Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/479

Rh It fills a long-felt want in higher education, by allowing youth of different predilections a choice between two equally valuable lines of mental training. The laboratories of the school are thoroughly equipped with material for research and investigation. The museums are rich in complete articulated skeletons for the study of comparative osteology. The conservatory is filled with a representative collection of plants, and botany is studied from the living organisms. The Botanical Garden, which of late years has not been improved, owing to the lack of funds, is now being beautified by laying out paths, erecting mounds, and the construction of an artificial lake. Dr. Macfarlane, the Professor of Botany, anticipates making it one of the best botanical gardens in the country. For the purpose of procuring rare seeds to place in the garden. Dr. Macfarlane has prepared a list of eight hundred different kinds of seeds to be exchanged with botanical gardens throughout the world. Within the past two years one thousand different kinds have been received from twenty-one gardens located in America, Europe, and Asia. A number of original investigations have been conducted in the school which have produced important economic and scientific results. These studies, published in the contributions from the Botanical and Zoölogical Laboratory, consist of Maize: A Botanical and Economic Study, by Dr. John W. Harshberger; The Correlations of the Volumes and Surfaces of Organisms, by Dr. John A. Ryder; The Embryos of Bats, by Dr. Harrison Allen; and a number of other important works.

Medical science at the university assumes great importance, on account of its early historical foundation. A great stride has recently been made in the progress of the science at the university by the establishment of a four years' course of study and by the opening of new laboratories and museums for research and investigation. The instruction of the medical department of the university is conducted in the Medical Hall, Laboratory Building, the University Hospital, the Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine, the Laboratory of Hygiene, and the Wistar Institute of Biology and Anatomy. It will be impossible even to enumerate all the researches and investigations made in the various medical laboratories. The subject of medical chemistry has for many years been given great prominence. Since 1818 this chair has been held in succession by Dr. Coxe, Dr. Robert Hare, Dr. James B. Rogers, Dr. Robert E. Rogers, and Dr. Theodore G. Wormley, the present incumbent, who was elected in 1877. Dr. Wormley has attained a world-wide reputation by his work on The Microchemistry of Poisons. The course in chemistry amounts to three hours' work per week for two years. There are two chemical laboratories in the medical department, in which practical