A building on the Johns Hopkins University campus was evacuated yesterday after an employee found several broken vials and reported an "ether-like smell," according to a Baltimore Fire Department spokesman.

Firefighters wearing hazardous-materials suits found that less than a half-gallon of an acid-like substance had spilled on a floor inside a lab of Maryland Hall, which houses the departments of chemical and bio-molecular engineering, and materials science and engineering.

The Fire Department spokesman, Chief Kevin Cartwright, said the substance was not ether, but that tests will be performed to identify it.

He said fewer than 10 people were in the building on Wyman Quad, near the center of campus in the 3400 block of N. Charles St. and behind the Baltimore Museum of Art.

No injuries were reported. The incident occurred about 8 a.m. Firefighters used soda ash to neutralize the chemical.