The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research : history, organization, and equipment.

  • Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research : history, organization, and equipment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The large general laboratory for badleriology, on the western side of this floor, contains a built-in hot air room whose temperature va- ries from 35 to 39 degrees C., depending upon the level at which the temperature is taken. This room serves for cultivation and digestion experiments. On the fourth floor are special laboratories for experimental pa- thology, for physiology and pharmacology; preparation rooms and a centrifuge room. The laboratories for pathology are formed by a series of four communicating rooms at the north end of the floor. They are equipped not only for ordinary pathological work, but also for work in chemistry, including gas analysis. The south end of the floor space is occupied by the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. The Preparation Rooms are two rooms on the western side where badteriological media are made up; here also most of the hot air and steam sterilizations for badteriologi- cal purposes are carried out. In an adjoining cement-floored room some of the smaller centrifuges are placed. These centrifuges are an- chored on rubber and produce very little vibration when in aftion. There are two other laboratories upon this floor, which are designed for individual workers. All the laboratory rooms are equipped with hoods containing gas, hot and cold water, eleftrical and vacuum connedtions. The hoods of the chemical floor, in addition, are supplied with steam. The fifth floor contains, at the south end, the Department of Ex- perimental Biology; at the north end, rooms equipped with photo- graphic appliances and other means of reproducing specimens for illustrating publications; a few special research rooms; and, in the centre, a dining room for the scientific staff and one for the clerical staff. Lunch is served daily at a very moderate price. Each floor is provided with a large refrigerator, which is connected with the main refrigeration plant in the Power House, and with a subsidiary refrigeration plant in the basement. The refrigerators in the basement and in the kitchen are arranged for constant tempera- tures, while those on the second, third, and fourth floors are divided into three tiers of compartments so connedled that each tier may be maintained at an independent temperature. The various floors of the building, including the roof, communi- cate with each other by two stairways at the northern and southern ends of the building. There is also an eledlric elevator. The roof really forms a sixth floor, for a considerable portion of the space'has been covered by an iron house sheathed with copper. This house has been subdivided into a number of small rooms in [ ]