ions to buildings and opening-up of
sites. Ventilation of the rooms was greatly improved, cook-houses,
ablution-rooms and sanitary accessories were carefully examined and a
proper scale laid down. Separate quarters for the married soldiers did not
exist in many barracks, and in some instances married men's beds were found
in the men's barrack-rooms without even a screen to separate them; in other
cases, married people were accommodated together in a barrack-room, with
only a blanket hung on a cord as a screen between the different families.
The recommendations of the committee resulted in a single room being
allotted to all married soldiers, and this accommodation has gradually
improved up to the comfortable cottage now provided.

From the time of this first thorough inquiry into barrack accommodation,
steady and systematic progress has been made. Although lack of funds has
always hampered rapid progress, and keeps the accommodation actually
existing below the standard aimed at, much has been done to improve the
soldiers' condition in this respect. Numerous regimental depots and other
barracks were built under the Military Forces Localization Act of 1872. The
Barracks Act of 1890 replaced the worn-out huts at Aldershot, Colchester,
Shorncliffe and Curragh by convenient and sanitary permanent buildings, and
further additions and improvements have been made under the Military Works
Acts of 1897, 1899 and 1901. As some evidence of the practical result of
the care and money that has been expended on this work, it is interesting
to note that while, in 1857, the annual rate of mortality in the army at
home per 1000 men was 17.5 (compared with 9.2 for the civil male population
of corresponding age), forty years later, in 1897, the rate of mortality in
the army was only 3.42 per 1000. No doubt, improved barrack accommodation
contributed greatly to this result. Barrack construction work remained in
the hands of the Corps of Royal Engineers until 1904, when a civil
department was again formed under an architect styled "director of barrack
construction," to deal with the construction of barracks at home stations,
and the construction and maintenance of military hospitals.

_British Colonial_.--Barracks at colonial stations are governed by the
general scale of accommodation in the _Barrack Synopsis_, modified
according to the climate of the station, in the direction of increase in
floor area and height of rooms. In the planning of r