80 MORRIS LOEB 



were gradually crowded out, until in 1900 every nook and 

 corner in the building which could be utilized had been ex- 

 hausted. The consequence was that when over six hundred 

 men applied for desks that year there was a waiting list of 

 forty men. This continued for several years, and the Univer- 

 sity was in the position of not being able to make good its 

 announcements concerning chemistry. With this overcrowd- 

 ing, a steady deterioration has taken place in the equipment 

 of the building, and the result is that many men are now de- 

 terred from taking the elementary course in chemistry on 

 account of the known conditions of the laboratory. It is also 

 probable that many students do not go on with advanced 

 work on account of the unfavorable conditions under which 

 they have to work. 



It has been suggested that the present building should be 

 entirely refitted internally, but its arrangement at the present 

 time is so entirely unadapted to alterations of any kind that it 

 would be necessary to tear out the whole interior of the build- 

 ing, and even then it is not probable that a satisfactory ar- 

 rangement of a new set of laboratories and lecture-rooms on 

 a modern basis could be planned within its four walls, as 

 careful measurements of Boylston Hall show that the avail- 

 able space within the walls would not be adequate for the needs 

 of the department if the building were to be remodeled. A 

 further use of Dane Hall, aside from the obvious inconven- 

 ience of two separated buildings, would not give sufficient 

 room for expansion. In short, any remodeling or enlarging of 

 present quarters would be but a makeshift. For this reason 

 it was borne home strongly to the members of the Committee 

 as it has been for a long time to the members of the teaching 

 staff, that these needs can be met in an adequate way only 

 by the construction of a number of new buildings, the 

 separate buildings being devoted to different branches of 



