BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



Gone - although, as later appeared, only temporarily - were the 

 former heuristic discussions at the microscope in which the surprise 

 element, so typical of Beijerinck's attitude, required a perpetual alert- 

 ness. One missed the instructive walks through the garden, peripatetic 

 quiz sessions during which the hearers were kept on their toes even 

 more because the open air seemed conducive to greater divagations, 

 and thus to further provocative and unsuspected questions. In the 

 lectures one missed Beijerinck's rhetoric and brilliance. The entire 

 picture was different. The new professor was seldom seen behind his 

 microscope. Whenever he was not occupied with the students, he 

 could always be found in his study, surrounded by piles of books. This 

 pattern of behaviour can be understood if it is realized that Kluyver 

 did not want to get singed by working on problems he had not yet 

 recognized or, in any case, had not yet mastered. During the evening 

 hours he studied superhumanly. He prepared himself; it is probable 

 that he considered this difficult phase as an incubation period, full of 

 tension, and requiring enormous efforts. 



As every one discovered, the reorganization progressed. The assist- 

 ants saw their erstwhile unlimited opportunity for research curtailed; 

 there were orders to be sent out ; the books from the once so magnifi- 

 cent library had to be sorted and assessed as to actual current value, 

 reorganized according to a new system, spread out over a number of 

 rooms to which the students had free access. The pupils increased in 

 number and became ever more of a burden; they took up a hitherto 

 unknown amount of time and care. 



Susceptivity to innovations which might prove to be just as good as, 

 perhaps even better than the old order, had long ago been weakened 

 by humdrum ; and this prevented the assistants from recognizing how 

 ingenious a man the new professor was. Nor did they see that he con- 

 sidered the time ripe for doing the spadework that would lead to the 

 development of the fundamentals of the 'unity in biochemistry', that 

 gigantic edifice that slowly rose up amidst the venerable temples 

 erected by Beijerinck. 



Beijerinck had established himself in his country home at Gorssel. 

 Although he had left Delft for good, and so definitively that he re- 

 mained unwilling ever again to set foot in it, even on the occasion 

 when Delft solemnly celebrated his golden doctor's jubilee, his influ- 



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