Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/116

AN ENDING AND A BEGINNING

In the use of the building, unanticipated needs were encountered and had to be dealt with as part of the regular operation of the Museum. For example, on 28 August 1888, within a few months after occupation of the building, Dr. Billings found it necessary to ask for bids on the construction of a "cremating furnace," sufficiently powerful to consume the body of an animal of the size of a large Newfoundland dog without leaving obnoxious odors.

Another lack of the building was a dependable source of electricity for the light necessary to carry on continuously photomicrographic work without having to depend upon the vagaries of the weather, and also for lighting the Library hall on the "rare occasions when it is necessary to use this room at night." One such occasion was the anticipated opening of the Museum at night during the meeting of the American Medical Association, which was held in Washington in the first week of May 1891. In a letter of 14 April to The Surgeon General,