SHORT NOTES ON PROFESSIONAL SUBJECTS. 
85 
The great feature of novelty connected with this operation, was the accomplish¬ 
ment of great mechanical work by perfectly unconfined gun-cotton, the force of 
which was instantaneously developed through the agency of a small initiative 
detonation. 
The total amount of gun-cotton used in the operation was 7 lbs. 6*5 oz., the 
cost of which, at the present retail price, was 12s. lOd. There is little doubt that 
the 1 lb. charge of gun-cotton expended upon the fracture of the rear bolt might 
have been saved, if, after the first explosion, recourse had been at once had to the 
plan of relieving the trunnions, and at the same time of applying a lifting force to 
the rear of the mass. 
63. “In Memoriam” oe the late Lieut. A. E. Baines, 10th Brigade, 
B.A. 
On the 14th October 1866, a terrific conflagration took place at Quebec, 
Canada, resulting in the destruction of 2500 houses. 
During its fury, explosions were heard in all directions, and whilst a number of 
artillerymen were engaged in blowing up several houses, Lieut. Baines placed 
a keg of powder inside a brick building which he had decided upon blowing up, 
in order to save an institution called the “ General Hospital Convent,” connected 
with the latter by a wooden shed. Immediately on Lieut. Baines firing the 
fuze, he observed a shower of burning wood falling down the chimney of the 
house; his first impulse was to make his escape any way, but before he could do 
so, the charge was ignited by the burning timbers falling on it, and the walls of the 
house fell on him, crushing him frightfully. 
Lieut. Baines was immediately removed to the General Hospital Convent, where 
the Sisters of Mercy kept watch night and day by the bed-side of the wounded officer. 
Hopes were entertained of his recovery, but after 13 days of intense suffering he 
expired in the arms of some of the officers of his brigade. 
The burns which he suffered were comparatively slight, but the injuries he 
received by the wall falling on him was so great that the Medical officers said that 
even if tetanus (the immediate cause of his death) had not intervened he could not 
have lived a year. 
Lieut. Baines was much esteemed by his brother officers and much loved by the 
soldiers; one of these last said a few minutes after the accident, “ I would have 
given my life to save my officer.” 
During the whole of his illness he displayed courage, patience, and resignation. 
When hopes of living were very faint, he expressed his submission to the Divine 
Will, and said, “ If I die, I die in the performance of my duty, and I thank God 
that I should so die,” 
