tion, free from dirt, dust, and refuse. Provisions and remnants of lunches must not be left in desks overnight. Spitting on floors is prohibited in all buildings of the department.

The sanitary inspector attached to the Office of the Secretary will make periodical inspections of the buildings and will report to the chief clerk of the department any insanitary conditions he may find. Upon notice from the chief clerk the proper employee of the bureau concerned shall take immediate steps to remedy the conditions reported.

228. Drinking Cups.-The use of public drinking cups is prohibited. They will be confiscated wherever found. Individual sanitary cups should be used.

229. Towels.-The use of roller towels and other towels intended for use by more than one person is prohibited in all buildings occupied by the department.

230. Employees Afflicted with Contagious Disease.— Any employee afflicted with a contagious disease, or who resides in any dwelling in which a contagious disease exists, is prohibited from entering any building of the department until a satisfactory medical certificate has been presented to the chief clerk of the department.

231. Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Whenever there is doubt as to whether an employee is afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis, the case shall be brought to the attention of the chief clerk of the department, who will prepare for the signature of the Secretary an order for the employee to present himself or herself to the director of the Hygienic Laboratory of the Public Health Service for examination, and to submit to the department from the director of the Hygienic Labora

tory a certificate showing the result of the examination. If the director reports that the employee examined is suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, the case shall be handled as circumstances may require, by a temporary separation from the service, segregation of the employee, or otherwise.

232. Emergency Medical Attendance.-In case of injury or sudden illness of employees and others while in the buildings or upon the grounds of the department in the District of Columbia immediate medical service will be rendered by certain employees having qualifications of physicians in the employ of the department. The names and location of physicians, as well as the location of medical cabinets containing first-aid equipment and of employees having custody of the key to such cabinets, may be obtained from the office of the chief clerk of the department.

233. Employees Injured in Line of Duty.—In conformity with a circular of the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, dated August 22, 1917, relative to medical and surgical relief for injured civil employees of the United States, in case any employee of the department in the District of Columbia is injured in line of duty and requires medical service, other than that referred to in paragraph 232, such employee should be directed to the dispensary of the Bureau of the Public Health Service, No. 3 B Street SE., which is open from 9 a. m. to 4.30 p. m. Should the injury be received in line of duty outside of these hours or be of such a nature as to require hospital treatment, the employee should be directed to the Providence Hospital, Second and D Streets SE. Requests for X-ray diagnosis, tetanus antitoxin or other serum treatment should be made on the dispensary.

MISCELLANEOUS.

234. Inventions by Employees.-Any new and useful discovery or invention of any machine, device, or process connected with the work of the department, made by an employee through the expenditure of Government time and Government money, will be patented in the name of the inventor, without expense to him, in such a way as to allow any citizen of the United States to use the patented article or process without the payment of royalties. The Government reserves the right to make use of any device that may have been discovered or invented by a patentee during the time of his employment in the Government service. Employees are prohibited from patenting any device or process or discovery connected with the work of the department except in the manner above described. Applications for such patents shall be made through the solicitor of the department.

Inventions or suggested ideas of inventions on the part of any employee of the department, whether patented or not, of a military nature pertaining to the Army, which the inventor desires to submit to the Government for inspection, test, development, or with a view to its purchase or use, may be submitted by such employee informally or directly, through the chief of bureau, to the inventions section, General Staff, Army War College, Washington, D. C.

235. Requests to Patent Office for Expediting Issuance of Patents.-Bureaus receiving communications from persons outside of the department requesting that the Commissioner of Patents be asked to expedite the consideration of applications for letters patent pending before him shall, before taking any further action in the matter, call upon the person

making the request for a complete description of the article or process and its uses, together with the serial number of the application for patent. Upon receipt of this information the bureau interested shall decide whether the article or process, if patented, will be of peculiar importance to the department, and whether the immediate consideration of the application and issuance of the patent will be of advantage to the department in the prosecution of its work.

If it is so decided, a memorandum reciting all the facts should be addressed to the Secretary. If the facts warrant, the necessary action will be taken looking to the immediate consideration of the application in question, and an employee of the office of the Solicitor will be designated to represent the department before the commissioner in order to prevent improper issue of the patent, in accordance with rule 63 of the rules and practice in the United States Patent Office.

236. Telegrams.-As far as practicable, the telegraph business of the department shall be divided equitably among competing lines. All telegrams emanating from the department in the District of Columbia (except those from the Weather Bureau, Forest Service, Bureau of Public Roads, and Bureau of Markets, which are handled by special procedure) shall be sent promptly, with two carbon copies in addition to the ribbon copy, to the department telegraph office, where one copy will be stamped with the date and time of receipt and returned to the bureau from which it emanated. Telegrams should not be allowed to accumulate in bureaus until several can be signed and dispatched together to the department telegraph office.

The telegraph service should not be used except where absolutely necessary and where the same purpose will not be served by letter. Care should be

taken to eliminate all unnecessary words from telegrams.

In the preparation of telegrams for the signature of the Secretary, after leaving sufficient space for signature, the word "Secretary" only should be used. Before transmission to the Secretary for signature telegrams should be initialed in duplicate. In no case should copies of telegrams prepared for the signature of the Secretary be mailed or referred to in correspondence until the stamped copy has been received from the department telegraph office.

All outgoing telegrams received at the department telegraph office will be classified as follows:

Rush: Messages which should be expedited as much as possible.

Day: Messages which can be handled in the class with other preferred commercial and press business and delivered on the day filed.

Night: Messages which are not immediately urgent and which will be delivered at 8 a. m. of the day following the day on which they are filed.

Telegrams should be sent as night messages whenever possible. A message stamped or marked "Rush " indicates that it must be transmitted at once. Day messages should be used only in cases where it is essential that they be delivered on the day filed; otherwise, night messages will serve the purpose.

To eliminate unnecessary words from telegrams and to determine their proper classification, chiefs of bureaus will designate an employee under their jurisdiction who shall carefully scrutinize all telegrams originating therein and initial them before transmission to the department telegraph office. The department telegraph office will not accept telegrams not so ini