BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



to prepare a doctor's thesis on a biological subject under the guidance 

 of Van Iterson. Following his appointment to the chair of microbiol- 

 ogy, he had been compelled to master this field by himself, and this, 

 too, must have tended to a certain feeling of kinship with his students. 

 During his student days in Delft he had maintained a close contact 

 with friends at the University of Leiden, which had stimulated his in- 

 terest in biology and widened the scope of his knowledge. Nevertheless, 

 he was proud to be an alumnus of Delft, and thus eminently suited to 

 initiate his students in a field for which their previous training had 

 hardly prepared them. 



Thus the microbiology novice was at once received into a congenial 

 atmosphere that had been created by the Director and pervaded the 

 entire laboratory. Its most striking feature was the spirit of complete 

 freedom ; there were no rules and regulations ; it was taken for granted 

 that everybody was enthusiastic, did his best, and behaved as a mature 

 individual, showing responsibility towards the books, the stores, the 

 equipment, and other workers. There were no formal restrictions; in 

 principle everything was and should be possible ; if there were obsta- 

 cles, every effort was made to remove them. The only limiting factors 

 that were recognized were the laws of nature, illness being grudgingly 

 included among the latter. The lab was never really closed. The work 

 was carried out in a true holiday spirit, and the Director's response 

 to a question about vacations, put by a visiting scientist, was as simple 

 and natural as it was exact: 'My dear Sir, here every day is a holiday'. 



The building itself, once described by a visiting journalist as a 

 cross between a hunting lodge and a sanatorium, was designed 

 throughout on functional principles to the point of barrenness ; every 

 nook and cranny was exploited and adapted to some special use ; and 

 the frequent changes, dictated by the needs of the moment, endowed 

 it with a spirit of intensive and efficient internal life. This, together 

 with the odd architecture, managed to create a romantic impression 

 which was further enhanced by the appearance of the eminently prac- 

 tical library rooms, and which reached its climax in the study of the 

 professor, the 'Olympos', the centre of all things around which the 

 laboratory and the house had been built. 



That large room had three windows, all facing south with a fine 

 view of the canal. The remaining wall space had been used for the 

 storage of books, reprints, and all kinds of documents. There were also 



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