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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
the cupola and the expense magazine, which as on shipboard it is proposed 
to have immediately below. 
Two other questions that were raised in the critiques referred to were the 
probable effects of a shot on the working of a cupola, and the results of 
the concussion of the firing upon the gunners within. So to speak, these 
questions were fortunately decided in the engagement between the Merrimac 
and the Monitor; for although repeatedly hit at very close quarters, we do 
not hear that the revolving apparatus of the cupolas received any material 
injury, to prevent its working; and the question of concussion and its 
effects was hardly raised. I certainly heard one or two people in America 
assert that the men who manned the guns suffered from bleeding at the 
nose and ears, but the assertion lacked proof and was never confirmed; 
while the instant order to construct many more vessels on the same prin¬ 
ciple seems to give a contradiction to any depreciatory rumours. However, 
it is hardly probable that with the immense amount of our mechanical 
resources, any difficulty on these two points would be too great to 
overcome. 
In fine, although as in all new plans there are difficulties which suggest 
themselves, there is no lack of means of obviating them; and at a time 
when the fortifications at Spithead have been checked for further considera¬ 
tion, and when indeed everything seems in transitu, it is to be desired that 
some one of greater experience would take this question into serious con¬ 
sideration ; and have it pressed on the notice of the Defence Commission, 
and, through them, of the Government. 
