Panama 195 



ama during the summer of 1924 with one or two of 

 my students, and was delighted to hear that you are 

 thinking of being there with your son. Dr. Barbour 

 and I have arranged with Zetek to have one of the 

 Canal Zone buildings taken down and put up on the 

 island, so that probably within a few months the sta- 

 tion will be open for work. Even at the present time 

 Mr. Shannon of the Bureau of Entomology in Wash- 

 ington is living in a shack on the island and doing 

 work on mosquitoes for Dr. Dyar. We may say that 

 the laboratory is actually operating. It is now up to 

 you and the Tropical Plant Research Foundation to 

 give it a good boost. 



With kindest greetings to yourself and Mrs. Fair- 

 child, I remain 



Yours sincerely, 



W. M. Wheeler 



The fact that Wheeler planned to be in Panama the sum- 

 mer of 1924 meant that, if any building was to be done, 

 then was the time. So James Zetek and I put our heads 

 together. The idea that this marvelous stand of virgin 

 forest, nearly eight square miles in area, might be made 

 permanently available for biological studies gave impetus 

 to us both. 



There was no appropriation, but gifts of cash came in 

 from David Fairchild, Barbour Lathrop, and others. For 

 my part, the building was made possible by the fact that 

 I was particularly flush in 1923. In those days, if you were 

 willing to speculate you could make money, and I had 

 quite a lot on hand at the time — enough to buy out the 



