About 200 Harvard students and nearly that many more non-college spectators crowded into Langdell Hall yesterday to watch one chapter of Dr. Miriam Van Waters' appeal for reinstatement as head of the State Reformatory for Women.

"There was little of the excitement at yesterday's session, conducted before Dean Erwin N. Griswold of the Law School and Governor Dever's special commission, that marked the hearing earlier in the month held by Commissioner of Correction Elliott E. McDowell. McDowell fired Dr. Van Waters on January 11.

Prosecution Case

After spending most of the morning presenting evidence that Dr. Van Waters indentured reformatory inmates for out-of-state service during her administration, prosecutor Frank A. Dwyer wound up most of his case early in the afternoon.

Dr. Van Waters' attorney, Claude B. Cross, began the defense argument by attacking several of the charges laid down by Commissioner McDowell.

Dean Griswold announced that the proceedings will shift back to the State House tomorrow.