FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



ton a large number o£ specialists from the university laboratories. 

 Naturally, they were put up at the Cosmos, and many o£ them 

 lived there. They were all in uniform. There were not only 

 many physicists and chemists, but there were also economists, 

 lawyers and medical men from all over the United States. And 

 there were astronomers and mathematicians, too. I never knew 

 exactly what the latter did, but they were useful. The others 

 did all sorts of valuable things. Many of them were so anxious 

 to help that they were willing do do anything. I remember 

 that the eminent Dr. William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins, 

 disappeared from Baltimore (he was and is an old bachelor), 

 and his friends got worried about him. It came about that for 

 days he had occupied a desk outside the office door of the 

 Surgeon-General of the Army, and was concerned simply in 

 slitting open letters, until an office suitable to his extraordinary 

 ability was found. 



As an indication of how widely the university laboratories 

 were represented, I was sitting in the window one day when 

 a college professor from Chicago approached and said, "Howard, 

 you know a lot about the details of management of different 

 universities in this country. Can you tell me what the practice 

 is (in such and such a situation) in, say, Harvard and the Uni- 

 versity of California?" 



I answered that I could not tell him, but pointed out across 

 the room two men at the mailbox, looking for letters, and said, 

 "There are a Harvard professor and a California professor stand- 

 ing side by side. Go and ask them." 



And not only was the Club crowded with men of this type. 

 The uniforms of the liaison officers of many of the allied nations 

 were seen there daily. The great dining-room on the fifth floor 

 was crowded, especially at luncheon. I have seen all of the 



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