FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



time to listen for her reply as the line was moving rapidly. 

 Twenty minutes later, however, when there was a lull in the 

 arrivals. Dr. Bell, as excited and as interested as a boy, came 

 hastening up to me and said, "Dr. Howard, the Countess is 

 much impressed with you and with your Italian, and wants to 

 talk to you, as she knows no English." I found the Countess 

 standing alone, waiting for me, and immediately asked her 

 whether she spoke French. She said that she did, but that she 

 preferred Italian. Thereupon I explained to her that I had just 

 used all the Italian I remembered in greeting her in the line, and 

 that I had laboriously prepared that for the occasion. She replied 

 in excellent French that it was a great bit of courtesy on my part 

 and that she appreciated it highly. Then we chatted for a few 

 moments in French. 



Here is another anecdote which bears on Dr. Bell's human 

 side. A committee of the old Joint Commission of the scientific 

 societies in Washington, just then founding the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences, was meeting for the purpose of counting 

 the ballots for the original seventy-five members of the Academy. 

 It was a very long affair. There were about a dozen of us there, 

 and Dr. Bell sat at my side. About half-past eleven I offered him 

 a cigar. He said, "No, I thank you," pulled out his watch and 

 laid it on the table beside him. The meeting dragged on. Pre- 

 cisely at twelve o'clock he turned to me and said, "Now I will 

 take that cigar if you don't mind," and added, "you see, my 

 physician holds me down to three cigars a day, and when you 

 offered me one a bit ago, I had already smoked my three for 

 yesterday." And the beauty of the thing was that before the meet- 

 ing adjourned at half-past one, he had smoked his next day's 

 allowance. This happened in February, 1898. 



Oh, these doctors! If they find that a patient smokes, they 

 either stop it or restrict it, but they never stop smoking them- 



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