Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/184

176 received, it-isolation and elevation make it comparatively free from noise and dust, while the building is well lighted by large windows, heated by hot water and provided with gas, electricity and telephone. The upper portion of the building contains three rooms, known as the general laboratory or [(reparation room, the biological laboratory and the chemical laboratory. In the basement are the physical laboratory, the furnace room and the general storeroom. The general laboratory is used for the shipment of samples, the washing of glassware, the sterilization of apparatus, the preparation of culture media and for such chemical processes as might charge the air with ammonia and the fumes of acids. The biological laboratory is devoted to the bacteriological and

microscopical examination of samples of water and to the study of the various organisms found. It also serves as the office of the director. The chemical laboratory is the largest of the three rooms. Its atmosphere is kept free from ammonia and acid fumes in order not to vitiate the results of the water analyses there carried on. Analyses of coal are also made in this room. A storage room opens from the chemical laboratory and there is also a small dark room. All three laboratories have marble tiled floors, and the tables and shelves are covered with white tiles throughout. The partitions between the rooms are largely of glass. The apparatus is of the most complete description, much of it having been designed for the particular work at hand. The physical laboratory