404 First European Journey 



Smith had seen one advantage in making the journey alone to 

 Northern Europe. While in Berlin, he might consult specialists 

 for himself and at the same time determine whether his wife's 

 ailment was being treated properly. By mid-June he was in Berlin, 

 had secured lodgings, and located Dr. W. D. Miller, an American 

 dentist who in 1882-1884 had " associated bacteria with dental 

 caries and subsequently called repeated attention to the danger 

 of systemic infection from neglected teeth." ^ Dr. Miller intro- 

 duced him to Dr. John H. Cleves Symmes, an American physician, 

 who, after an hour's conference, pronounced Mrs. Smith's treat- 

 ment in the main correct. The suggestion that a majority of prac- 

 titioners were adhering to a belief that possibly rheumatism was 

 due to an organism of some sort encouraged Smith to believe 

 that a cure would be ultimately effected. But the next day he 

 learned from a highly reputable German doctor that he himself 

 might have to undergo surgery. This, however, never proved to 

 be the case. 



Smith wrote in his journal much about medical practice and 

 diseases of current prevalence. For instance, in Italy, the situation 

 as to malaria fever interested him and he gathered facts con- 

 cerning it. On this journey, however, he was preeminently a plant 

 bacteriologist and pathologist. Pages of his journal were devoted 

 to describing the cities he visited, their art galleries, and beautiful 

 public buildings. Pages were devoted to describing beautiful 

 landscapes and the vegetations of the various regions seen. Often 

 he listed the plants of unusual interest observed in gardens. 

 Indeed, wholly separate volumes could be prepared from the 

 pages of his journal which dealt with his artistic and literary 

 appreciations. But art and literature remained avocations while 

 science was his foremost business. He found beauty in the study 

 of microorganisms and glory in the conquests of disease they 

 cause. His highly specialized, intellectually rigid, technological 

 work required some freedom of mind. His escapes from its 

 exacting disciplines, when he needed any, were the enjoyments of 

 poetry, music, literature, and art, and these served him well when 

 later grief invaded his well ordered life. 



' Fifty years of pathology, op. cit., 18. Smith had met Dr. Miller in Washington 

 the year before and in his journal he characterized him as a " dentist and student 

 of dental caries." 



