a ward pavilion in detail: a is the ward room, occupying 150 feet in length of the pavilion, and twenty feet wide, containing fifty-two beds; b, the mess room; c, scullery; d, bath room; e, water closet; f, ablution room; g, wardmaster's room. The pavilions are four or five feet narrower than they should be, and when the beds are all full there are but 960 cubic feet of air to each patient; but as this is constantly changed by the admirable ventilation, it is nearly sufficient. The number of beds is 3,320. There is a force of 622 officers, attendants, guard, &c., attached to the hospital. The cost of the buildings was over $250,000. The McClellan Hospital, situated in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, though smaller (1,040 beds), is, perhaps, more nearly perfect than any other yet erected. The corridor is of a flattened ovoidal form, from the ends of which the pavilions project. These pavilions are wider, larger, and farther apart than at the Mower Hospital. The administrative building is in the centre and connected with the corridor by two straight passage ways. In the ground-plan (fig. 3), a is the main corridor; bbb, wards; c, administrative building, two stories high; d, kitchen; e, laundry; ƒ, clothing and guard rooms; g, engine room; h, stable; i, provision and knapsack store room; k, quarters of medical officers in charge. We give below ground-plans of two other military hospitals of large size, each arranging the pavilions in a different way, but all observing the same principles. The first is the Hammond General Hospital, at Point Lookout (fig. 4), in which sixteen pavilions project from a circular corridor. The administrative building is the wide structure at the upper side of the circle, and the kitchen, laundry, guard room, dead house, &c., are in the centre. The pavilions here are 40 feet apart at the corridor, and 75 feet at the farther end. They are 145 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 14 feet high to the eaves, and 18 to the ridge. The ventilation is perfect. Each patient has 1,116 cubic feet of space. The second, the Lincoln General Hospital, at Washington city (fig. 5), has its pavilions placed en echelon, along a corridor, forming two sides of an acute-angled triangle. The administrative building is at the apex, and the kitchen, &c., inclosed within the angle. This hospital accommodates 1,200 patients. By this arrangement a thorough ventilation of each ward is secured, while all the wards have the same direction and receive the rays of the sun at the same time-a matter of considerable importance. In the West, large hospitals on some one of these, or similar plans, have been erected at St. Louis, Louisville, Nashville, Madison, Evansville, and New Albany, Indiana; and others are building at Madison, Wisconsin; Davenport, Iowa; and other points. For field hospitals, the hospital tent is undoubtedly preferable to any building. Where a camp is somewhat permanent, the improved Crimean tent with double walls, ridge ventilation, and the admission of pure air near the floor, answers a good purpose. In both, special attention should be paid to ventilation, and over-crowding carefully avoided. In the lighting and warming of hospitals, special care is now taken to avoid vitiating the air by the gases produced by combustion. Where it is possible, illuminating gas is used, but the vitiated air, and carbonic acid gas, are conducted off by chimneys in such a way as to increase the ventilation of the ward. If gas cannot be obtained, the vegetable oils or paraffine, spermaceti, or wax candles are preferable to any other modes of illumination. Coal or petroleum oils, camphene and burning fluid, ir ritate the lungs, and affect the respiration. The animal oils give off carbon, carbonic acid, and carburetted hydrogen in too large quantity to be desirable. The heating of the hospital wards should be connected as far as possible with the ventilation. The usual method is by stoves, though in some, hot water is introduced with advantage. Ruttan's system would seem to possess advantages over any other plan of warming and ventilation, but, so far as we are aware, has not been introduced. The temperature in cold weather is carefully watched, and is not allowed to vary much from 64° to 66° Fahrenheit. The alimentation of the soldier is one of the most important items in the hygienic condition of the army. Great attention has been paid by the medical and commissary officers of the Government, to the arrangement and character of the ration, in order to furnish such combinations of food, and of such quality, as should be best adapted to maintain the health and strength of the soldier in its greatest perfection. The rations of most of the European armies are de(FIG. 4.) GROUND-PLAN OF HAMMOND GENERAL HOSPITAL, POINT LOOKOUT. fective in these respects. The quantity of meat is generally too low, and in some, the supply of fresh meat and vegetables, and of coffee and sugar, is altogether inadequate. The fearful prevalence of typhus fevers, and of scurvy and other cachectic diseases, in the British and French armies in the Crimean war, was unquestionably owing to the poor quality and scanty quantity of the rations. The British soldier receives at home stations sixteen ounces of bread, and twelve ounces of flesh meat uncooked; on foreign stations, sixteen ounces of bread, or twelve ounces of biscuit, and sixteen ounces of meat, fresh or salt. This is charged to him at three and a half pence per day abroad, or four and a half pence per day at home. Coffee, sugar, pepper, potatoes, salt, or whatever else he may need, he must purchase from his own funds, where and how he can. In a few of the foreign stations, as at Hong Kong and the Cape of Good Hope, rice, sugar, coffee, and salt, in insufficient quantities, are issued as component parts of the ration. In the United States army, the ration is wholly independent of the pay, and consists of the following articles: bread or flour, 1 lb. 6 oz.; fresh and salt beef, 1 lb. 4 oz., or pork or bacon, 12 oz.; potatoes, 1 lb. three times a week; rice, 1 oz.; |