M 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 236 



The lecture-table is large and roomy, and is abundantly supplied 

 with water and gas. It is ventilated by powerful down draughts 

 and movable box-hoods. Directly back of the table, and opening into 

 the preparation-room, is one of the large hoods before mentioned. 

 Connected with the preparation-room is a small dark room for the 

 storage of chemicals. These rooms serve also as apparatus and 

 store rooms for the laboratories on this floor. 



Leaving the lecture-room from the opposite corner from which 

 we entered, and passing through the laboratory and study of the 

 professor of chemistry, we come to the balance-room and librar)'. 

 This room is very well supplied with books of reference and the 

 current periodicals, having complete sets of the Berzchte, Fresenius 

 Zeitschrift, Che}nical News, American Chemical Journal, Cen- 

 tralblatt, and others. No special room has been set apart for col- 

 lections. It is the intention to utilize the corridors for this pur- 

 pose. 



The tables (Fig. 5) in each student work-room, except laboratory 



accommodate ten students each. Besides table-supply, each labora- 

 tory has a large sink for use when large quantities of water are 

 necessary. Distilled water is furnished on each floor. The build- 

 ing is heated throughout by steam from a central station in the 

 main building. Fire-protection is afforded by sections of hose on 

 each floor, connected with a standpipe which passes up through 

 the centre of the building from basement to attic. 



We have now been in occupancy about one year, and feel well 

 satisfied with our arrangements, though some matters of detail 

 await the necessary funds to carry them into effect. 



H. H. Nicholson. 



Answers. 

 II. Lake Itasca. — Rev. William T. Boutwell of Stillwater, Minn., 

 several years ago, wrote for the Minnesota Historical Society the fol- 

 lowing account of the naming of Itasca Lake : " Coming to Mackinac 

 in the summer of 1831, 1 received an invitation to spend the following 



B, are ten feet long, four wide, and three feet and three inches 

 high. Four students use one table ; each having at his disposal, 

 for storing his apparatus, two large drawers and two roomy cup- 

 boards, all secured by a single lock. Each student has two gas 

 connections and an abundant supply of water. 



The arrangement for water-supply is different from that usually 

 employed. Instead of two basins placed at the ends, one large 

 oval basin, twenty-one by sixteen inches, is sunk in the centre of 

 the table, its long diameter across the table, and is supplied from 

 two taps, one at each side. This arrangement has the advantages 

 of being economical, convenient, and neat. 



The work-places are numbered consecutively in each laboratory, 

 and are supplied with sets of re-agent bottles, bearing, in enamelled 

 letters, the name of the re-agent and the number of the desk. The 

 stopper of the bottle bears a number corresponding to the one on 

 its body. By this means a bottle out of place can be easily relo- 

 cated, and the transposition of stoppers is inexcusable. 



In laboratory B, tables are similarly equipped, and constructed on 

 same general plan, except that they are twenty-six feet long and 



winter at Sault Ste. Marie. There I made the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Schoolcraft. Early in the spring of 1832, he received instructions 

 from the government to visit the bands of Indians on the Upper 

 Mississippi, and also to ascertain the true source of the river. He 

 very kindly invited me to accompany him. Now for the origin or 

 derivation of the name ' Itasca.' One morning we were coasting 

 Lake Superior. Mr. S. said to me, ' I would like to give a name to 

 Elk Lake that will be significant or expressive of the Jiead, or trtie 

 source, of the Mississippi. Can you give me any word in Latin or 

 Greek that will convey the idea .' ' I replied, ' No one word will 

 express the idea. The nearest I can come to it is verum caput, or, 

 if you prefer the noun Veritas, you may coin something that will meet 

 your wishes.' In less than five minutes he replied, ' I have got the 

 thing,' handing me a slip of paper on which was the word ' Itasca,' 

 remarking, ' This is not poetic license, but you will find it, as you 

 progress in the study of Ojibwa, to be Indian license. It was then 

 and there, and in just this manner, that the name ' Itasca ' was 



coined." J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS. 



St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 3. 



