ents which Professor
Whiting had been so wisely and lovingly procuring, since she first
began to equip her student-laboratory in 1878, were swept away;
Geology and Psychology suffered only less; but the most harrowing
losses were those in the Department of Zoology, where, besides
the destruction of laboratories and instruments, and the special
library presented to the department by Professor Emeritus Mary A.
Willcox, "the fruits of years of special research work which had
attracted international attention have been destroyed.... Professor
Marion Hubbard had devoted her energies for six years to research
in variation and heredity in beetles.... In view of the increasing
interest in eugenics, scientists awaited the results with keen
anticipation, but all the specimens, notes, and apparatus were
swept away." Professor Robertson, the head of the department,
who is an authority on certain deep-sea forms of life, had just
finished her report on the collections from the dredging expedition
of the Prince of Monaco, which had been sent her for identification;
and the report and the collections all were lost.

Among the few things saved were some of the ivies and the roses
which the classes had planted year by year; these the fire had not
injured; and a slip from the great wistaria vine on the south side
of College Hall has proved to be alive and vigorous. The alumnae
gavel and the historic Tree Day spade were also unharmed. But
that no life was lost outweighs all the other losses, and this was
due to the fire drill which, in one form or another, has been
carried on at Wellesley since the earliest years of the college.
Doctor Edward Abbott, writing of Wellesley in Harper's Magazine
for August, 1876, says:

"Whoever heard of a fire brigade manned by women? There is one at
Wellesley, for it is believed that however incombustible the
college building may be, the students should be taught to put out
fire,... and be trained to presence of mind and familiarity with
the thought of what ought to be done in case of fire." From time
to time the drill has been strengthened and changed in detail, but
in 1902, when Miss Olive Davis, Director of Houses of Residence,
was appointed by Miss Hazard to be responsible for an efficient
fire drill, the modern system was instituted. An article in
College News explains that "the organization of the present
fire-drill system is much like the old one. With the adoption of
Student Government,