OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 639 



undertaking. The sum raised was $14,000. Thereupon it was voted, 

 " That the Corporation avail themselves of this opportunity to express 

 their sense of the efficiency and public spirit of Professor Cooke in 

 obtaining the above mentioned subscriptions, and of his devotion to 

 science and to his own department of instruction in the University, as 

 manifested in his willingness to commence this movement, and in the 

 unwearied efforts by which he has brought it to a successful issue." 

 Long before the building was finished, — namely, on the 29th of 

 Au<mst, 1857, " Mr. Lowell laid before the meeting a communication 

 from Professor Cooke in regard to the necessary furniture for the 

 new Anatomical Museum and Chemical Laboratory," whereupon it 

 was voted " That the Building Committee be authorized to contract 

 for the necessary furniture not exceeding the sum of $2,000," On 

 the 1st of January following, the " Building Committee was authorized 

 to pay a further sum, not exceeding $2,108, for altering, finishing, 

 and fitting up the new Museum and Laboratory." 



All this time Professor Cooke had had no visible assistance in the 

 conduct of his department. He had himself paid for the services of 

 Francis P. Clary, for many years his only assistant at his lectures, 

 and he had received some volunteered assistance from students. In 

 February, 1858, Charles W. Eliot, Tutor in Mathematics, was elected 

 Assistant Professor in Mathematics and Chemistry, " to give such 

 assistant instruction in the Department of Chemistry as may be 

 agreed upon in the distribution of studies by the Faculty." The 

 duties of this officer continued, however, to be chiefly mathematical, 

 and it was not till January 26, 1861, that the Corporation voted, 

 " That the duties of Mr. Charles W. Eliot be limited to the Chemical 

 Department, and that he be designated accordingly." 



On the 26th of June, 1858, a committee of the Corporation having 

 reported that Professor Cooke had given furnaces, counters, and cases 

 which originally belonged to him, and that part of the apparatus still 

 belonged to him, it was voted, " That the President be requested to 

 write a suitable letter of acknowledgment to Professor Cooke for his 

 liberal contributions towards the erection and furnishing of Boylston 

 Hall, and for his zeal and unremitting attention in overseeing the 

 progress and successful accomplishment of the whole work." There 

 are at this moment in Boylston Hall wooden counters and hoods with 

 cast-iron sashes which Professor Cooke caused to be made forty-three 

 years ago for the Laboratory which he first fitted up in the Medical 

 College on North Grove Street. Boylston Hall was originally two 

 stories high, and the western end was devoted to the Anatomical 



