The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-23

close touch it gives with the people.
Geological hunting parties scrape ac-
quaintance with the farm folk; and the
function as identifier of
specimens" brings them into relation
to all sorts and conditions of men.
Wonder tales came true inside the
physical laboratory. We saw a solitary
worker spinning crystal thread finer
than the most attenuated cobweb. Fus-
ing two bits of quartz in a Bunsen
flame, he suddenly drew them apart.
Holding the delicate thread, spun be-
tween the crystals, in the flame, he
blew it across the room. The filament,
scarcely visible, was not fine enough
to suit the student, so he fastened one
end of it to a little arrow fitted it to
a bow and shot it at a target. Captur-
ing the delicate thing, so fine that it
now fioated in air, he made it fast to
a glass frame and scrutinized it criti-
cally against the light. Behold, there
were flaws in the filament and he be-
gan all over again. He wanted it to
suspend a delicate weight in a very
particular piece of apparatus. 1t must
be fine enough, long enough, strong
enough and totally without inequalities
We left him still Juggling.
Down stairs they took us into the
darkroom where DR.. Rowland, who
has recently died, made his marvellous
Photographic man of the spectrum. A
whole year he spent in testing prepara-
tons of Photographic plates, before
ever the work of making negatives was
begun; three years it took him to
complete the series of maps, the most
exact in existence. Thomasina was be-
ginning to look distinctly bored, when
the professor put into her hand a little
three inch box, telling her to open it.
She did, and almost dropped ii in her
surprise. The little box contained a
sublimated rainbow, as pure and as
melting as the veritable bow in the
sky and infinitely brighter 1t was one
of DR.. Rowland's famous ATTRACTIONS
ratings-shame to call so beautiful a
thing by so unbeautiful a name! No
where save at Johns Hopkins are these
perfect gratings made; for nowhere
else in the world are there instruments
exact enough to make them. grating
is polished concave square of tin and
lead alloy, scored with absolutely par
allel scratches, absolutely the same dis
lance apart, and 10000 of them to the
inch. A slip of one millionth of an inch,
and there are GHOSTS" in the spectrum
the grating is Worthless.
Thomasina; holding the blaze of color
in her hand said she thought she would
take one. Certainly" said the pro-
fessor, gravely, have you a 500 about
you? The university sells them at cost
price"
We gasped, and the professor hasten
ed to explain that while Prof Rowland
succeeded in making a perfect screw
for the rulingengine, it is still diff
cult to get diamond points the right
shape to do the scratching. So there
are still many spoiled gratings, and
pOn6 oh,
see the wonderful machine at work.
The professor hesitated. 1t seems the
thing is so delicate that 1t is kept in
vault at constant temperature. The
admission of our little vital furnaces
might raise the thermometer and spoil
a grating. However, just for a second
he let us in. There was the machine,
working under glass. thousand
toothed wheel revolves one cog; the
screw turns a fraction of a revolution,
carrying the polished metal which is to
be a grating forward an imperceptible
bit; the diamond point passes over it
leaving scratch. So on, until if no
accident befalls the diamond point, a
perfect grating is brought forth
Everybody said we must see the
Medical school, so one fine day we made
the trip to East Baltimore to Johns
Hopkins Hospital and the medical lab
oratories. They are very proud of their
medical school, partly because it is still
so new that the other institutions of the
land haven't had time to copy it. In
other matters of research they have set
the pace for the whole country, and
now their imitators are saying why
are not we as good as Johns Hopkins %
But the Medical School, with its re-
quirement of a college diploma for adj
mission, is still head and shoulders
above competition. Harvard, indeed.
has this year followed suit. The rest
are yet to follow. Besides. the obvious
advantage of its postgraduate require
ments, Johns Hopkins Medical School
is blest in the unusual relation it bears
to Johns Hopkins Hospital Although
on separate foundations, the institu-
tons are practically one. Two of the
are on the hospital grounds
The superintendent of the hospital and
many of the staff are members of the
medical faculty. Students work in the
wards, attend clinics, serve in the dis
Practically all the instruc-
ton of the fourth year, and much of
that in the third, is given in the hos
pital. Woman is permitted to squeeze
inside the medical school, because the
endowment of the Woman's Memorial
Building was made on those terms
So mucn for the visible Johns Hop.
kins. i cannot close without speaking
of less concrete things. In its twenty
five years of existence Johns Hopkins
has by its insistence and original re-
search changed the very complexion
OF Amer ican University education. Its
press has maintained nearly a dozen
technical journals OF the highest tyre
As II stands looking into it's second
quarter century there is hope that e
may soon change It's adequate but I'M
monumental housing for an architec-
tural setting worthy of Il. Mr.. wy
man OF Baltimore stands ready TO give
the university n magnificent site on
Peabody flights, II only Si.OOOOOO can
be raised TO go with his gift. rhe
money rs little slow coming. but n
will surely come. And when the uni
verRity ~ built there VIII be no mis-
takes Johns Hopkins has built it's
present shell layer by layer; n knows
precisely what n wants and how 20 get
n. n viii not expand its undergradu-
ate department The authorities have
no wish 10 see the serious graduate
student body swamped into q horde ~
irresponsible, prank playinR under
graduates. They prefer rather 20
smother the spirits ~ the underRradu.
ate in academic bloom They Will. n
if safe 90 predict. Indulge again ln
scientific expeditions like fhole 10 the
Wesf Indies which have been inierrni'
80 FOR lack ~ funds. thsY viii add f0
~ fhf nirrndY generous equipment ~
fhf University EfffnHiDn rnufrrH. vii
maks 1olns Hopkins niofe than ever