504 



NATURE 



[June 24, 1909 



most irnporlant part. British physiologists have long 

 ri'iogniscd tho paramount influence exerted by William 

 SharjK'v during his tenure of the professorship of anatomy 

 and physiology, which lasted from 1837 until his retire- 

 ment in 1873, and the men who came under his in- 



On June 18 the institute was formally declared open by 

 Mr. Haldane. Among those who received him were the 

 following :— the \'ice-Chancellor CProf- M. J. M. Hill, 

 K.R.S.), the chairman of the college (Lord Reay, 

 G.C.S.I.), the president of the Royal Society (Sir Archi- 



fluence may be considered to have demonstrated by their bald Geikie, K.CB.), the president of the Royal College 



rk the methods and lines of research along which 

 physiology was in the future to be developed if this 

 science was to lake rank with allied experimental 

 sciences and cease to be a subject overladen with 

 speculative views. Michael Foster, Burdon-Sander- 

 son and Newell Martin all acquired their physio- 

 logical training in the laboratory of University 

 College, and each succeeded in establishing a school 

 of physiology in Cambridge, Oxford, and Baltimore. 

 The study of this science, which is now pursued so 

 successfully in no less than thirteen universities in 

 Great Britain, may indeed be said to have spread 

 over England from Sharpey's laboratory, for a con- 

 siderable number of those who are at present further- 

 ing the progress of experimental medicine received 

 a part, and in some cases the whole, of their train- 

 ing in the physiological laboratory of the college. 



The institute of physiology is to be part of an 

 institute of medical sciences which shall include 

 anatomy and pharmacology. The erection of this 

 was possible owing to the generous donations of Dr. 

 Aders Plimmer and Dr. Ludwig Mond, while the 

 expenses of equipment have been met partly by sub- 

 scriptions and partly by a legacy left by the late 

 Mr. Thomas Webb for the purposes of research. 

 The building is from the designs of Prof. F. M. 

 Simpson, who has admirably carried out the arrange- 

 ment of the various special laboratories and rooms 

 which Prof. Starling, to whose energy and initiative 

 the institute is really due, has planned and sug- 

 gested, and in this he has introduced all the most 

 recent improvements that experience gained by visits 

 to other laboratories in this country and abroad has 

 shown are of such importance for the cITicient study 

 of physiology. 



The development of organic chemistry, and with 

 this of physiological chemistry, has been so great 

 in recent years that the whole ground floor of the 

 building is entirely devoted to rooms and research 

 laboratories in this subject. Owing to the foresight 

 of Prof. Starling, ample provision has been made 

 for the present and future requirements of this part 

 of physiology, which has virtually become a branch 

 of physiology somewhat sharply separated off from 

 purely experimental work. That the solution of 

 many problems must ultimately lie in the h.inds gf 

 those physiologists who are 

 highly trained chemists and 

 physicists is an obvious truth, 

 and in the institute of physio- 

 logy the importance of this 

 branch of study has been kept 

 in view. 



The large laboratory in the 

 west wing will accommodate 100 students. Separate 

 rooms, such as a balance room, distillation room, 

 and one for carrying out four combustions at the 

 same time, occupy part of the east wing. Several 

 other rooms, which can be completely darkened, and 

 are furnished with first-rate apparatus for the pur- 

 pose, are devoted to special purposes, and in these 

 work can be carried out which requires the use of 

 the spectroscope, polarimeter, or spectrophotometer. 

 A large refrigerating chamber and a " Fabrik- 

 Raum " for the working up of material on a large 

 scale are also provided in the basement. Rooms for 

 experimental physiology and the library occupy the 

 first floor, on which there is also a lecture theatre 

 with seating accommodation for 200 students. 

 .\ l.-irge students' room for histology and experimental 

 physiology occupies the whole of the west wing of 

 the second floor, while the upper wing comprises a 

 demonstration theatre, so arranged that forty students can 

 obtain a full view of any experiment, and a suite of four 

 rooms devoted to the aseptic department. 



NO. 2069, VOL. 80] 



Vf/JV£KstTY or i.o/yuo/y. 



V/rlVER3ITY COLLEGE. 



M£W PMYSSOLOCV SMSTITVTE:. 



niECOHD riLOOR IPlL.Fifl. 



of Physicians (Sir R. Douglas Powell, Bart., K.C.V.O.), 

 the president of the Royal College of Surgeons (Mr. Henry 

 Morris), the pnsldenl of the Royal Society of Medicine 

 (Sir William Church, Bart., K.C.B.), the principal (Dr. 

 II. A. Miers, F.R.S.), the provost of University College 

 (Dr. T. Gregory Foster), the treasurer of University 



