Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/508

492 During the administration of Mr. Winsor, some new features have been introduced into the management of the library, which, though hardly coming under the head of original work, are important and interesting. At intervals of a week or less, printed lists are struck off of the books received, and posted up for reference. These are collected and published monthly. A quarterly bulletin is issued, containing valuable bibliographical contributions by members of the faculty and the librarian. The most important publication of last year was the "Catalogue of Scientific Serials from 1633-1876," an octavo volume of three hundred and seventy pages, by Mr. S. H. Scudder, the entomologist, who is assistant librarian. This book constitutes Vol. I. of the special publications of the library.

The instructors in the various departments indicate the books which their students will need to consult frequently, and all such books are reserved and placed in special alcoves where they can be freely consulted during library hours. One or two advanced classes meet and work at the library in the midst of the reference-books bearing on their subjects. The tendency of this method necessarily is to excite a spirit of investigation in the student, and, to a good degree, students as well as professors pursue original research.

It would seem unfair to leave Cambridge without a glance at the beautiful gymnasium, the lack of which was so long a heavy cross for Harvard students.

The medical director has devised various new and yet wonderfully simple forms of apparatus for strengthening the muscles of the neck, back, loins, and abdomen, as well as of the arms and legs. A physical examination and carefully supervised gradation of exercise distinguish the new era of Harvard muscular Christianity from the old.

At the medical school the largest amount of original investigation is carried on in the physiological and chemical laboratories. In the former a number of new forms of apparatus are in use, which have been designed by Professor Bowditch and his assistants. Among these are an apparatus for keeping animals alive by artificial respiration; a dog-holder, canulæ for observations on the vocal cords of animals, without interfering with their natural respiration; unpolarizable electrodes used in studying certain problems in the physiology of the nervous system, a new form of apparatus for barometric measurements, and a novel plan for measuring the volume of air inspired and expelled in respiration. A new form of plethysmograph has been devised by Dr. Bowditch. This is an instrument for measuring the changes in the size of organs, either hollow or solid, which are produced by variations in the conditions to which they are subjected. The essential part of Dr. Bowditch's invention is a contrivance by which fluid is allowed to flow freely to and from the organ to be measured without changing its absolute level in the receptacle into which it flows, while