264 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



largest and best equipped in the United States, are known as the 

 Kidder chemical laboratories, having been so named in recognition of 

 the generosity of the late Jerome S. Kidder. They comprise twenty- 

 two separate laboratories, three lecture-rooms, a reading-room and 

 library, two balance-rooms, offices and supply-rooms, making forty 

 rooms in all, with accommodation for seven hundred students. Besides 

 the large laboratories for general chemistry and analytical chemistry, 

 there are smaller laboratories for volumetric analysis, for organic chem- 

 istry, for sanitary chemistry with special reference to the analysis of 

 water and air, for oil and gas analysis, for the optical and chemical ex- 

 amination of sugars, starches, etc., for the determination of molecular 

 weights, and so on. In the industrial laboratories, the students are 

 taught how to manufacture chemicals with due regard to emonomy of 

 material, space and time. There is also a special laboratory for textile 

 coloring, with printing machines and all the necessary equipment of 

 baths, dryers, etc., for experimental dyeing and coloring. In this labora- 

 tory the preparation and use of coloring matters are taught with the 

 object of fitting young men for positions in dye works. A course of 

 lectures in textile coloring was first introduced in 1888 and the labora- 

 tory course in 1889. 



A large amount of original work is accomplished each year in these 

 laboratories, both by students and professors. During the year 1897-98, 

 for instance, four books and sixteen. articles on chemical subjects came 

 from them. In the development of sanitary chemistry the Institute 

 has been particularly prominent. Beginning with the careful and 

 thorough investigations made by Professor Nichols for the State Board 

 of Health, the reputation of the institute in this direction has been 

 still further increased by the recent extensive investigations of Professor 

 Drown and Mrs. Ellen H. Eichards, made for the same board in con- 

 nection with the examination of the purity of the water supplies of 

 the State, and the experiments at Lawrence relating to the best methods 

 for purifying water and disposing of the sewage of inland towns. 



An illustration of the policy of the school in separating out a 

 subject whenever it is found capable of complete theoretical and prac- 

 tical treatment and putting it into 1 he hands of some assistant professor 

 for development, is found in the laboratory for gas and oil analysis, 

 which for some years has been in charge of Dr. Gill. In this laboratory, 

 investigations are made relating to chimney gases, as well as questions 

 of fuel, furnaces, gas firing, etc., while oils are tested and analyzed 

 with reference to specific gravity, viscosity, friction, flashing and firing 

 points, and liability to spontaneous combustion. The same policy is 

 further illustrated in the establishment in 1894 of a well equipped 

 laboratory devoted entirely to physical chemistry; that is to say, to the 

 relations between chemical changes and heat, light and electricity. 



