MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 277 



measurement of base lines with the steel tape. After devising an 

 apparatus for holding and supporting the tape, and measuring the 

 coefficient of expansion of actual tapes, an application was recently 

 made of the thermophone for determining the exact average tem- 

 perature of the tape. This instrument, which was invented a few 

 years ago by two Institute graduates, allows the average temperature 

 of the tape to be measured within half a degree. 



An interesting deparment of the Institute, and one that has of 

 recent years assumed great practical importance, is that of biology. 

 It was organized in 1882, as an outgrowth of what was prior to that 

 date the course in natural history, and now has a teaching force of 

 six, under the direction of Prof. William T. Sedgwick, and occupies, 

 with its laboratories and lecture-rooms, one entire floor of the Pierce- 

 Building. There are five distinct laboratories, fully equipped, with 

 private rooms, store and preparation rooms, and a library and reading- 

 room, and it is perhaps safe to say that nowhere in the United States 

 is there so compact or well arranged a series of laboratories devoted 

 chiefly to the sanitary, hygienic and industrial aspects of biology. The 

 great advances in sanitary science in recent years have made bacteriology 

 one of the most important, as well as one of the most practical, of the 

 biological sciences, and the biologist has taken his place beside the 

 chemist and the engineer in the study of the science and art of public 

 sanitation. But bacteriology is of importance, not only in sanitary 

 science, but also in its industrial relations. Great industries, like those 

 connected with food preserving, canning, vinegar making, tanning and 

 brewing, depend upon the activity or the exclusion of micro-organisms. 

 As might be expected in a school of applied science, the development 

 of the biological department in the Institute has been mainly along 

 sanitary and industrial lines, rather than in the direction of zoology. 

 The biological work in connection with the recent important investi- 

 gations of the State Board of Health regarding the purification of 

 water and the disposal of sewage, was done at the Institute, and early 

 led to special instruction in these directions. In 1891 a course was 

 established in the micro-organisms of fermentation, not only new to 

 the Institute, but, it is believed, to the United States. Important 

 researches had been made in Denmark in these lines, and in order to 

 become thoroughly familiar with them, one of the instructors of the 

 department spent a summer in the laboratory of Alfred Jorgensen, in 

 Copenhagen. In 1S96, a more elaborate course, that in industrial 

 biology, was established, and since that time special studies have been 

 made in various lines, such as the efficiency of sterilizing processes, the 

 preparation of canned goods and the cultivation of butter bacteria. 

 This department is destined to still greater development in the near 

 future, and its laboratories are finely equipped in every direction. 



