5. The persons so appointed get into the way of it, if they stand it at all, and the system is found a great relief to the whole house and a great gain to the sick, in the place of another system of dividing the night between two Sisters and two Men-Nurses, who each watch half of the watch. _Per contrà._ I. The great London hospitals are places very far from perfect: some things may, please God, be, with time, patience, and extreme quietness, very much improved; but some things will never be perfect and never can be. But they are places where I do believe, and so far as I know, the sick are cared for in a way that is done nowhere else. The proportion of heavy cases in every London ward, cannot, I think, be met except by having a watcher in each. An English physician or surgeon would not consider that his cases could otherwise receive the attendance and the watching, the observation of possible change and prevention of possible mischief, which they ought to receive. It is right to bear in mind,-- 1. That small wards multiply exceedingly the demand for Watchers: four wards, of 10 patients each, taking the average of patients as in London, would not be attended, according to the English notion, by one Watcher; 40 patients in one ward would be fully attended by one Watcher. The London Hospital has two Night-Nurses for its quadruple wards. An extra Night-Nurse has frequently to be put on, on account of the difficulty the subdivision of the ward gives to the watching. 2. That the average of severe cases in each ward of London hospitals is very considerably more than the proportionate average of severe cases in each ward of the foreign hospitals in question. In all foreign hospitals with which I am acquainted the proportion of accidents is comparatively small to those of the London hospitals. The docks, the manufactures, the crowded and dangerous works, &c., &c., with us, account for this. 3. That, striking the balance for and against, it is necessary that each London ward should be watched by a Nurse; at the same time, that without doubt a certain number of troublesome, ill-conditioned patients (no ward of any Hospital is without such) sleep soundly and let their neighbours sleep soundly when the Watcher only looks into the ward at frequent intervals, who would, if the Watcher sate in the ward the whole night, make it their business to require attendance from the Watcher during the whole night, or at least much oftener than by the other plan. II. The second flaw of the above system, as it applies to London Hospitals, is, that it renders Extra-Watchers so often indispensable. The employment of Extra Watchers can never be wholly prevented, but it should be the endeavour of every Hospital to employ such as seldom as can possibly be. Extra watching is most injurious to the health of all ward-servants, and to the sobriety, and therefore morality, of many paid ward servants.