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is most important; and should be considered well whenever a new hospital 
is erected. It is not necessary that they should be on a uniform plan. No 
large entrance door should be without a large louvre above. (8.) Two zinc 
plates or tablets should be placed in the upper part of or above some of the 
windows ; in order to break the air current, the inner plate sliding over the 
other, so that the apertures may be closed. The nurse to keep a rod for 
this purpose. 
THE SCIENCE OF A CYCLONE.* 
F ROM year to year we receive abundant testimony of the activity with 
which Indian scientific workers carry on their researches, and the 
latest result in this direction which we have to record is embodied in the 
valuable volume which we have just received from the Bengal Government. 
This work is a veritable chef d'oeuwe of scientific acumen; earnest labour, 
persevering energy, and skilful discrimination. It would be creditable to 
any country, but it is doubly creditable to a country wherein civilisation is as 
yet incomplete and where climatal conditions are so eminently unfavourable 
to intellectual pursuits. Indeed we should be glad to find so excellent and 
elaborate an account of any important meteorological phenomenon occurring 
in Great Britain. Some of our readers may remember what a dreadful catas- 
trophe the cyclone described in this report was. The storm raised a wave 
which poured over the country for miles, breaking down embankments, 
sweeping away whole villages, and with them their inhabitants. It was 
one of the most remarkable natural phenomena on record. Destructive of 
population and property, to an almost inconceivable extent, it yet might 
have been anticipated had meteorology been more carefully studied. As it 
was it produced a loss of life which is estimated below the mark at 48,685 
souls. 
To investigate the phenomena which preceded, accompanied and followed 
this cyclone is the task which the editors of the admirable work before us have 
set themselves to perform and which they have so successfully achieved. It 
is quite astounding to see the mass of evidence which has been collected from 
all quarters reached by the inundating wave, the more so, as the phenomenon 
was unexpected and was of so terrific a character that in many instances the 
self-registering instruments were destroyed and the meteorologists fled in 
horror from buildings which threatened every moment to bury them in 
their ruins. Numerous maps, charts, plans, and carefully compiled schedules 
accompany the letter-press and give adequate support to the editors’ conclu- 
sions. For these latter we must refer the reader to the book itself, but the 
u suggestions ” which are offered, are we think of sufficient interest for 
quotation. These are to the effect that the cyclones in the bay are pre- 
ceded by a strong damp stormy wind from south-west or west-south- west to 
* Report on the Calcutta Cyclone of the 5th of October 1804, by Lieut.- 
Col. J. E. Gastrell and Henry Blanford, A.R.S.M. Calcutta Military Orphan 
Press, I8C6. 
