NUTRITION LABORATORY. 159 



were drawn and the clerical work and computations were carried on until 

 December i, when, owing to the excellent progress on the building made by 

 the contractors, we were enabled to occupy two partially completed rooms on 

 the first floor of the laboratory. One month later the contractors permitted 

 us to occupy our offices and to begin to install machinery in the machine-shop. 

 On February i, 1908, the day specified in the contract, the building was trans- 

 ferred to the Institution essentially complete. 



The occupancy of the temporary wooden building proved of great value, as 

 thereby it was made possible for us to superintend many details of construc- 

 tion, to ofifer suggestions regarding the installation of plumbing and steam 

 heating, and in many ways to further the rapid completion of the building, as 

 well as to increase its efficiency. The contractors were invariably willing to 

 accept all suggestions and spared no pains or personal expense to have the 

 building wholly satisfactory. 



Drawings of the floor plans are shown in plate 8 at the beginning of this 

 report and a photograph of the exterior of the building is given in plate 9. 

 The exterior is simple, but in thorough architectural uniformity with build- 

 ings in the immediate vicinity. Special attention was paid to rigid and fire- 

 proof construction and ample illumination through well-placed windows. 

 Ornamental details are conspicuously absent, and the building appears, as 

 the design was intended to indicate, a scientific factory. 



The building is rectangular, with a basement and three stories; on each 

 floor a central corridor, of sufficient width to permit the installation of cases 

 for apparatus and supplies against the walls, runs the length of the building. 

 All the inner walls, save those in the four offices on the second floor, are of 

 plain brick, well painted. This interior construction has many advantages, 

 since the single-thickness brick walls may be considered as brick screens, 

 which are readily replaced or rebuilt at an expense much less than for any 

 other form of substantial wall construction. With the compressed-air service 

 distributed throughout the building and a pneumatic hand-drill, shelving or 

 apparatus may be attached to these brick walls with the greatest ease and with 

 minimum disfigurement. 



Our services from the Harvard Medical School power-house obviate the 

 necessity for boilers, coal-bins, electric lighting and power machinery, and re- 

 frigerating plant, and thus make available for experimental purposes the 

 room that would be occupied by the installation of such machinery. 



The floors of the building are reinforced 6-inch concrete slabs, giving ex- 

 treme rigidity and absence of vibration. On these are laid cypress screeds, 

 between which a fireproof filling of cinder concrete is placed. The finished 

 floors throughout the building are of rock maple. 



Two independent ventilating systems are installed, one for the removal of 

 vitiated air from the different rooms and laboratories and the other for the 



