94 



POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY 



members of the Harvard medical fac- 

 ulty. The thanks of all men of science 

 are due to the architects, Messrs. 

 Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. 



Professor Mi not proposed the ' unit 

 system' and Professor Porter the ar- 

 rangement of two wings with a common 

 lecture-room and library. The unit 

 adopted for the laboratories is 23 x 30 

 feet, accommodating 24 students. Each 

 unit has three windows and can be sub- 

 divided into two or three rooms. The 

 smaller rooms for individual research 

 are also divided into mezzonine storeys. 

 The windows extend to the ceilings, giv- 

 ing abundant light, and the architec- 

 tural effects are in some measure due 

 to the piers of pilasters between the 

 windows. The buildings can be ex- 

 tended by adding new units, and would 

 finally form courts. 



The arrangement of the buildings is 

 shown in the illustration and by the 

 ground plan. The administration 

 building contains offices, common- 

 rooms, lecture-rooms and the Warren 

 Museum with an area of 22,000 square 

 feet. The laboratories are for anatomy 

 and histology, physiology and physio- 

 logical chemistry, pharmacology and 

 hygiene and bacteriology and pathol- 

 ogy, each pair having a common amphi- 

 theater and library. The arrange- 

 ments for heating, ventilation, refriger- 

 ating, etc., are very complete. 



The large cost of these buildings ap- 

 pears to be justified, as the money was 

 given for them and might be charged 

 to the city of Boston and the people 

 of the country as well as to medical 

 education. It is said that the gray 

 marble added only three per cent, to 

 the cost. The buildings do not, how- 

 ever, provide for clinical work, and as 

 there are altogether only 287 students 

 in the school, the rent to be charged to 

 each student is in the neighborhood of 

 $.500. The number of students will, 

 however, increase. The need of four 

 similar amphitheaters, each seating 265 

 students is not clear. They may be 

 built for the future, but the future 

 may show the futility of lecturing to 



large audiences of medical students. 

 Here the unit system seems to be lack- 

 ing where it was especially needed, 

 ^•till less evident is the desirability of 

 four separate libraries which will ap- 

 parently be both expensive and incon- 

 venient. But the fundamental criti- 

 cism which must be made is the per- 

 manent separation of the medical school 

 from the rest of the university. It 

 appears to the present writer that Har- 

 vard has done great harm to itself and 

 to education by 'segregating both in 

 time and space the work in medical 

 science. It requires the bachelor's de- 

 gree for entrance to the medical school, 

 whereas if the sciences preliminary to 

 medicine were carried on at the col- 

 lege, the liberal studies would become 

 less aimless and the professional stud- 

 ies more liberal. The separation of 

 liberal studies, professional work and 

 research does injury to each. 



MR. ADAMS ON THE AMERICAN 

 COLLEGE. 



The Phi Beta Kappa address given 

 by Mr. Charles Francis Adams at Co- 

 lumbia University has been printed in 

 the daily papers of more than one city, 

 with abundant editorial comment and 

 letters from correspondents. This 

 means that the address was concerned 

 with an interesting problem or, at all 

 events, attacked a problem in an inter- 

 esting way. Mr. Adams is alleged to 

 have said when engaged in writing a 

 book upon Puritan life, " I never have 

 been so happy as during the last year; 

 ! 1 have been destroying people's ideals." 

 At all events he confesses in the pres- 

 ent address to ' a decided lack of faith 

 in ideals.' The iconoclasm is enter- 

 taining, and it may be profitable, but 

 apart from the characteristically per- 

 sonal form of expression it is not new. 

 Neither is the remedy new though it 

 is claimed as such in Touchstone's 

 words: 'An ill-favored thing, sir, but 

 mine own.' 



Mr. Adams became academically 

 famous in 1883 by another Phi Beta 

 Kappa address on ' The College Fetich,' 



