796 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Both in the thoroughness of its equipment and in the interest 

 of the subjects to be studied no laboratory on the ground sur- 

 passes the physiological. It is probably the only building devoted 

 entirely to this purpose in America, and in the completeness of 

 its equipment it surpasses most if not all of the European insti- 

 tutions of its kind. It has the ordinary complement of lecture 

 rooms, laboratories, libraries, and study rooms. One somewhat 

 novel feature in the lecture room deserves notice. The space be- 

 hind the professor's platform is occupied by blackboards, extend- 

 ing almost entirely across the whole side of the room. The black 

 surfaces, however, are at two different levels, that directly be- 

 hind the lecturer's desk being slightly higher than the other, per- 

 mitting it thus to be rolled back in front of the other half, dis- 

 closing behind it a screen of ground glass for projection. The 

 work of darkening and operating in projection is done in a small 

 room behind this glass screen, thus preventing all noise and dis- 

 turbance of the class in the manipulation. Certain peculiar fea- 

 tures in the arrangement of the laboratory deserve special men- 

 tion : (a) a greenhouse of fair size, divided into two sections, is 

 intended for the rearing of insects and plants, supplying the 

 opportunity for extended study of phenomena of life in the lower 

 forms of animals and plants, for physiology can never be studied 

 simply from animals, vital processes being comprehended only 

 from a full survey of conditions found in all living things ; (6) 

 a large aquarium for sea life ; the proper stocking of this will be 

 a matter of time, but the keeping and observation of marine forms 

 are important; (c) a cold storage room for the study of polar 

 effects ; (d) an arrangement of dark rooms with heliostat, prisms, 

 etc., for studying the effect of monochromatic light upon living 

 forms. The first of this series of rooms forms practically a vast 

 spectroscope. The light is thrown from outside by a heliostat of 

 the greatest perfectness of construction. It is received upon a 

 battery of prisms, which can be controlled by connections in the 

 next room. The light, when separated into rays of the various 

 colors, is thrown through a slit in a connecting door upon the 

 support on which rests the animal or plant under experimenta- 

 tion. This is in a little room so related both to the spectroscopic 

 room and to the hinder and third room of the series that no un- 

 resolved light can gain access to it at any time unless desired. 

 (e) There is also a room for the study of the influence of high 

 temperatures. These five special features are both important and 

 novel. In addition to them there are operating rooms, rooms for 

 experiments in metabolism, physiology, chemistry, ordinary lab- 

 oratory work, etc. The two rooms where higher animal forms 

 dogs, monkeys, rabbits, etc. are kept in captivity are supplied 

 with cages of the best construction, and are carefully arranged 



