Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/802

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

main conclusions or not, and we commend it to the serious consideration of those interested in the world-riddle. We can not forbear the remark, however, that even if we accept the conclusions, the cause of gravity is still to be sought. If we attribute it to the mutual attraction of bodies in different states of excitation, we have advanced a proximate cause for the attraction, but we have not explained why this is a cause or how it acts. We have but carried the inquiry one step further back.

"Veil after veil will lift—but there must be
Veil upon veil behind."

SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

By Prof. FREDERICK STARR.

WHILE it is true that buildings do not constitute a university, it is also true that any description of science work at a university must give considerable prominence to buildings. Museums, laboratories, and observatories must be definitely constructed for the work which they are intended to perform; if there are peculiar and individual features in the instruction, some hint of these at least must appear in the structures in which this instruction is to be given. The buildings of the University of Chicago, with the exception of its astronomical observatories, are located upon a piece of ground in the southern part of the city, between Washington and Jackson Parks. These parks are connected by the Midway Plaisance, which, since the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, has been developed into one of the finest boulevards in the city. The property of the university fronts on this handsome driveway, and consists of four ordinary city blocks containing twenty acres. The portions of the streets intersecting this piece of ground have been vacated by the city, leaving the campus unbroken. Before a single building was erected the architect, Henry Ives Cobb, drew up a general study for the mass of constructions, which it is hoped will be finally erected. Ultimately the buildings will form a series continuous around the four sides of the campus, but with entrance ways at the middle of each side. In the great court thus inclosed will be separate buildings for museums, libraries, and laboratories. While some changes in the buildings thus planned have been necessitated, the idea in general has so far been carried out, and will be in the future. Many years must elapse before the plan is completely realized, but much has already been done. One temporary and sixteen permanent buildings have been erected;