The regulations at present in force, though of recent date, are little more than a codification of the system which has been gradually developed on the foundations laid by Scharnhorst, and their value and the authority which attaches to them are in great measure due to the long and unbroken tradition which they represent. They are embodied in two short codes entitled respectively "Order of Service," and "Order of Teaching of the War Academy." A concise account of these documents will best explain the workings of this institution. The Order of Service is one of the few results of the brief reign of the lamented Emperor Frederick, whose signature it bears. It begins in true German fashion with a definition: "The object of the War Academy is to initiate into the higher branches of the military sciences a number of officers of the necessary capacity belonging to the various arms, and thus to enlarge and extend their military knowledge and to clear and quicken their military judgment. "Side by side with this direct training for their profession, they are to endeavour, in proportion to the requirements of the army, to penetrate deeper into certain departments of formal science, and to acquire mastery in speaking and writing one or two modern foreign languages." The Academy in its scientific working--as an institution for teaching and study--is under the chief of the general staff of the army, who is responsible for the appointment of the teachers, for the selection of officers as students ("the call to the Academy"), for their dismissal in case of need, and for the permission to attend a particular course occasionally granted to officers not "called." For the discipline and management of the Academy, the director, a general, is responsible. He is assisted by one or two deputies and by a Board of Studies, over whose nomination the chief of the staff has a controlling influence. The duties of the board are to approve of the programmes of the several professors' courses, and to conduct the examinations at the beginning and at the end of the course. The complete course lasts three years, with a long vacation of three months each summer. The appointment or "call" of students is in each case only for a year, its renewal depending upon diligence and good conduct. Any officer of five years' service not yet within four years from his turn of promotion to captain may apply for admission to the Academy, which is regulated by examination.