In Retrospect 283 



speeches do not appear to have been inordinately creditable 

 productions. 



I look back on my connection with the development of 

 the laboratories in the Canal Zone, with the Soledad Gar- 

 den in Cuba, and with the Farm for extracting snake ven- 

 oms at Tela in Honduras with great satisfaction, for I think 

 all of these organizations have served a really useful pur- 

 pose in the world. Moreover, in the Canal Zone I chanced 

 to meet the late Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who became 

 a dear friend. Through him I had the opportunity to love 

 and admire the nearest thing to a saint that I have ever 

 known in human form, his brother-in-law, James Craik 

 Morris, then Bishop of the Canal Zone and Parts Adjacent, 

 later of Louisiana. Bishop Morris and his lovely wife have 

 played an intimate part in my life, and indeed in that of 

 all the members of my family. 



For years I was a hypochondriac for a very peculiar 

 reason. I had so definitely in mind what I wanted to ac- 

 complish during my life that I constantly suffered porten- 

 tous symptoms which I expected to lead to death, just as 

 for months after Bill's death I awaited what I was sure was 

 impending insanity. It was not that I was particularly afraid 

 of death, as such, but that I dreaded leaving work that I 

 had planned to do — a mess for others to clean up. 



Now all this is changed. When but a short time ago I 

 received the notice of election as Foreign Honorary Mem- 

 ber of the Linnaean Society of London — I had been simi- 

 larly honored by the Zoological Societies of London and 

 Amsterdam years before — I was elated. Years ago I too 

 had set my cap for a Httle group of hopes: membership in 



