BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



even the barest essentials. By that time the work in the laboratory had 

 obviously come to a complete standstill. 



recovery; the final years 



i 945-1 956 



The liberation, dramatically ushered in by the famed allied food 

 droppings, brought a welcome relaxation. With joy and gratitude 

 Kluyver realized that his family and laboratory had come through the 

 struggles unharmed. But he could not be blind to the total collapse of 

 the fatherland, and to the immense problems that cried out for a solu- 

 tion. More particularly, he realized that a vast deficit had developed 

 in Europe in the field of scientific endeavour. 'Beijerinck has made 

 Dutch microbiology great ; but now we have been left utterly behind' ; 

 this is how he sized up the situation. And this view was strengthened 

 when he could gradually acquaint himself in some detail with what 

 had been accomplished outside the occupied territory. 



One of the first contacts he established with the outside world was 

 with Sir Jack Drummond, who had arrived in the Netherlands with 

 a food team. Soon afterwards news began to flow in from America, 

 largely in the form of reprints collected for him by his friends during 

 the war years. He was deeply moved by the fact that in the U.S.A. a 

 'Delft Library Fund' had been created through which the laboratory 

 could acquire numerous books and journals. Perhaps the most striking 

 token of sympathy came from Mr. Ben May, in Alabama, who pro- 

 vided funds for the purchase of a Beckman spectrophotometer. In his 

 own way, Kluyver honoured the donor by attaching a sign with the 

 inscription 'Ben May Institute' to the door of the little room where 

 the instrument was installed. 



With the aid of his coworkers, enormous quantities of reprints were 

 sorted in the large class room. This operation progressed slowly, for 

 Kluyver could not resist the temptation to browse around in, and 

 comment on, this literature, and it was a valuable experience for his 

 pupils. Avidly and admiringly Kluyver let the new knowledge sink 

 in; the lectures were immediately brought up to date; and students 

 and assistants were put to work, repeating various experiments in 

 order to familiarize themselves with the newly developed techniques. 



Kluyver reacted to this sudden gush of new information in a man- 



38 



