which Frank Balfour had established in Animal Morphology, at
first carried on in one half of the present Philosophical Library,
was now only made possible by the Professor of Zoology
(Alfred Newton) giving up his private room for this object,
and the classes in Physiology were increasingly overcrowded.
The Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate accordingly
introduced a revised report, which was again agreed to by
the Senate, and this time, i.e. in the summer of 1876,

"â–  p. 271.



3o8 y' ^s Secretary to the 3VIuseums

building was begun. Mr. Fawcett was the architect, and
the tender which was accepted amounted to =^8500. Kut
further delays occurred ; the Syndicate had been recommended
to use concrete instead of wood for the roofs and floors of
their new venture, and in February 1878 a huge slab of this
material which was being placed in the north-east portion of the
building fell, crashing through floor after floor to the ground.
This accident induced the Syndicate to seek further expert
advice, and ultimately to replace the concrete by wood.
Another cause of delay was a dispute about ancient lights
with the owner of a house in Corn Exchange Street ; and alto-
gether it was not surprising that the year 18T9 was reached
before the new building was fully occupied.

This building, which extended from Corn Exchange
Street to the eastern walls of the Zoological Lecture Room
and the present Birdroom, was in three stories with good
basements. The central floor was entirely given over to
Physiology, and the Physiologists later encroached a little on
both the other floors. On the ground floor were four work-
rooms, and private rooms for the Jacksonian Professor (now
store-rooms), for the Professor of Zoology, for the Professor of
Anatomy, afterwards Professor of Surgery, and for J. J.'s
room is occupied now, as it was then, by the Superintendent of
the Museum of Zoology. The top floor had nine rooms :
that on the east was Balfour's laboratory, with a private room
next to it ; the Professor of Anatomy had a class room for
microscopy to the north. The other rooms on the south
were used by J. as preparation rooms, by the Demonstrator,
and by the Strickland Curator.

Whilst all this was going on along the eastern frontier
of the Old Botanic Garden site, something was also taking
place on the western. James Stuart had in 1875 been elected
to the newly-established Professorship of Mechanism, and it
was not long before he was drawing the attention of the
Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate to the want of a
workshop and drawing-office in which he could instruct his



"The Philosophical Library 309

pupils. In the summer of 1878 a workshop of the most
modest appearance was put up in the garden, west of the
Botanical Museum, followed by a drawing-office in 1881, by
further workshops in 1882, and by a foundry in 1884. Pro-
fessor Stuart stocked these with instruments and machinery
largely at his own cost, though they were subsequently bought
by the University.

During the summer of 1879 a new room was built over
the then entirely inadequate Human Anatomy dissecting room
and an adjacent private room. The former was opened as a
dissecting room in the October of that year.

The Philosophical Librai-y, as we have seen,^ was constructed
in 1880 by the removal of the central archway to the eastern
end, and thus the two rooms on the ground floor were
thrown into one. By an arrangement made between the
Philosophical Society and the University the library of
the society was moved into this room during the Long
Vacation of 1881 and made accessible to members of the
University. As long ago as 1865 leave had been given to the
Philosophical Society to use the room between the Mathe-
matical Professors' room and what became the first Balfour
Library, and here their Council met, and here at first their
books had been stored until they were removed in 1881. This
removal, calling attention to the library, resulted in its in-
crease. Numerous donations of great value were now received.
For many years the present Philosophical Library room was
used both as a library and as an examination-room until the
ever-accumulating books crowded out the examinations.

Before proceeding further with the really amazing history
of the Science buildings so long associated with J. it will be
well briefly to record the various purchases the University
made to round off' the Old Botanic Garden site. On the
ground where the original Cavendish Laboratory now stands
were some offices bought in 1856, and in front of them, next
Free School Lane, two dwelling-houses which originally had

^ pp. 306, 307.



310 y, as Secretary to the 3\dusetnns

formed the inn known as "The Three Cups." These houses
the University acquired in 1862 and 1871 respectively. South
of these, facing the back of Corpus Christi College, were three
more dwelling-houses which were bought in 1871, 1874, and 1875
respectively. One or two of these continued to be occupied
by tenants for a year or two ; the rest were used as store-rooms
for the Department of Mechanism. Turning to the eastern
boundary, the area between Fawcett's building and the southern
end of the Corn Exchange was bought by the University as
follows : (1) certain warehouses leased by the town authorities
to Messrs. Headly, with the ground they stood on, forming
nearly half the total area, in 1881 ; (2) certain tenements
belonffinff to St. Edwards' Parish, iust north of Fawcetfs build-
ing, in 1883; and (3) the broad strip intervening between (1)
and (2), which now forms part of the site of the large Physio-
loo-ical and Anatomical Lecture Room, from the Corporation of
Cambridge, in 1884. But this same year the University made
a still more important addition to the Old Botanic site. The
Senate agreed, in the month of June, to buy the Perse Almshouses
which stood facing Pembroke College Lodge in the south-west
corner of our area. Including the cost of removing the Alms-
houses to Newnham, where they now stand, the sum paid was
£%Q15. In 1888, the site, with a frontage of 218 feet on Free
School Lane, of the boys' Perse School, then about to be removed
to Hills Road, was, though some " non-placet " votes were given,
bouo-ht for i.^1 2,500. On the eastern, the southern, and the
western sides the Museum's site was now bounded by public
thoroughfares. The Perse School site was the last purchase
made whilst J. was secretary to the Syndicate, but we may
as well complete the catalogue of acquisitions. In 1896 the
University gave =£^12,000 for the garden-ground and adjoining
premises at the back of Messrs. Barclay's (late Mortlock's) Bank,
extending from Parson's Court to Free School Lane, and com-
prising an area of 28,924 square feet. On this area the Rayleigh
wing of the Cavendish Laboratory, the Examination Rooms,
and the new Lecture Rooms now stand. A house adjoining this



^ or t lock ajid Downing Sites 311

part of the Mortlock garden was purchased by the University
in 1901 for i.'oOO. This, I think, completes the list of pur-
chases on the Old Botanic Garden site.

A new era of expansion for both the arts and the sciences
was made possible, however, by the purchase of the Downing
site about this date. The Senate must have been in an ex-
pansive and buoyant mood in 1896, for not only was it willing
to spend o^'l 2,000 on the Mortlock garden, but it put down
another iPl 5,000 and purchased two acres of the northern end
of the grounds of Downing College. In the following year,
it widened its Downing site by the further purchase of an
additional strip on the southern boundary forty feet wide,
which was paid for at the rate of :;£'5000 an acre. In 1902
the Senate agreed to purchase a still further six and a quarter
acres at a somewhat lower figure. The details and conditions
of these several purchases are minutely set forth by J. in the
Endowments of the University of Cambridge^ 1904.

Let us now return to the Science buildings under the
charge of the Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate in the
year 1882. The great success which had attended the teaching
of Michael Foster and Frank 13alfour had attracted a large
number of pupils, far too large in fact even for the new
quarters to accommodate. The Museums and Lecture Rooms
Syndicate was appealed to, and after careful inquiry they
recommended the addition of a third story to the central
Salvin building. The Senate concurred, and accordingly,
above the Mathematical Professors' rooms, which in turn
were above the Philosophical Library, a long well-lit labora-
tory was built in 1882. At the eastern end were two private
rooms, one of them long occupied by Mr. Adam Sedgwick.
Access was given by means of the gallery of the Bird-room as
well as by the western staircase. Unhappily, Professor Balfour
(just appointed to his Chair) never saw these rooms; the tragic
accident which befell him in the Alps that summer cut off pre-
maturely the life of one of the greatest biologists of all ages.



312 y. as Secretary to the Museums

The rearrangement of the M.B. Examinations and the vigour
with which Mr. Adam Sedgwick carried on Balfour"'s teaching
brought about a further increase in the number of students.
The most urgent need was a room in which to conduct the
practical work of the Elementary Biology course for the
remodelled P'irst M.B. Examination, and this was provided
in 1884 by bodily lifting the roof of the Mineralogical Museum
and building up walls underneath it. " So skilfully was this
singular operation carried out by Professor Stuart and Mr.
Lyon, Superintendent of the Department of Mechanism, that
* not a single slate in the roof was broken or strained, and the
whole work of lifting the roof and building the exterior walls
was completed in seventeen working days, the weight lifted
being 50 tons, and the total length of the roof, 110 feet.' ""
The elevation of this roof enabled a spacious and well- lit
Laboratory to be arranged with an office at the southern end,
with a Laboratory at the northern end for senior students,
and with a private room for a demonstrator. During the same
summer a second floor was added to the south-western annexe
of the Herbarium for the teaching of Physiological Botany,
and also a lean-to gallery running along the eastern side of the
Herbarium for classes in Practical Botany. Both subjects
were then being actively taught by Mr. S. H. Vines, of Chrisfs
College, now Professor of Botany at Oxford. The lean-to
Laboratory was removed when the Engineering Department
built the modern Drawing Office in 1903. Some years pre-
viously Botany had gained three rooms, part of the old Porter''s
Lodge. In 1880, the attendant at the Cavendish laboratory,
who lived in the present Porter's Lodge, died, and the porter of
the then " Museums," who had lived in a small house, now the
Chemical laboratory of the Department of Mineralogy, moved
to the present Porter's Lodge. His house was at first added
to the Department of Botany and, when this Department
moved across Downing Street, to Mineralogy.

For many years Professor Liveing had been pointing out



^A(ew Chemical Laboratory 313

the urgent need of a new Chemical Laboratory, and with the
acquisition of the Perse Almshouses, a convenient site was at
hand. After much discussion and much inspection of the more
recently erected chemical laboratories at home and abroad,
plans drawn up by Mr. J. J. Stevenson were accepted by the
Senate, and in December 1885, as soon as the ground could
be cleared, the building was begun. Facing the end of Free
School Lane and a good length of Pembroke Street, it was built
in a more ornate style than the majority of the " Museums."
The at first anaemic and then dingy Cambridge white bricks
were discarded for a stone fa(,ade facing the street, while red
brick walls looked on the southern court. This building took a
long time to complete, owing to the complexity of the fittings.
Its progress can be traced in successive annual reports of the
Professor of Chemistry and the Jacksonian Professor. At
last, in May 1889, they write, " We are now in possession of the
whole building, and we are glad to be able to state that it
fully answers our expectations.""

Before passing on to other departments I may, perhaps,
shortly describe the extensions of the Chemical laboratory.
Towards the end of the year 1899 an attic over the large Ele-
mentary Laboratory was adapted for students' work. Under
Mr. J. J. Stevenson's advice, dormer windows were inserted in
the roof, the staircase was prolonged, the fume-closets were
connected with the existing flues, and benches for thirty-two
students were fitted up. The work was completed by the
summer of 1900, and gave great satisfaction to the Professor.
But a few years later a further extension became necessary. In
his annual report for 1905, Professor Liveing mentioned that
" every available bench in the general laboratories has been
occupied," and " that Caius College has decided shortly to
close its Chemical Laboratory." Sidney College had at about
the same time arrived at a similar decision. Hence it seemed
obvious that by October 1907 a large accession of students
would present themselves at the LTniversity Laboratory. The
matter was urgent, and after some discussion as to the form the



314 y- as Secretary to the 3\/[useums

building should take, and its exact position, it was decided to
fill up the gap between the existing Chemical Laboratory and
the site of the present new Medical Schools, leaving an en-
trance archway with a Porter's Lodge at its eastern end.
The building was designed by Mr. Redfern, partner of the late
Mr. Stevenson. It was begun in 1907, and was in partial use
by the autumn of 1908.

When Chemistry first moved into its new quarters in 1889
the rooms on the eastern side of the southern court which
were now set free had been put at the disposal of Professor
Roy, who, since his appointment in 1884, had been struggling
to teach Practical Pathology in two small rooms opposite to
the private room of the Strickland Curator, on the third
floor of Fawcett's building.

We must now retrace our steps and return to the Octagon,
or the second home of Human Anatomy in Cambridge, which
lay on the south-east corner of the site. It seems surpris-
ing, as I have said in the previous chapter,^ that not until
1871 did our Medical School obtain recognition by the Royal
College of Surgeons. From that date only could a student
complete the required courses of Anatomy and Physiology at
Cambridge. In his report for 1884, Professor Macalister writes,
" No department of University work is so badly housed as the
Department of Anatomy." This wail was not without its
effect, and immediate relief was granted by the erection of a
spacious corrugated-iron shed of the usual hideous appearance,
which, placed on the west of the Octagon, occupied a site partly
covered by the existing Medical School, but projecting a little
into the southern Court. This shed was used for a few years
as a dissecting-room, and when Human Anatomy moved into
its new quarters near the Corn Exchange, it was for a time
utilised as a laboratory for teaching practical Physics to the
candidates for the First M.B. Examination.

The alleviation afforded to the Department of Human
Anatomy by the corrugated-iron shed was indeed but tem-
porary ; for the condition of the old Anatomical buildings was

1 p. 271.



Human ^Anatomy a?id Physiology 315

such that burning or pulling them down was the only remedy.
Already in 1880 Professor Humphry had drawn attention to
the invasion of dry-rot, and the fabric was in a state of ad-
vanced decay — the panelling, skirting-boards, and floors were
but whited sepulchres. Beneath all was dry-rot and decay,
and I, who have seen much dry-rot, have never seen such
luxuriant growths of Merulius lacrymans as the detachment
of these boards revealed. In spite of this state of things the
Octagon was used for another fifteen years, though not by
Human Anatomy.

Physiology, too, was again clamouring for more space, in
spite of the fact that the annexe mentioned above, with a
gallery well adapted for histological work, had been erected, in
the winter of 1886-7, along the eastern side of the Museum of
Zoology as an extension to the Physiological Department. In
his report for the year 1886, Michael Foster, whilst welcoming
this addition, points out " that the banishment of a portion
of my class to a room so disconnected with the rest of the
Laboratory is a very serious evil." Next year, he was pleading
the cause of Psycho-Physics ; whilst Professor Macalister was
saying, "The want of a suitable lecture-room is still grievously
felt, and the accommodation for practical work is taxed to its
fullest extent." In 1889, then, the Museums and Lecture Rooms
Syndicate turned their attention to the provision of a large
increase to the existing Physiological Laboratory, to the build-
ing of an entirely new Anatomical School, and to the erection
of a large lecture-room, between the two and common to both.
Unfortunately the plans prepared by Mr. Fawcett proved more
costly than either the Financial Board or the Syndicate had
anticipated, and the whole scheme was in danger of being
indefinitely delayed, when, in November, Professor Henry
Sidgwick offered i?1000 at once, and promised ^£^500 more
within two years, " provided that the Financial Board, in con-
sideration of this offer, feel themselves justified in reporting in
favour of commencing these buildings without delay." ^

1 Reporter, 1889-90, p. 170.



3 1 6 y- ^s Secretary to the 3VIusetims

So generous an offer touched even the hearts of the Financial
Board ; they withdrew their opposition, and helped to pass
Graces of thanks to Professor Sidgwick, whose generous gift
had removed a real obstacle to the progress of the building.
The site which had been selected ran along Corn Exchange
Street from the northern end of Fawcetfs second building as
far as the present Corn Exchange, where there was a short
return towards the west. The new rooms for Physiology were
naturally placed at the southern end, contiguous to the older
part of the Laboratory. Human Anatomy was placed next
the Corn Exchange, and a large lecture - room was built
between them. This room, capable of seating 280 students,
has, like other lecture-rooms designed by Mr. Fawcett, excellent
acoustic properties. Before beginning the building, certain
tenements, which, if I recollect, were on the south end of the
site, had to be cleared away, but no time was lost, and the
buildings were ready for occupation early in 1891.

This was the last building erected whilst J. was Secretary to
the Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate. In the spring of
1891 he had been elected Registrary, and at once set about
making arrangements for resigning the posts of Secretary to
the Syndicate and of Superintendent of the Museum of
Zoology. But adjustments had to be made not only in the
duties of these posts, but also at the Registry ; and the resigna-
tions were deferred, and only became effective at the end of the
year. The letter to the Vice-Chancellor in which he offered to
resign the secretaryship is dated 14th May 1891 ; and the
Syndicate in their annual report for 1890, signed on 26th
May 1891, express fully and feelingly their sense of J.'s services
to the Museum. They say : —

*' The Syndicate learn with regret that their Secretary, the
present Superintendent of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy
and Zoology, has sent in his resignation to the Vice-Chancellor.
They feel they cannot let this opportunity pass without ex-
pressing to the University their sense of the very great value



y.'s T{esignation 317

they attach to the services Mr. Clark has rendered. He became
Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology in 1866 and Secre-
tary of the Syndicate in 1880. For some years he discharged
without salary the duties of this office, to which in 1883 he was
formally appointed by the Senate. During the period he has
held office the buildings under charge of the Syndicate have
grown enormously, and in everything connected with the
growth Mr. Clark has borne a most prominent share. His
knowledge of the past history of University matters, his prac-
tical acquaintance with architecture and buikiings, and his
skill in placing clearly before the Senate the various questions
to which the Syndicate have had from time to time to call
attention, have been invaluable. The Syndicate feel that no
small share of the success which has attended the Natural
Science School in the University is due to Mr. Clark. He has
always been most ready to place his services at the disposal of
everyone connected with the Museums, and his resignation will
leave a blank it will be hard to fill."'"'

I might now bring my abbreviated history of the Museums
to a close, but here there is no natural break. Although J.
ceased to be Secretary to the Syndicate, he was constantly a
member of it ; and, whether a member or not, he took the
keenest and most practical interest in all new science buildings,
and the Syndicate never failed to secure his knowledgeable, if
trenchant, criticisms on plans submitted to them. However,
at the end of the year 1912, in which I am now writing, there
is a break — whether natural or not, at least final — for at mid-
night on the 31st December 1912 the Museums and Lecture
Rooms Syndicate was dissolved and ceased to be ; hence it may
be as well to continue our catalogue of new buildings until that
date. But a last and even more compelling motive for taking
this course is that I enjoy writing this desultory record, and
so I shall go on doing it as long as I can.

Professor Ewing- had been elected to the Chair of Mecha-
nism and Applied Mechanics in November 1890, and in his



3 1 8 y- ^^ Secretary to the Museums

first annual report he welcomes the proposal of the Syndi-
cate, appointed to deal with the Perse School site, to
allot the main part of the existing buildings to his De-
partment. Until new buildings could be arranged for, the
work was carried on in the old school-rooms and hall. I
should here remind the reader that when the site and existing
buildings were purchased,^ the headmaster's house was assigned
to Botany, and afforded "excellent accommodation for Prac-
tical Physiology and Morphology." When Botany was re-
moved to the Downing site in 1903, this house was handed
over to the Department of Mechanism, and was used for some
years as a chemical laboratory, until in the summer of 1912
it was pulled down, and, in its place, an extension of the
Laboratory was erected to house the electrical part of its work.
In 1903 three rooms of this house were also placed at the
disposal of the Special Boards of Classics and of iVIediaeval and
Modern Languages ; but they proved not very suitable for
this purpose and were soon given up.

To return to the main Engineering Laboratory. When Pro-
fessor Stuart resigned in 1890 the number of students was
large, and this number soon increased, stimulated by the
arrival of Professor Ewing and the proposed establishment of
an Honours Examination in Engineering. The first Tripos
Examination was held in 1894. i\Iore and better accom-
modation was required ; and in June 1893 the central block
of the existing Engineering School, and in the following
November the southern wing, were begun, and both were
formally opened in May 1894. It may be pointed out that
all the buildings of Engineering have been not only put up,
but furnished at very little direct cost to the University.
With the exception of cClOOO contributed from the University
Chest, the whole cost of building and equipping the central
and southern blocks in 1893 (some X'6000) was raised by public
subscription.

A few years later, in October 1898, the Vice-Chancellor
published the following letter: —

* In 1760. See p. 298.



Hopkinso?i Lal?oratory 319

iZth October 1898.

"Dear Mr. Vice-Chanckllor, — I desire, jointly ^ith
my son and daui^jhtei', Bertram and Ellen Ilopkinson, to
,<i;"ive ^'5000 towards an extension of the Engineering
Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, to be erected
to the memory of my husband John Ilopkinson; and of
our son John (lustave Hopkinson, who was entered as a
student in the Ijigineering School for this October, and
would have followed his father's profession.

" It seems to us a peculiarly fitting memorial, as Dr. Hop-
kinson, from the lirst, was warmly interested in the new
school, antl (piite lately exj)ressed a strong ilesire that an
aildition should be made to meet the rapidly increasing