Prof. Cooke to the Freshmen.

Thursday noon at the close of his course of lectures in Chemistry A, Professor Cooke asked from the freshman class the privilege of indulging in a few personal reminiscences. It was the end of his fortieth annual course of lectures in Chemistry. In 1849, to the class of which President Eliot was a member, was given the first instruction in chemistry in any American college. At that time Professor Cooke was the sole lecturer and teacher in the department of chemistry, and the accommodations for carrying on the work were exceedingly limited. The lectures were given in the room at the north end of Univesity, and were illustrated only by the crude and imperfect apparatus brought by Professor Cook from the laboratory which he had used when a boy in beginning the study of chemistry. For ten years the department was confined to the small rooms in University, with a small laboratory in the cellars directly beneath. After some years, the friends of the college began to realize the importance of the work which Professor Cooke was carrying on, and the very inadequate accommodations that were furnished for a successful building up of the department. The result was that by their generous contributions, enough money was raised to build Boylston Hall This was in 1859 and the lecture room in upper Boylston with a seating capacity of two hundred, was thought to be amply large for the accommodation of any class which might enter the college for almost a half-century. That this opinion was not sound, has been shown by the way which the large classes of the past few years have been cramped for room. This year especially, it has been proved that the accommodations are utterly inadequate, and the need of more room has become too pressing to be disregarded. At present the largest room in Boylston is occupied by a collection of mineralogical specimens, one of the most valuable in the country, representing a large pecuniary value added to the labor of a life time. The remedy which Professor Cooke proposes is to have an addition built to the Agassiz Museum for the accommodation of this collection, and then to have the room which it now occupies in Boylston, fitted over for a lecture room for Chemistry A. The plan is a practicable one, for the room in Boylsion could be fitted to accommodate nearly five hundred men, while the cost of the addition to the Agassiz Museum would not exceed $40,000. The reason Professor Cooke had addressed the class was to gain the co-operation of every member in it, in bringing the needs of the University before its friends all over the country, in order that they might be prompted to show a zeal for the welfare of Harvard which would result in hearty financial aid from them.