1 87 1.] War Science, 49 



low freeboards, where it is of great importance that the 

 weighty armament should be for the most part below the 

 water-line. Had, for instance, the unfortunate Captain been 

 able to lower her guns some ten feet below the sea-level, 

 instead of their being mounted up on deck, there would have 

 been, in all probability, no chance of her heeling over or 

 becoming topheavy in a gale of wind. Whether these par- 

 ticular carriages can, however, be rendered available for the 

 navy remains to be seen, but in any case their value for field 

 works alone is incalculable. 



We could, if necessary, easily multiply instances of this 

 kind to prove that the manufacturing departments of the 

 Royal Arsenal are fully alive to progress in matters of a 

 warlike nature ; the improvement effected in rifling ordnance, 

 in the construction of cannon, whereby the strain is more 

 equally distributed throughout the metal, in the shape and 

 hardness of iron projectiles, &c, all betoken that in this 

 branch of the War Department much attention is given to 

 the advancement of military knowledge. A more direct 

 proof, however, of the value and reliance placed upon 

 science by the War Office, is that offered by the existence 

 of an establishment devoted exclusively to the investigation 

 and elaboration of novel implements of warfare, and to the 

 control of army supplies of every description. This estab- 

 lishment, termed the Chemical Department of the War 

 Office, is in itself a modest and insignificant institution, and 

 appears to the visitor to be almost lost among the busy fac- 

 tories that are crowded together within the limits of the 

 Royal Arsenal. Established some fifteen years ago as a 

 simple chemical laboratory, under the direction of Professor 

 Abel, it has steadily increased in size and importance, 

 forming at the present moment a general reference department 

 to which all matters bearing upon scientific questions are 

 submitted. The chemical establishment of the War Depart- 

 ment fulfils, indeed, as it now stands, the part of adviser and 

 judge in regard to all supplies necessary for the personnel and 

 materiel branches of the service, and upon the dictum of the 

 chemist alone is the fitness, or otherwise, of army stores 

 decided ; so successfully has this method been carried out 

 through many years, that the reliance now placed upon the 

 judgment of the gentlemen forming the scientific staff is 

 almost unbounded, and no step of importance is ever taken 

 in these matters without their opinion and sanction being 

 first obtained. 



To enumerate completely the multifarious duties which 

 constitute the work of the war chemists would require more 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) H 



