The Domesday Book of Queen's University (Volume 2) 1900-1924

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1923-1924

years his health and cultured leisure, and the attachment and gratitude of the generations of students who have been enriched by his inspiring words, and unblemished personal example.

Dr Watson's successor at the head of the Department is Mr. George Humphrey, MA (Oxford and Harvard), of Weleyan University, USA, and the author of a very attractive book in Philosophy, "The Story of Man's Mind". His assistant is a young Canadian of excellent social stock, of much promise, an Oxford and Rhodes Scholar, Mr H Reid MacCallum, BA. So that the new start in the department is awaited with much confidence. The traditions connected with the names of George, Clark, Murray and Watson will be continued.

The Principal reports that Professor Sandwell, as head of the English Department, has made an excellent beginning. The classes are large, and the instructors, all round, bring conspicuous ability and ripe experience to their work, and as for many years now, the very best results continue to be achieved.

The occupant of the Research Chair in Physics resigned in the course of the year to the regret of the Board, to take up similar work in St. Louis, USA. He was a popular and efficient worker, and gave promise of making valuable contributions to the branch of science which he cultivated. Prof Hughes'

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successor is Dr. J. A. Gray, of McGill, and the Board deemed itself fortunate in securing him. The equipment of the Department is expensive and valuable, and the work of research be continued along the lines laid down by Professor Hughes.

The Summer School continues its phenomenal expansion, and enthusiasm, the registration for 1924 being up to the 450 mark, and students hailing from all parts of the Dominion, and some even from foreign countries. The equipment to meet their needs is of the best, as to teaching, laboratory fittings, grounds, and gymnasium for recreation and sports, and other things. The situation, overlooking the "Ontario Strand" is ideal. The cost of living is moderate, and excellent housing comforts are easily available.

Judging from the Science graduating list of last Session, the choice of Electrical Engineering, as study and profession, is becoming more and more pronounced. This entails additional expenditure, but provision will be made, for behind this development are men of liberal impulse and substance. The other branches of the Science department are also wellmanned and thriving. Dean Clark is alert to every advance called for, and is himself not only a brilliant occupant of the rostrum, but also an enthusiastic and successful research worker.

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Professor O. D. Skelton, Ph.D., of the Economics Department, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, has had covetous hands laid upon him by the Federal Government for important public service, and the Board has granted him leave of absence for a year, hoping that at the end of the term he will return to Queen's, and resume the work in which he has gained enviable distinction. The University lost Professor Clark (Economics also) by loaning him for a time to the Federal Government, and after that by a large American financial corporation enticing him away. And some friends of the University are apprehensive that Dr. Skelton may be lost to us in the same way.

The Medical Society has had a great year. Graduates have been singularly successful before the Ontario Medical Council, and the Dominion Medical Council. Hospital extensions have greatly increased clinical facilities and material. The Isolation Building, most modern in all details, is in use, and the Clinical Ward, with its Pathological Laboratory, is in course of erection. And the other day the Hospital governors were notified of a bequest of $318,000, left by C.D. Campbell, K.C., of Montreal, a native of Kingston. Dr. Thomas Gibson, of Ottawa, has been appointed to the Chair of Pharmacology founded by the late Dr. James Douglas, of New York. This is looked upon as an element of strength to the Faculty. So many graduates in

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Medicine now take the Medical Council of Canada, that Kingston has been selected as an examining centre. The University and General Hospital have solid common interests, and, where the Institutions meet, the co-operation is cordial and harmonious.

The Douglas Library will be ready for occupation at the opening of the Session, 1924. It is a very handsome building, and what is more, as perfect in plan and furnishings as the best architectural skill could devise. The Board was fortunate in securing Dr. Van Patten for librarian. In the course of the summer (1924) himself and staff have hands full in transferring some hundred thousand books, and a great many additional papers and documents from the old home to the new. "The glory of the building is the splendid reading room occupying the whole of the top floor."

After years of waiting—of faith and works—the Women Students' Residence is rapidly taking visibility on the corner of University Avenue and Alice Street. The design, by Shepherd and Calvin, is pronounced excellent— within and without, and as students' residence will be a valuable college home for those fortunate enough to secure accomodation. The name is to be Ban-Righ Hall (Anglics, Queen's Hall), and the distinctive part is taken from the College Sylb. The cost is not definitely known at the present writing, but

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will closely approximate $200,000.

The spacious skating arena, recently erected, was destroyed by fire early in the spring, but the loss was largely covered by insurance. Steps were immediately taken to rebuild on the same site, and the rink will be ready for use the coming winter. Some mistakes discovered in the plan and structure of the old building will be avoided in the new, and it will be equipped with artificial ice, making the opening of the skating season much earlier than when the natural frost had to be waited for. The building, although managed by the Athletic Board, is really part of the plant of the University. The artificial ice will afford early practice for hockey, and no doubt bring back luck on that arena, just as the Richardson Stadium has brought triumph after triumph to the Foot-Ball Team. "Booboo," the popular ursine mascot of that team, it is reported, has grown too sober-minded and sedate for the office, and an expedition is off to James Bay for a suitable cub to replace her. Success may be expected.

Revival has come to the Alma Mater Society, the ancient student organization of the University, founded in 1857. For many generations it was the sole student society, to which belonged also local graduates. It met weekly, as the writer remembers, and discussed and debated, without fear, or reserve, any question of interest to the time, and was itself no insignificant educational force among the

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