UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



457 



to the group of imposing university buildings, affords superior 

 facilities for scientific research and investigation. This large 

 building contains on the first floor a laboratory for beginners 

 that will accommodate over three hundred persons. There are 

 also assaying rooms provided with twelve large furnaces, a bal- 

 ance room, a gas- analysis room, and a technical laboratory where 

 preparations can be made upon a large scale. The second and 

 third floors contain museums, lecture rooms, and private labora- 

 tories for advanced students. Electrolytic work is a leading 

 feature in the laboratory. Since 1888 sixty-three investigations 

 have been made relating to the use of the electric current in the 







Biological Hall, Uxivkrsitt of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.. 



determination and separation of metals. These include studies 

 in the above, and also in derivatives of what may be called the 

 rare metals. At present, important investigations are being made 

 in the following subjects : Electrolytic determination of the 

 atomic weight of mercury : atomic weight of arsenic ; and two 

 investigations involving a study of the very rare minerals colum- 

 bium and tantalum. Within the past few years, nine important 

 theses, the work of graduate students, have been published, and 

 at present there are fifteen persons pursuing chemistry as a major 

 subject for the Ph. D. degree. Dr. Edgar F. Smith, the Professor 

 of Chemistry, is much interested in special electrolytic work. 



VOL. XLIX. — 37 



