LABORATORIES AND PROBLEMS 



sonality may rest upon the institute, it is officially a de- 

 partment of the university, just as is the Virchow In- 

 stitute. Like the latter, also, its local habitation is an 

 antiquated building, strangely at variance, according 

 to American ideas, with its reputation, though by 

 no means noteworthy in this regard in the case of a 

 German institution. It is situated in a part of the city 

 distant from any other department of the university, 

 and there is nothing about it exteriorly to distinguish 

 it from other houses of the solid block in which it 

 stands. Interiorly, it reminds one rather of a con- 

 verted dwelling than a laboratory proper. Its rooms 

 are well enough adapted to their purpose, but they 

 give one the impression of a makeshift. The smallest 

 American college would be ill -satisfied with such an 

 equipment for any department of its work. Yet in 

 these dingy quarters has been accomplished some of 

 the best work in the new science of bacteriology that 

 our century will have to boast. 



The actual equipment of the bacteriological labora- 

 tory here is not, indeed, quite as meagre as it seems at 

 first, there being numerous rooms, scattered here and 

 there, which in the aggregate give opportunity for 

 work to a large number of investigators, though no 

 single room makes an impressive appearance. There 

 is one room, however, large enough to give audience 

 to a considerable class, and here lectures were given 

 by Professor Koch and continue to be given by his 

 successors to the special students of bacteriology who 

 come from all over the world, as well as to the uni- 

 versity students who take the course as a part of their 

 regular medical curriculum. In regard to this feature 



