SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 785 



of these seventeen buildings upon the campus, eight are specifi- 

 cally buildings for scientific purposes Kent Chemical Labora- 

 tory, Ryerson Physical Laboratory, the four new Hull Biological 

 Laboratories, Walker Museum, and Haskell Oriental Museum. 

 All the buildings of the university are composed of the same 

 material a fine-grained gray freestone. Forming parts of one 

 architectural design, all are built in one style, middle English 

 Gothic. No two buildings are quite alike, but all are consist- 

 ent, and produce, when taken together, a harmonious effect. 



The Kent Chemical Laboratory was the first building devoted 

 to science finished on the campus. It is the gift of Mr. Sidney A. 

 Kent. In the hallway is a simple bronze portrait tablet bearing 

 the inscription : " This building 

 is dedicated to a fundamental sci- 

 ence in the hope that it will be a 

 foundation stone laid broad and 

 deep for the temple of knowledge 

 in which as we live we have life. 

 SIDNEY A. KENT." 



The arrangement and charac- 

 ter of chemical laboratories are 

 matters so definitely fixed by 

 years of experience that few 

 points of detail in reference to 

 any one deserve mention. The 

 Kent Laboratory is, however, 

 well equipped for its work. In 

 the basement are gas furnaces, 

 seven in number, with air blasts 

 for giving high temperatures. 

 The ground floor contains lecture 

 room, room for gas analysis, and 

 rooms for advanced work in or- 

 ganic preparations. A chemical museum has been begun here 

 which is to be greatly developed later. The second floor is devoted 

 to research work and organic chemistry. Upon it also are the 

 chemical library, combustion room, and sealed-tube room. Upon 

 the third floor are the general laboratories for beginners, rooms for 

 quantitative and qualitative analysis, dark room, etc. There are, 

 of course, the usual store rooms and a balance room. In the build- 

 ing are six private laboratories for instructors, each completely 

 fitted out. The head Professor in Chemistry, John Ulric Nef, has 

 an excellent corps of helpers Alexander Smith, Felix Lengfeld, 

 Julius Stieglitz, and Richard S. Curtiss. The original work done 

 by the force has been chiefly in the line of organic chemistry. 

 Prof. Nef himself has conducted important investigations upon 



VOL. LI. 58 



FIG. 1, PRESIDENT WILLIAM R. HARPER. 



