THE HESPERIAN
m
raent has been compelled to advise them to
go elsewhere. The fundamental and natu
ral relation of the subject to all engineering
courses makes the demands in this direction
of first importance and necessitates serious
restrictions to the general demand.
Even with this limitation, the drain on
available resources to moot laboratory re
quirements, particularly in electrical work,
has prevented an adequate equipment for
lecture room instruction. Our neighboring
institutions of rank, such as Texas, Kansas,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc., can
each of them boast of at least double our
own outfit in this respect, together with
buildings generally especially designed for
'the subject.
Physical science is not a text-book sub
ject. It can only be taught by appealing to
the senses. No amount of logic will convey
an idea what "blue" is or what heat is till
it is seen or felt. If it is to be understood,
it must bo produced before a class, with
proper demonstrations. This means equip
ment, and of a very expensive order. In
well equipped universities the physical plant
is usually much the greatest departmental
expense, while the buildings must be con
structed with special reference to stability
and intomal appliances. The writer recalls
at least five physical laboratories in construc
tion the past year in this country, two cost
ing over 200,000 and none less than $50,
000, and these generally in institutions with
which Nebraska easily ranks. In the wri
ter's experience in several laboratories, has
no such- numbers per equipmont and floor
space, into several times, been observod,
nor is there any information of such crowded
condition elsewhere.
With no provision for regular instruction
in astronomy, and only occassional courses
now possible, the necessity of an adequate
departmental building, together with equip
ment for these two associated subjects, can
no longer be ignored.
OUR CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT.
The department of chemistry has out
grown the capacity of its present building
and equipment. The chemical laboratory
originally designed as a laboratory of in
struction finds itself at present compelled to
provide almost as many facilities for investi
gation, and for general analytical work, as
if it were intended simply as a laboratory for
investigation.
It was built to accommodate two hundrod
and fifty students and give to each room for
advantageous work. For the last three
years the building has been overcrowded
with students, and now to such an extent
that two, throe, and even four students are
working in the space designed originally for
the accommodation of one person.
Instead of the normal limit of two hundred
and fifty we are now giving instruction in
this building to over four' hundrod students.
We- need today a building of double the
capacity of the present laboratory. A
makeshift compromise could be made by
adding another story or by building an addi
tion to the present building.
Specifically, we are in need of a room and
its equipment for a pharmaceutical laboratory
in which a class of from twenty-four to
thirty-six students could be handled at one
time. There has been an increasing demand
for instruction in pharmaceutical chemistry
for the last four or five years. As many as
sixteen applicants were recorded the begin
ning of the last winter semester.
Room and equipment for laboratory for
gas analysis is also one of the present neces
sities. The growth of the various technical
departments in the University creates, and
has created, a demand for instruction in
technical chemistry. With a large amount
of experiment station chemical work, espec
ially that pertaining to the sugar beet and
beet sugar industry, we have no special
laboratory in which this work can bo caro
fully and expeditiously carried out.
Another pressing demand is for a labora
tory for metallurgical operations, especially