Thirdly. Both sides of the Hospital have one thing in common. Except the sculleries of the 3 ground floor wards on the male side, which have each a stove or fire place, the kitchens or sculleries attached to all the other wards are warmed by hot water. Undoubtedly this saves much mess, much cleaning of stoves &c., and much bringing of fuel and consequent dirt. But the absence of fire is always a loss to the service of a ward. Sundry things, some one or other, often all of which are constantly wanted in a large ward, _e.g._ warming broth or drink, cooking for an extra bad case, warming poultices, warming (not airing) linen for ditto, &c., &c., &c., are much more slowly done by water than fire heat, and it is a question, variously answered, whether some of these things are as well done by the slow water method, as by the quick fire heat. Occasionally the hot water is not forthcoming, a nuisance alike to the ward attendants of the ward whose scullery is thus heated, and to those of the wards supplied with stoves, which have then to do, in driblets, considerable extra duty. During the hot months the smell of the latrines is very little perceptible in the wards, generally not at all: but the test of this, as of the ventilation, is in winter, when the large window close to the latrines is generally closed, and the smell is very offensive. II.--_Oiled Boards_ versus _Parquets_. 1. They have in common the superiority over common floorings--that they are not scrubbed, and the damp thus arising is avoided. 2. As regards labour, so far as Civil Hospitals are concerned, where the ward service is done by women, _parquets_ would be more laborious than scrubbing; a large ward, to be kept in a proper state, requires a certain amount of _frottage_ (the peculiar polishing of _parquets_) every day; and this _frottage_ is held to be unfit, from the fatigue it causes and the strength it requires, to be done by women, and is always done by men. Certainly Ward Nurses could never be required to _frotter_; it is altogether a man’s business. 3. As regards labour, so far as Military or Naval Hospitals are concerned, where men preponderate in the ward service, it is my impression (for of course I cannot pretend any certainty as to this), that sailors who are proverbially handy (a different quality from either laboriousness or endurance, though they have these too) would, with instruction and painstaking, accomplish in time _frottage_; that civilians would under the same conditions; that soldier orderlies (infinitely, I humbly think, the best material for the staple of military ward service), would generally make bad _frotteurs_.