FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



The whole reception was beautiful and inspiring, and it 

 helped, undoubtedly, to bring about a feeling of friendship and 

 brotherhood that should have spread out even more than it did 

 among the allied nations. 



The memories of those of us who lived through the war 

 period will be crowded forever with interesting incidents. That 

 is true even with those of us who did not go to the Front, and 

 it is, perhaps, especially true of those of us who lived in Wash- 

 ington, where the high direction of the United States activities 

 centered. And it was the special function of the Cosmos Club 

 to be the host of many quiet but important actors in the drama. 

 In November, 1917, there came to see me at the Club, Dr. A. 

 Caccini, a highly educated Italian physician, who had been con- 

 nected in the early part of the century with Celli, Casagrandi, 

 Grassi and that group in the mosquito-malarial work at Rome. 

 He was a classmate, by the way, of Tiraboschi. He had come 

 to this country in 1904 and had begun corresponding with me 

 in 1906. He had located in New York and had practised there 

 for a number of years. He put me in correspondence with the 

 Italian school at Rome and gave me very effective letters to 

 Celli, Grassi and the others when I went over in the spring of 

 1910. He was a broad biologist and, I think, a naturalized citizen. 

 At all events, he was a very patriotic American. At the time of 

 the outbreak of Asiatic cholera in Italy (in 191 1, I believe), he 

 came down to Washington, and I went with him to the office 

 of the Surgeon-General of the Public Health Service to intro- 

 duce him to Dr. Walter Wyman. He offered his services as 

 quarantine officer at the Italian ports. His high scientific and 

 medical standing, and his familiarity with Italian and other 

 foreign languages, fitted him admirably for this work. The 

 interview was pleasant enough, but his offer was turned down 



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