of a steady 
up-cast. The final outflow of both smoke and impure air 
is by the square turrets, which are seen from the outside as 
a part of the ornamental finish of the roof. The fresh 
air is brought from the outer wall beneath the floors, and 
is discharged into the wards ¢hrough the heated casings of 
the fire stoves and radiating coils. This double plan of 
warming, partly by radiating hot pipes, and partly by open 
fire places, is the very perfection of efficiency and comfort. 
Private residences in England are almost always uncom- 
fortable in very cold weather, however liberal may be the 
consumption of fuel, because the larger and brisker the 
fires, the more intolerable are the indrafts of cold air. 
The cylindrical smoke pipes run straight up from base- 
ment to roof through the entire series of floors, so that 
when the flues require cleansing, a kind of plug is removed 
from the bottom of the pipe, and the entire accumulation 
* See plan in NATURE No, 63, p. 202. 
NATURE 

503 

of soot is brought down at once into one of the cellars of 
the basement, without causing any interference with the 
comfort or cleanliness of the several wards above. 
There are nurses’ chambers on either sideof the entrance 
of each large ward ; and at each side of the farther end 
corresponding turrets, or corner rooms, containing lava- 
tories and baths on one side, and closets on the other 
with convenient little shoots, which are to convey the dust 
of sweepings and the soiled linen of the patients down at 
once to the offices in the basements. Near the nurses’ 
chambers there is also a large square lift, worked by 
hydraulic power, to be used in conveying patients and 
supplies of all kinds, up and down between the projecting 
corners, or turrets (at 6 4 on the plan). At the further ex- 
tremity there is a most delicious open-air balcony looking 
over the cheerful river, with ready access to it from the 
windows of the wards. 
Block No. 9, being designed for the reception of infec- 
tious and contagious diseases, is differently planned. 
There are smaller wards on each side opening from a cen- 
tral stair-case and landing. Between the Blocks 2, 3, and 
4, and between 6, 7, and 8 (at a, a, on the plan) are 
low buildings rising in broken and ornamental form from 
the general line of the connecting corridor, which will be 
used for the residence of officers of the establishment. 
Connected with the upper part of these, there is a fine 
surgeons’ operating theatre at each side of the building, 
one for males and the other for females. These are 
entered from the light and airy glazed corridor of the 
second floor, and have retiring-rooms for patient and 
surgeon, and a direct way to a pleasant open-air flat roof 
looking out over the river. 
In communication with the great connecting corridor 
there is a perfect maze of offices and conveniences, ap- 
proached by an accident-receiving porch abutting on the 
Lambeth Road. There are receiving-rooms for out-pa- 
tients and for surgical cases and accidents, dispensaries, 
and a long range of small private rooms for the medical 
and surgical officers, clerks, and dressers. The Adminis- 
trative Block, No. 1, is entered from the Westminster 
Bridge Road by two flights of steps, one leading to the 
private residence of the Treasurer of the Hospital, and the 
other to a large Council hall looking out by a balcony 
upon the river, and to Committee rooms and other offices, 
which are to be connected with the other departments of 
the establishment by lines of electric telegraph. The 
general entrance of the Hospital is from the Lambeth 
Road, leading to a spacious hall in the central block, No. 
5, above which is the Chapel of the Hospital, a vaulted 
building of fine proportions and very chaste design. This 
block will be finished towards the river front, where it is 
set back or recessed from the line of the other blocks, by 
an ornamented face which looks out on an enclosed space 
or central court. From this court the prospect to the 
river is between the pillars of an open colonnade, bearing 
in the centre a group of sculptured figures, of which the 
chief will be the statue of Edward the Sixth, the royal 
founder of the Hospital. 
Block No. 9 has much more the appearance of a 
church, or chapel, than the central building. It is of low 
elevation, compared with the other blocks, and has orna- 
mental arched windows of large size; and at the corner 
there is a square tower, half steeple, half pagoda, which 
