THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 63 



whose laboratories and lecture rooms occupy almost the whole 

 space. The zoological laboratory is at the western end of the 

 front, the mineralogical and geological at the eastern, and between 

 them are the physical laboratory, storerooms, and lecture rooms 

 for these sciences. The botanical and chemical laboratories are in 

 the east wing. The zoological laboratory — extending thirty-two 

 by fifty-six feet, flooded with light by a row of southern windows, 

 lined on its northern side by spacious glass-fronted cases of speci- 

 mens, at its eastern end a large tank for the storage of working 

 materials, on the floor tables, and along the southern side a broad 

 shelf, sufficient in all to furnish room for a hundred workers — 

 wins the heart of the zoologist. It has a full supply of dissecting 

 apparatus and small microscopes for elementary work, and a fair 

 equipment of large microscopes with accessories for more ad- 

 vanced work. The botanical laboratory is twenty-eight by forty 

 feet. The other laboratories furnish working facilities for forty 

 pupils each. The furnishing of the chemical laboratory is note- 

 worthy for the convenience of the tables, apparatus, and water 

 supply. In the largeness and fineness of the home provided for the 

 natural sciences in this building, as compared with the crowding 

 of these subjects into two or three small rooms in some recently 

 erected normal-school buildings, there is a fit expression of Os- 

 wego educational ideas. 



The art room on the fourth floor is forty-four by fifty-two feet, 

 admirably lighted, and furnished with fine facilities for teaching 

 drawing. Two of the three literary societies of the school — the 

 Athenean and Adelphi — have private rooms neatly fitted up and 

 furnished by themselves. The rhetorical and literary work of the 

 school is largely done in connection with these societies. The 

 Adelphi and Athenean lay out their own work and conduct their 

 business in their own way. Alternately, about once in two weeks, 

 they give public exercises in the Normal Hall. The Keystone, 

 which embraces the lower classes, is in charge of members of the 

 faculty and occasionally gives a public exercise. 



On the ground floor is the workshop, provided with engine, 

 lathes, circular saws, tools, benches, and facilities for various kinds 

 of woodwork. In this the normal students learn to make the 

 simpler pieces of scientific and other apparatus, and get some skill 

 in using tools. In the class in familiar science each pupil con- 

 structs his own apparatus for illustrations and thus becomes pro- 

 vided with the necessary apparatus for teaching the elements of 

 science in public schools. A room for clay modeling and one for 

 free-hand drawing is also supplied for the manual training work. 

 The Normal School Gymnasium is on the ground floor of the 

 west wing. Daily exercise is required of all students, and is con- 

 sidered important, both for its immediate effects upon health and 



