We are extremely glad that the plans for a Harvard infirmary are taking some definite shape. The need of one that shall be adequate is pressing. Aside from the advantage which the college would derive from it, the benefit to the individual student would be very great. No one who has not been through the experience of sickness in a college room can begin to appreciate the discomforts which go with it. If the sickness is contagious, these are aggravated almost beyond the limit of patient endurance. To the sick man many comforts are necessary which the same man in perfect health is able and contented to do without. Foremost of these is palatable and wholesome food; yet the long distance which food must be carried is generally enough to deprive it of any quality which might tempt the appetite. The solitude which is the necessary accompaniment of a contagious disease is also far from aiding a speedy convalescence. In a suitable infirmary these unpleasant and harmful features of a college sickness could be entirely eliminated, as they have been in large part at Yale.

There would seem to be no objection to assessing each student resident in Cambridge $1.00 a year towards the support of the infirmary. Any such student might at some time be glad to enjoy the benefits of the infirmary, and it would be the interest of all to see that its usefulness was not interfered with by lack of funds.