In 1874 the very extensive collection of the late Professor Meisner, of Basle, Switzerland, especially rich in South American, Asiatic, and Australian species, and supplementing the Torrey herbarium to a remarkable degree, together with the herbarium of Dr. A. W. Chapman, of Florida, containing nearly all the species described in the Flora of the Southern United States, were purchased by Mr. John J. Crooke, of New York, and presented to the college.

The personal bryological collection of the late Mr. C. F. Austin, containing all of Austin's types of mosses and some of his Hepaticæ, has since been purchased.' Dr. N. L. Britton, adjunct professor of botany, has been active in the development of this department.

Besides many papers, monographs, and scientific sketches, he has published a Catalogue of the Flora of Richmond County, Staten Island (1879), The Geology of Staten Island (1880), Preliminary Catalogue of the Flora of New Jersey (1882), Catalogue of Plants found in New Jersey (1889).

On the completion of the new library building the trustees voted that the herbarium should be considered a part of the botanical library and should be kept in one of the rooms of the new building.

The botanical library is placed around the walls of the room; it comprises about 2,000 bound volumes and an equal number of pamphlets, and is rapidly increasing in bulk.1

CABINETS AND COLLECTIONS.

In addition to the herbaria the college has equally valuable collections of specimens and models illustrating all the other subjects taught in the school of mines.

The lectures on crystallography are illustrated by a collection of 150 models in glass, which show the axes of the crystals and the relation of the derived to the primitive form. This suite is completed by 400 models in wood showing most of the actual and theoretical forms, and also by a collection of natural crystals showing the forms as they actually occur in the prominent mineral species.

The cabinet of minerals comprises about 30,000 specimens, arranged in cases. It includes a large suite of pseudomorphs, a collection illustrating the physical characters of minerals, and a collection illustrating crystallography by natural crystals, showing both their normal and distorted forms. The minerals are accompanied by a large collection of models in wood showing the crystalline form of each. Arranged in wall cases are large specimens showing the association of the minerals. There are also three separate student collections of average specimens, amounting in the aggregate to over 6,000.

A very complete collection of metallurgical products, illustrating the different stages of the type process in the extraction of each metal in this country and in Europe, is accessible to the students, and the collection is constantly increasing. An extensive collection of models

'Columbia College Herbaria, by Dr. N. L. Britton, Botanical Gazette, Vol. XII,

For a number of years no examinations were required for entrance to the law school, and even after their introduction they remained very insignificant, the result being, as President Barnard said, that numbers of men going through the law school without proper preliminary training "go to swell the already great and constantly growing number of uneducated lawyers." It should be the object of a great university not so much to make "lawyers" as to make men "learned in the law."

Two new professorships were created and able men were elected to do the additional work.

THE LIBRARY.

The university library, which was directly over the law school, was so situated as to be easy of access from any portion of the college. Approaching from either side by a flight of stone steps one entered a rectangular room 36 by 50 feet, flanked by stacks for books and broken in height by two tiers of galleries. This room contained the loan desk and "opens into the reading room by means of a pointed arch so wide and lofty that the two form indeed but a single great apartment, the arch coming toward the end of one of the longer sides. of the reading room. This is lighted by large windows above, and small ones, rather widely spaced, below, thus affording the best illumination while avoiding the shut up feeling that comes when all the openings are above the level of the eye. The ceiling is a barrel vault supported on either side by a semivault of similar section. * * * The finish here as in other parts of the building is of brick slightly glazed as to surface. The color is pale yellow diversified by bands of dull red, applied in no strictly symmetrical way but with a skill which at once emphasizes dimensions and gives a desirable accent of freedom and variety."

The arch was the important feature of the room.

Its beauty of form and great size (34 by 36 feet) give dignity and distinction to the whole composition, and turns what might have been a merely excellent into an extremely imposing apartment.'

The completion of this room made possible what had for many years been desired, namely, the uniting of the libraries of the different schools. The duty of arranging and cataloguing the 50,000 volumes, which up to this time had been scattered in nine different rooms, was intrusted to Mr. Melvil Dewey, of the Boston Library Bureau. The books were minutely classified and placed on shelves, to which the students had immediate access, and the library was open from 8.30 a. m. until 10 p. m. every day in the year except Sunday, Good Friday, Independence day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These privileges, extended in but few public libraries, were thoroughly appre

1 Recent Architecture in America, by M. G. Van Rensselaer, Century Magazine, 1884, p. 67.