(x. H. F. Nuttall 113 
from six contractors, that of Messrs William Saint Limited, Cambridge, being 
accepted (at £27,706). 
The Site of the Institute. * 
Building operations were begun on 10th May, 1920, upon an attractive 
plot of land situated on the “Downing Site,’ 1 belonging to the University and 
so-called because it was purchased from the immediately adjoining Downing 
College. The south side of the building faces the grounds of the College, there 
being no intervening buildings, its distance from the boundary fence being 
20 feet at the S.E. corner and 38 feet at the S.W. corner of the Institute, 
thus reserving a small strip of land to the south of the building which has in 
part been fenced in, and where it is hoped, w r ith time, one or more aquarium 
basins, etc., may be constructed. The removal into the new Institute took 
place toward the end of October, 1921, whilst workmen were still engaged in 
parts of the building. 
The Institute is very favourably situated with regard to space and remote¬ 
ness from the noise, tremor and dust of street traffic. In its immediate vicinitv 
V 
there is being erected a Low Temperature Station, built at Government ex¬ 
pense and intended primarily for the scientific study of refrigeration in its 
bearing on food preservation and allied problems. The Schools of Forestry, 
Agriculture, and Botany are close by, likewise the Physiological and Bio¬ 
chemical Laboratories, the latter being now in course of construction. Access 
to the Downing Site, upon which these buildings stand, is gained from Downing 
Street on whose opposite side lie the Medical School, Zoological and Chemical 
Laboratories and other University buildings wdiich harbour the Zoological 
Museum, Balfour Library (Zoological) and the Library of the Cambridge 
Philosophical Society which the workers at the Institute frequently seek. 
Apart from departmental libraries in the schools and laboratories mentioned 
as being near at hand, the great University Library may be finally noted as 
being at a distance of but 10 minutes’ walk from the new Institute. 
Description of the Institute. 
The Exterior of the Building. 
The external features of the Institute have been described at my request 
as follows by the architect, my friend Mr Harry Redfern, F.R.I.B.A.: 
“In designing the elevations of any building it is incumbent upon the 
architect to express, as well as he can, the use to which that building is to be 
put. Such limits as may be imposed upon him by the nature of the materials 
employed—whilst often confining his problem within some narrow limits— 
not infrequently exercise a restraint which is beneficial to the result. 
“If the building has been planned strictly to suit its purpose, and if the 
elevations truly reflect the plan (as they should do) it would seem inevitable 
that the external appearance is predestined, and that little remains for the 
designer but to model the various features with care—emphasizing here, 
Parasitology xiv 
8 
