KLUYVER AS PROFESSOR; CHRONICLES OF THE LABORATORY 



What delight it was to work now! A string of candidates for the doc- 

 tor's degree provided one brick after another towards the completion 

 of the construction of the 'unity'. All of this called for much and pains- 

 taking analytical work; the number of fermentation balances assem- 

 bled during those years is legion. The laboratory was always open, 

 even to those who, because of their position, were not entitled to a key. 

 For there was, after all, the pathway through the door of the director's 

 home, up the stairs, and through the study. Here Kluyver would be 

 found at work, either alone or with one of his pupils. When, the work 

 done, he descended to the laboratory in order to silence his disquietude 

 about the primitive, gas-heated incubators, as he was wont to do every 

 night, he would invariably find a number of his pupils still at work, 

 distilling, analysing, hunting for fermentation products. How keenly 

 he would then catch up with the latest developments ! In the middle of 

 the night he would await, with bated breath, the results of an experi- 

 ment in that building that had already become known as the 'light 

 palace of the Nieuwelaan'. And if the results signified the happy conclu- 

 sion of a particular investigation, the session was sometimes concluded 

 with a spontaneous rendering of the national anthem. 



Although the attention was focussed largely on the biochemical ac- 

 tivities of the micro-organisms, a profound interest was nevertheless 

 maintained in morphological and developmental problems. It was 

 during this period that the yeast, Sporobolomyces, was discovered; and 

 the antics of Bacillus funicular ius, curling itself up in strands, were 

 watched with delight by the observers who, stretched out on a sofa, 

 could thus make their observations through an inverted microscope. 



This was also the period during which a great intimacy developed 

 between the professor and his closest associates. This always remained 

 controlled because of the respect that his pupils felt for him, and which 

 made it easy for them to accommodate to his courteous style. A con- 

 tributory factor to this intimacy was the close vicinity of the home; the 

 child's voice that, around 6 p.m., could be heard through the corridor, 

 summoning father to dinner; the encounters with Mrs. Kluyver who 

 so often spent the evening in the study, cleaning up, ordering, writing, 

 seeking an urgent consultation. 



And the professor also won the hearts of those pupils who did not 

 belong to this more intimate circle. How amiably he could point out a 

 mistake made by a beginner, correcting without discouraging. The 



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