In a letter which I wrote some time ago to Mr. Treasurer Haywood , I took occasion to suggest to the Committee the probability that you would be called on this year for the expense necessary for erecting a laboratory, to accommodate the professor of chemistry by the beginning of the ensuing year. It has occurred to me however that this may be rendered unnecessary. The dining room here, as you may recollect, was enlarged by an addition of I think, 16 feet to the length of it, just at the time when the measure was adopted of permitting the students to board at large in the Steward's hall , or in the village. The whole length of that room at present is probably more than 60 feet. Were a partition run across through the middle of it, 30 feet would undoubtedly be amply sufficient for the purposes of Mr. Burton, or any other person who may occupy the premises, and 30 would be enough for the lectures & experiments of the professor, in the presence of his class. The room is more than wide enough for two ranges of tables, and I believe Mr. Burton never has need of one table of the length of 25 feet. It is forthe Committee then to consider, whether they may not in the present circumstances, look to the retention, in their next contract for the dining room of so much of it for their own use, as may answer the purpose of a laboratory for some time.

Mr. Olmstead in a letter to Mr. Mitchell has mentioned the specifick sum of 700 dollars as competent to the purchase of such apparatus as will be sufficient for his experiments, for the illustration of a course of lectures. He has had an opportunity of sending to Europe by a gentleman on whose skill as a chemist, and on whose fidelity he can rely, for procuring such parts of apparatus as cannot be so well obtained in this country. As such an occasion might not hereafter occur, he concluded to furnish the necessary funds from his own purse, calculating upon the approbation of the Committee. He did not state, as I understood from Mr. Mitchell , the sum he should send: probably it might be 400 dollars. This however, I mention merely for your information, and not because Mr. Olmstead lets us know that he expects any remittance from the Committee on this account.

Mr. Hamilton Jones , a member of the present senior class, well approved by the Faculty, offers as a candidate for a tutorship which is to becomevacant at the end of the present session, by the resignation of Mr. Moseley. Mr. Jones , it is believed, will be found deserving of the confidence of the Committee, in discharging the duties of the office, both as a teacher and as efficient in contributing to the preservation of order. We would therefore recommend him to the appointment, should the Committee not find any other character who ought to be preferred.

Please to present my respects to Judge Potter and the Treasurer.