414 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



An old Cambridge Landmark. 



acquired additional land, including an 

 island in the sound which can be used 

 for the experimental isolation of plants 

 and animals. 



While the work of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution is mainly in the natural and 

 exact sciences there are departments of 

 economics and sociology and of histor- 

 ical research, certain classics of inter- 

 national law are being republished and 

 appropriations are made to the Amer- 

 ican schools of classical studies at 

 Athens and Eome. 



TEE EOUSE OF ASA GRAY 

 The Earvard Graduate's Magazine 

 gives a picture, here reproduced, of the 

 house in the Botanic Garden of the 

 university with some account of the 

 history of this old landmark by Pro- 

 fessor Eobinson. Such a frame dwell- 

 ing house is almost as characteristic of 

 Cambridge conditions as the courts and 

 quads of the colleges of English uni- 

 versities, for it has scarcely been re- 

 spectable for a Harvard professor to 

 live in a house of brick or stone. This 

 house was built in 1810 for William 



Dandridge Peck, the first professor of 

 natural history at Harvard and the 

 organiser of the Botanic Garden. 

 After Peck's death in 1822, it was ap- 

 parently used as a boarding house and 

 in it lived Thomas Mitchell, lecturer on 

 natural history, an eccentric bachelor 

 of English birth. Asa Gray was ap- 

 pointed professor of natural history in 

 1842, and lived in this house from his 

 marriage in 1848 to his death in 1888, 

 and Mrs. Gray continued to live there 

 until her death in 1909. In this 

 wooden house were kept the herbarium 

 and library of Asa Gray until 1864, 

 when the university provided a build- 

 ing, fireproof according to the stand- 

 ards of these days. To obtain space 

 for the enlargement of the herbarium 

 building and to avoid the danger from 

 fire, the old house has now been sold 

 and is being removed from the botanic 

 garden, but will be restored without 

 considerable changes in its form. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 

 We record with regret the deaths of 

 Dr. Edward Hitchcock, for fifty years 



