POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



569 



the university endeavored, at the instigation 

 of the Fish Commission, to discover the 

 young oysters and learn their mode of life. 

 The first effort failed, because the young 

 oyster was looked for between the sheila of 

 its mother, where it was not. Then, in 

 1879, Prof. Brooks undertook the search on 

 the invitation of the Fish Commissioner for 

 Maryland. Within twenty-four hours of 

 his arrival at Crisfield, he discovered that 

 the American oyster is not nursed within 

 the shell of the parent, but shows an early 

 independence; and that it is possible to 

 take their eggs from oysters and fertilize 

 and rear them artificially, as is done with 

 the eggs of shad and trout. " These two 

 discoveries, based on previous investigation 

 of the development of mollusks which have 

 no commercial importance, made a new start- 

 ing-point for the study of the oyster. It 

 was impossible to catch and study in con- 

 tinuous development the microscopic, em- 

 bryonic oysters scattered throughout the 

 Chesapeake Bay ; but, once we could hatch 

 the oyster in the laboratory and study its 

 growth and life conditions, a very impor- 

 tant step forward would be made. It was 

 proved that we could get young oysters in 

 incalculable numbers at a very small cost, 

 and, far more important, an opportunity to 

 investigate the fife conditions of the young 

 oyster would be given. To carry on the 

 growth of the artificially hatched young 

 oysters a steady supply of fresh sea- water 

 was needed. This the university provided 

 the next year by the purchase of a small 

 steam-engine and a complete outfit for the 

 breeding of young oysters on a small scale." 

 Before the party left Crisfield, in July, 1879, 

 they had established the two leading facts 

 that the eggs of the Maryland oyster are 

 thrown out into the bay to be fertilized at 

 random, and that it is possible to fertilize 

 and hatch thousands of them in a watch- 

 glass ; in fact, that in a few buckets of sea- 

 water one could hatch enough eggs to sup- 

 ply spat for the whole Chesapeake Bay. 



Building Home?. A beaver in captivity, 

 says Chambers's Journal, will build a dam 

 across the kitchen, making it of sticks and 

 brushes, with a charming air of doing the 

 best he can. The nest-building of birds has 

 also a delightful air of contrivance about it. 



One likes them for the marvels they do with 

 bits of grass and rag and wool. There is 

 human nest-building too ; but, considering 

 their resources, the birds are before us in 

 the beauty and utility of their work ; while 

 in contrivance the beaver in the story leaves 

 us nowhere. Our house - building corre- 

 sponds to the nest-building of the birds. It 

 is the preparation of our home : utility and 

 beauty are to be as guiding lines in arranging 

 our plan. Let it be remembered that we 

 are not contriving a furniture mart or a 

 bric-d-brac shop, or even a place on view, 

 but a house to be lived in, every room and 

 part of which is to be made enjoyable. It is 

 greatly a matter of common sense and good 

 taste ; these produce better results than the 

 check-book and the complete house-furnisher. 

 The moneyed system results in a mansion 

 complete, from a grand piano down to a cat 

 and a duster. The system of contrivance 

 boasts of having secured all one likes best, 

 and all in good taste. The planners and 

 contrivers are the true nest-builders. After 

 duly considering the whole matter, the writer 

 concludes that " our hints resolve them- 

 selves into two principles : arrange the house 

 not by rule or custom, but for the use of 

 each room ; and let beauty unite with use in 

 every part." 



The Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology. The history of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology is traced by Mr. 

 Augustus Lowell m a commemorative ad- 

 dress on the occasion of its twenty -fifth an- 

 niversary, June 3, 1890. It was opened in 

 1S65, under the direction of Prof. W. B. 

 Rogers, with twenty-seven students ; it has 

 now, after having suffered a decline in the 

 years following the financial crisis of 1872, 

 more than nine hundred students. A labora- 

 tory of general chemistry was introduced 

 almost at the outset. The Rogers Laboratory 

 of Physics, where the student could make 

 observations and conduct measurements for 

 himself, followed soon afterward. In 1871- 

 '72 a scientific expedition of students and 

 instructors went to the Rocky Mountains, 

 and brought back with them from California 

 apparatus for a laboratory of mining and 

 metallurgy the first proper concern of the 

 kind devoted to purposes of instruction in 

 the world. A laboratory of steam engineer- 



