NATUBAL HISTOKY BUILDING 107 



bricK, IS at the same level as the outside driveway, or 3 feet below 

 that of the basement floor. Entrance is by means of two large door- 

 ways in the west wall, between which is a window of the typical 

 basement size. The depressed area is 50 feet 11 inches wide by 41 

 feet 2 inches deep. There is a narrow platform on each side, and a 

 broad one in front extending to the end wall of the alcoholic speci- 

 men room, a distance of 23 feet 10 inches, and provided with large 

 weighing scales. These platforms are but parts of the basement 

 floor, and in conjunction with the wide corridors in front of the 

 shipping and property offices, furnish ample and excellent facilities 

 for the delivery and handling of equipment and specimens. 



Alcoholic specimen room. — The matter of providing suitable and 

 adequate accommodations for the storage of the collections of speci- 

 mens preserved in alcohol, which are already very large and are 

 constantly being added to, furnished one of the more perplexing 

 problems connected with the planning of the new building. On 

 account of the inflammable nature of this preservative and the 

 rapidity with which the atmosphere in a confined space may become 

 charged with its fumes, it was hoped that the funds would permit 

 of the erection of a separate structure for this exclusive purpose 

 even if it amounted to no more than a series of vaults in the bank facing 

 the south front of the building. Failing in this, it became necessary 

 to look to the building itself, and the arrangements which have 

 been carried out in the central part of the basement of the west 

 wing have resulted much more satisfactorily than had been antici- 

 pated. In the large compartment, the outlines of which have already 

 been given, there is ample space for the present and the immediate 

 future. The storage facilities are simple, compact and convenient. 

 No heating pipes have been admitted, and even the odor of alcohol 

 is practically dissipated by the effective system of ventilation that 

 has been introduced. The lighting is entirely by electricity, and 

 every element of danger that might be associated with such a vast 

 quantity of alcohol that is here brought together seems to have been 

 wholly eliminated. It is to be understood that this compartment 

 is simply a storehouse, though providing facilities for cleaning the 

 containers, for replenishing the preservative and for the manual 

 work of overhauling collections. 



The outer walls of the compartment are constructed of brick, are 

 9^ inches thick, including the outer plastered surface, the inner 

 surface as well as the enclosed piers being simply painted, and 

 extend from the floor to the ceiling without other piercings than 

 the door openings. The compartment measures in the clear 52 feet 

 11 inches wide; 121 feet ^ inch long in the northern half, and 130 

 feet 3i inches long in the southern half; and 18 feet 8 inches high 

 to the soffits of the ceiling arches. One lengthwise partition ex- 



