It is in the hospital ward that the major portion of routine hospital work is accomplished, and where the nurses who will have much of the responsibility of the hospital work of the future will be trained in habits of accuracy and neatness, in proper systems of ward work and good hospital housekeeping. Inasmuch as the number of hospital officers varies with the size and demands of the hospital, it should be understood that for the purposes of these papers the hospital housekeeper combines the position of superintendent of nurses and matron—the plan that is generally conceded to be productive of the greatest degree of harmony. In all but small hospitals, competent assistants in both the nursing and domestic departments will be needed, but the authority and responsibility of affairs domestic should be centered in one woman. Whatever may be the opinion of hospital trustees on that point, no one who has lived for a year in a hospital where the superintendent of nurses and the matron were equal in authority, and pulling in opposite directions, will sigh for a repetition of the experience. The architecture of the hospital ward, and the general plans of the building, will have not a little influence in creating difficulties for the housekeeper and in adding to, or lessening, the burdens of the nursing staff. Tiled floors and walls are ideal for wards, but too expensive for every hospital to have. Even five feet of tiling on ward walls is greatly to be desired. Denied that luxury, as many hospitals are, the next best thing is to have the walls finished in cement or hard plaster, which, if well coated with enamel paint, will admit of thorough cleansing and disinfection. Heavy moulding and sharp corners which afford a lodging place for dust and germs should not be there. The ceilings should be high, and ample air-space provided for the number of patients for which the ward is designed. The ventilating shafts, windows and radiators should be arranged with reference to the proposed location of the ward beds. When the hospital housekeeper can manage it, each ward will have its own linen room, with abundance of linen. It adds no small item to the number of miles a nurse is obliged to walk each day, if every time she needs a clean sheet, towel or gown she has to walk half the length or the whole length of a long hall to get it. A little forethought and consideration for the nurse’s part in the hospital economy, in arranging the plans of the building, would result in at least avoiding unnecessary labor for those who will have no small part in carrying out the humane designs of the hospital. [Sidenote: Soiled Clothing]