BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



more advanced group was frequently astonished by the clarity of a 

 verdict that could lay bare the fundamentals of a problem in a terse 

 formulation. Striking, too, was his modesty. When he proclaimed: 

 'The previous century - the century of Lavoisier - was the century of 

 oxygen; this is the century of hydrogen', it was not said in self-aggran- 

 dizement, but out of respect for the work of scientists such as Warburg 

 and Wieland. During a discussion with Sohngen about the merits of 

 Beijerinck and Winogradsky, Kluyver once remarked: 'It is such a 

 pity that only our small group of microbiologists can understand what 

 great scientists they were; what do others really know about them?' 

 Indubitably something of the realization that the founders of micro- 

 biology did not always get their due can be gleaned from one of Kluy- 

 ver's last publications: 'The Microbe's Contribution to Biology', writ- 

 ten in collaboration with Van Niel. 



The opportunity openly to attest to his admiration for these founders 

 was always welcomed by Kluyver. Already during the first year of his 

 professorship he was in a position to sketch Pasteur's merits in a 

 public address, on the occasion of the commemoration of the cente- 

 nary of Pasteur's birthday. There we find the trenchant statement 

 that shows how profoundly Kluyver recognized the connexion be- 

 tween the minutest details and a general concept: 'If nowadays bacte- 

 riologists all over the world depend on the seemingly so flimsy cotton 

 plugs ; if, in their laboratories we can observe the intermittant glow of 

 the inoculating needles; must we not then conclude that these attest 

 to an expression of faith in the fundamental investigations of Pasteur?' 



The significance of Beijerinck's work was the subject of a lecture 

 delivered by Kluyver on June 14, 1927, the day on which, fifty years 

 earlier, Beijerinck had received the degree of Doctor of Science at 

 Leiden University. On this occasion, too, a bronze plaque bearing the 

 effigy of its first director was unveiled in the Laboratory for Micro- 

 biology. Afterwards Kluyver travelled with a deputation to Gorssel to 

 congratulate Beijerinck personally. 



In the place where the plaque was installed had formerly hung a 

 'No Smoking' sign; this now disappeared. Respect for the 'great pre- 

 decessor' had caused Kluyver to retain it for more than five years in 

 its original position. But it had been hard on Kluyver, who was an 

 inveterate smoker. And whatever support the professor might count on 

 from his associates, here they completely failed him. A prohibition 



