To fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of Captain Barton's appointment, the War Department on the application of the University detailed Captain Ervin L. Phillips (see p. 13), who reported for duty on September 25th.

THE LIBRARY

The University Library now contains over 350,000 (353,638) volumes and over 50,000 (53,000) pamphlets. Over 300,000 (307,334) volumes and all the pamphlets are housed in the general library building which the late Henry W. Sage erected for the University and endowed with $300,000 as a book fund. Most of the annual accessions to the Library, which last year numbered nearly 14,000 (13,937) volumes and 2,000 pamphlets, were purchased from the income of that fund. The gifts, however, were considerable, aggregating 3,646 volumes. The most important of the gifts as also of the purchases of the year are mentioned in the report of the Librarian (Appendix XV).

The establishment of a separate library in the upper story of Goldwin Smith Hall for the use of undergraduates in Arts was an important event of the year. The collection already numbers about 1,100 volumes, and must be greatly increased. It is to students in literature, history and philosophy what the laboratory is to students in science. The collection consists chiefly of additional copies of books already in the general library, which are used in undergraduate work in the humanities, and it contains in some cases many copies of the books most in demand in the larger classes. This arrangement now made in the interest of students in Arts had already been effected for students in other Colleges (Engineering, etc.) which have special library collections in their own buildings.

A still more noteworthy event was the extension of the privilege of drawing books from the general library for

home use to all regularly matriculated students of the University. This privilege was at first confined to Faculty and graduate students, then it was extended to seniors and juniors, and now it is granted generally to all members of the University, whether students or teachers. With the exception of certain reserved collections, these successive acts of legislation have the effect of converting the library of reference to a circulating library. As a consequence its relation to the recently established circulating library must now be reconsidered. That the change does not necessarily involve the abandonment of that enterprise is obvious enough. For an incomparable advantage of the circulating library was that it brought together in a comparatively small compass the books which students might desire for general reading and encouraged the students, in Dr.. Johnson's phrase, "to browse" in that collection—to see, handle and taste books at their leisure. And this free access to the shelves for choosing books for general reading has been greatly appreciated by the students; the figures in the Librarian's report show that nearly one fourth of all the books taken from the Library for home use were from this collection though it contained only about 3,500 volumes. And a still larger number of students used books from this collection in the room without taking them home. Such a collection, therefore, seems specially adapted to promote the "reading habit" among undergraduates, which teachers very generally declare the chief desideratum in collegiate education at the present time. The suitable accommodation of such a circulating library is a grave problem. No satisfactory solution can be found short of an enlargement of the Library building which in a few years, at the present rate of growth, will be full to overflowing, and when the enlargement comes, special provision should be made for the circulating library and also, if possible, for the Fiske collections.

THE INFIRMARY

The new Committee, consisting of Mr. C. D. Bostwick, chairman, Judge Blood and Professor Kerr, have now had charge of the Infirmary for a year. The chairman's report, which is brief and which covers completely the important events of the year, is as follows:

"By reason of the action of the Board of Trustees at the time the present Infirmary Committee was appointed, in terminating the employment of the Infirmary Staff, the first act of the Committee was to secure a new Superintendent. Miss Harriet Sutherland formerly with St. Lukes Hospital, Utica, was appointed to the position and her administration has given satisfaction.

"The exterior of the building has been repainted and necessary repairs made. Some new equipment was purchased, particularly copper instrument sterilizers for the surgery. Two useful and needed gifts were received from seniors in the University. A wheel chair from Mr. C. L. Bradley and a complete X-Ray machine with table and photographic outfit from Mr. C. B. Goodspeed.

"On the recommendation of this Committee the Trustees enacted that hereafter an Infirmary fee of $2.00 per term be charged to all students entitling them to ordinary care for not exceeding two weeks in one year. This provision apparently meets the approval of the student body and will I think be a satisfactory change.

"During this year there have been among the students and in the city serious outbreaks of three contagious diseases, diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles. As the necessary isolation of such cases cannot be had at the Infirmary, these students were refused admittance. The patients were well taken care of at the Ithaca City Hospital and the Board of Health Emergency Hospital, but the urgent need of an isolation ward in connection with the Infirmary was impressed on all interested. Such a ward should have at least thirty beds and if built in keeping with the present building would probably cost, with equipment, between $40,000 and $50,000. Such a building I believe to be an urgent need of the University. attach detailed list of diseases treated and financial statement."

I

Unhappily two students who were sick died at the Infirmary. One was Ernest C. A. Schaefer of Liverpool, New York, a junior in Mechanical Engineering, who had for years been a victim of chronic diabetis. Mr. Schaefer was a very diligent student and made an excellent record in his University work. The other was H. Douglas Fowler of Galveston, Texas, who had just registered as a freshman in

Mechanical Engineering, when he suddenly died of meningitis. Mr. Fowler was a young man of great promise, and his death coming with such suddenness and at the very beginning of the academic year cast a gloom over the entire University community.

There were 467 patients admitted during the year from July 1, 1907, to July 1, 1908, of whom 422 were cured, twenty-seven discharged as improved, ten transferred to other hospitals, while seven were not improved and, as already stated, two died. Of the cases treated 282 were medical, 148 surgical, and thirty-eight affections of the eye, ear and nose.

Even with an annual income of $5,000 on the endowment fund which Messrs. Dean Sage and William H. Sage so generously provided for the Infirmary at the time they presented it to the University, it was not quite self-supporting during the year. The balance on hand August 1, 1907, was $11,559.18 and the balance on August 1, 1908, was $11,292.57. The following table shows in detail the cost of conducting the Infirmary and the receipts from students since 1898:

The Infirmary fee of $2 per term hereafter to be charged to all students should, in spite of the increased cost of maintenance, make the Infirmary self-supporting and leave at least a portion of the income on the endowment fund available for the erection of a ward for contagious diseases in connection with the Infirmary. The not infrequent outbreaks of contagious diseases like diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles impressively remind the University authorities from time to time of the indispensable need of such an isolation ward for students in a city so small as Ithaca.

ENLARGEMENT OF THE CAMPUS

During the year the Trustees have purchased nearly 50 acres of land at a cost of $15,275 for the extension of the campus on the southeast. The campus, by resolution of the Trustees adopted in February, was enlarged so as to include the entire tract lying between Cascadilla and Fall Creek gorges from Stewart Avenue on the west to the Judd's Falls Road on the east; and the Executive Committee afterward pushed the southern boundary beyond Cascadilla Gorge to the E. C. & N. railway. The distance north and south is about five eighths of a mile and the distance east and west is about a mile; and the entire area (including the extension beyond Cascadilla gorge to the E. C. & N. railway track) is 350 acres.

Twenty or twenty-five years ago the buildings of the University were grouped mainly about Central Avenue. Then came the development of East Avenue for the houses of professors. On the east side of East Avenue were located in 1895 the buildings of the New York State Veterinary College with the object of removing them from the campus while still rendering them visible from it. Then at the urgent request of the President, the Trustees