BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



particular attention; these led Kluyver to remark that the rumen of 

 herbivores should be considered as a large fermentation vat. 



As formerly, pupils came from Leiden and Utrecht, as well as from 

 abroad. Fahraeus, Nickerson, De Ley, Erkema, Cantino, Van der Walt, 

 Kistner, Pontieri, and Battley conducted experiments, each on a diffe- 

 rent subject. Besides, a change in the curriculum of the Technological 

 University now required students who wished to specialize in a biological 

 area to spend an additional six weeks in Kluyver's laboratory, during 

 which they were to undertake a study of a special problem. Frequently 

 the associate had to marshall all his resourcefulness in order to provide 

 adequate space for the many applicants. A further handicap was the 

 fact that in the post-war years it was extremely difficult to obtain 

 various laboratory utensils. About 1950 Kluyver decided to have his 

 staff - now increased by the addition of an assistant-in-chief, whose 

 title was later changed to that of scientific officer - conduct the labor- 

 atory courses. Furthermore, after the war a full-time assistant was 

 appointed to take charge of the culture collection. Kluyver continued 

 to pay close attention to the maintenance of an adequate instru- 

 mentarium; and the laboratory acquired, for example, the equipment 

 needed for tracer studies. But soon there was not enough space left to 

 install additional apparatus. 



On January 18, 1947, Kluyver had occupied the chair for micro- 

 biology for a period of 25 years. The 'Netherlands' Society for Micro- 

 biology' issued on that occasion a special Jubilee Volume (Antonie 

 van Leeuwenhoek, Vol. 12) with numerous contributions by friends 

 and admirers from all over the world. It took much gentle persuasion 

 before Kluyver finally agreed to a small celebration in commemoration 

 of the event; but the Saturday evening on which this took place was 

 for him a truly happy occasion. Nearly all his collaborators of the past 

 25 years were present. The high light was indubitably the speech 

 which the celebrant himself delivered. It took nearly two hours; he 

 left out nothing and nobody, and recalled numerous details which 

 clearly revealed that the element of personal interest generally domin- 

 ated the contacts he maintained with his former pupils. 



Since the pre-war years Kluyver had undeniably changed. The 

 'eager young tiger' had gradually developed into one of the 'grey 

 eminences' of science, upon whom many honours were bestowed, and 

 who was more than ever called upon to deliver public addresses and 



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