Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/48

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24
Bits of Harvard History

give an illustration of his style, as well as of his ingenious use of foot-notes to bolster up the Muse.

Why do’st thou start! Why pale and out of breath?
’T is but thyself thou see’st disrobed by death.[poem 1]
Approach these honest bones, nor stare aghast.
“In this complexion must thou come at last.”
The human frame stripped of its blushing skin—[poem 2]
Each larger duct, and ruddy muscle seen…
There Waterhouse shines! His Esculapian art
Ranges in order every doubtful part;
Free of access, with easy manners crowned,
He speaks—and information spreads around!

  1. At the sight of the Skeleton.
  2. An Anatomical preparation.

By 1800 another fit of “growing pains” began to embarrass the University. Nearly all the freshmen were obliged to room in private houses. Both the Medical School and the College proper needed more space for teaching purposes, and Holden Chapel was again requisitioned as an emergency outlet. There now commenced a remarkable series of structural alterations to the fabric that continued intermittently for eighty years. The building was first divided into two storeys by an additional floor ten feet above the original one. To reach the second storey, a staircase was constructed in a brick well protruding from the eastern end. A partition was run straight across the whole interior, and the western end of both floors was again subdivided, so as to give two rooms on a floor. These four western rooms were appropriated by the College for the