Both in the new part of the Charité and at Bethanien, long broad corridors run along the back of the wards which open into them. The corridors are floored like the wards. In those of the Charité a piece of long carpet is laid in the midst of the corridors, where patients walk not a little. At Bethanien, a long piece of matting is laid in the midst of the corridors, where the patients walk freely. Carpet of either kind is not considered to benefit the floors, but to diminish the noise. In the wards of Guy’s Hospital, for the same reason, a long piece of matting is laid along the middle of the floors. VII. This flooring is unsuited for stairs, though so used in some Hospitals, as, in case of fire, oiled wood would burn rather quicker than common wood. Hospital stairs should be of stone. VIII. It is also unsuitable for kitchens, wash-houses, water-closets, and sinks. The floor round a stove or fire-place in a ward or room should be protected by a strong plate of lead or tin. It might also be as well to floor operation-rooms with flooring, admitting of scrubbing, because these oiled boards do not well stand sand or bran, and our Surgeons might be discomposed at missing one or other of these things. Sand or bran mixed with blood would make a mess, the traces of which would show a little on this flooring. For the rest, it is particularly easy to wipe blood off it. After each operation, one or two minutes, a wet cloth of the kind here mentioned, and a broom, remove the blood that has fallen, and leave a clean floor; or if there has been a very great mess, five minutes, a wet cloth to lap up the blood, &c., another wet cloth, a pail, and a broom, do all: after the operations are over, a few minutes’ whole or partial cleaning, as the case may be, make all tidy again. Still, many English Surgeons expect to have sand or bran thrown on the floor before, or just after the first blood has fallen, and might object to standing some minutes on the bloody floor, which spoils boots, &c. Red floorcloth, of sufficient size, round the operating-table, might answer every purpose. IX. On laying down the oiled boards for the first time, six weeks should pass after the oiling and laquering before the ward is inhabited. X. After subsequent re-preparation of the floors, the longer the wards are left vacant the more the floor both hardens and shines; but for practical purposes the interval of a fortnight is enough. XI. The flooring, so prepared, or re-prepared, ought, on an average, to last about three years. In case of any extra miasma, it is often desirable to hasten the re-preparation, and to have it done after two years’ use. To do it annually is, unless in some emergency, quite unnecessary.