JANUARY 18, 1884.] 
day they produce, on an average, upwards of 300 tons 
per week, in some cases 800 or 900 (and in one of the 
Pittsburg furnaces the enormous output of 1,800 
tons has been reached). Mr. Charles Cochrane, an 
advocate of the hottest hot blast, stated, that, at the 
works at Ormsby, they began in 1855 with a furnace 
of 7,000 cubic feet capacity, and with a temperature 
of air between that of molten lead and molten zinc, 
using 39.64 cwts. of coke to the ton of pig. In 1857 
they used 33.87 cwts.; in 1867 it was only 29.66; in 
1877 it had become reduced to 22.64; and in 1882, 
21.18 cwts. was the average for all furnaces, small 
and large, while the larger furnace of 34,000 cubic 
feet capacity worked the whole year through on 
19.38 ewts. per ton of pig. Hence from 1855 to 1883 
the saving was 20.34 ewts. of coke per ton of iron; 
and, in Mr. Cochrane’s opinion, fully half this sav- 
ing was due to the use of the Cowper fire-brick 
stoves. 
Mr. Cochrane has recounted some of the theo- 
retical calculations that have been made. In 1879 
he ventured to predict that a ton of iron could be 
made with 17.90 cwts. In 1881 he had made iron 
with 18.40 ewts. Another iron-master stated that a 
furnace has run for eight weeks on less than 18 ewts. 
Mr. Hawdon claims that heating the blast from 
990° F. to 1400° F. resulted in a saving of 1.5 ewts. 
of coke to the ton of iron, and that a further heating 
to 1550° F. was followed by a total saving of 2.5 
ewts., bringing the coke down to 21.3 cwts. 
In the discussions which took place at the meet- 
ings referred to, the prominent iron-manufacturers 
generally took the ground that the hotter the blast 
the better the result, up to the temperature of melt- 
ing iron. Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, however, dissents 
from this view, and thinks, that, in real ultimate 
economy, 1000° F. will prove to be about the limit 
of heat for the blast which it is worth while to strive 
for. R. H. RICHARDS. 
MODERN PHYSIOLOGICAL LABORATO- 
RIES: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHY 
THEY ARE.1—I. 
‘A LITTLE more than seven years ago I announced 
from this platform that the old biological laboratory 
was ready for usé,—that set of rooms in the third 
story of this building, which, inconvenient in many 
respects as they were, will, I trust, always be re- 
membered by some of us with affection, and mayhap 
with a little pride. 
This night on which we have met to celebrate the 
completion of the new laboratory is, however, an 
occasion for looking forward rather than backward. 
But before proceeding to speak in detail of the new 
building, I feel sure I do but what every one of the 
members of the biological department present would 
think me remiss to omit, in pausing a moment to ex- 
1 An address delivered on the occasion of the formal opening 
of the new biological laboratory of the Johns Hopkins uni- 
versity, Jan. 2, 1884. By H. NeweLut MARTIN, M.D., Dr. Sc., 
M.A., professor of biology in the university. 
SCIENCE. - 73 
press our gratitude to those to whom we owe it, — first 
to our founder, Johns Hopkins, for his munificence; 
and next to his trustees. Probably very few pres- 
ent realize how much time and thought the trustees 
spent on the building before a stone of its foundation 
was laid, and during its erection. No one but myself 
knows how often I have been put in good heart by 
the cheering words, ‘‘ Well, Dr. Martin, let us get it 
right when we are about it.”? In this connection I 
cannot refrain from saying, that, though we owe all 
so much, we owe a special debt of gratitude to Mr. 
Hall Pleasants, the chairman of the building com- 
mittee. Throughout the whole summer there was 
hardly a morning on which he did not visit the build- 
ing, and that not merely for a glance, but far more 
often to spend an hour or two hours about it, and 
make sure that all was going right. 
The material result of this liberality, forethought, 
supervision, and ¢are, is that stately building on the 
top of the hill. Handsome though not ostentatious, 
comfortable but not luxurious, pleasant to work in 
without unnecessary finery, it stands there, for its 
purpose unrivalled in the United States, and not 
surpassed in the world. 
Substantial, solid, well thought out, suited to its 
ends, and with no frippery about it, it is now for us 
to see that our work agrees in character with the 
building. 
There are many here to-night, who, not being bi- 
ologists, may desire to know what such laboratories 
are for, and why there is any need of them. [I shall 
perhaps best begin my attempt to answer these ques- 
tions by stating briefly what our own laboratory is. 
It is a building constructed primarily to afford fa- 
cilities for instruction and research in physiology; 
and, secondarily, similar opportunities in allied sci- 
ences, aS comparative anatomy and botany, some 
training in which is essential (and the more the bet- 
ter) to every one who would attain any real knowledge 
of physiology. Asso many distinct branches of bio- 
logical science are pursued in it, we call it in general 
the biological laboratory; but it is a biological labora- 
tory deliberately planned that physiology in it shall 
be queen, and the rest her handmaids. If, therefore, 
you visit the building prepared to see a great zoolo- 
gical museum or an extensive herbariuin, you will 
be disappointed. I do not underrate, and no one 
connected with this university can, — bearing in mind 
the brilliant anatomical researches of Dr. Brooks and 
others, made among us, — the claims of morphology; 
and in time I trust we may see a sister building spe- 
cially designed for study of the structure, forms, 
and development of plants and animals. But one or 
the other had to be first chosen, unless we were to 
do two things imperfectly instead of one well, and 
there were strong reasons for selecting physiology. 
In the first place, I think even the morphologists will 
admit that hitherto, and especially in the United 
States, they have had rather more than their fair 
share; innumerable museums and many laboratories 
have been built for their use; while physiology, if 
she got any thing, was usually allotted some out-of- 
the-way room in an entirely unsuitable building, if 
