KLUYVER S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY 



published a special issue containing various contributions in which 

 Kluyver's numerous accomplishments were reviewed. The paper deal- 

 ing with his eminence as a microbiologist and biochemist ends with 

 the following passage: 



'The law will permit him to continue his activities as Professor at the 

 Technological University for nineteen more years. It is to be hoped 

 that he may have the opportunity to devote himself during this time 

 span without interruption to investigations in the area he has chosen 

 as his special field of endeavour, and in which his achievements have 

 already been so numerous. In that event it may assuredly be expected 

 that many more significant contributions from his laboratory will en- 

 rich our knowledge, and that many students as well as established in- 

 vestigators will experience the beneficent influence of his personality 

 and institute.' (p. 319). 



Unfortunately, this wish has not been fulfilled. There have been 

 long and painful interruptions, and his death, two years before the 

 scheduled date of his retirement, has shortened the expected duration 

 of his association with the famed microbiological institute in Delft 

 still more. In the end it turned out that less than half of the remaining 

 nineteen years were actually available for his scientific pursuits. 



Exactly a year after the above-mentioned celebration, Holland was 

 invaded, and for many years suffered under the German occupation. 

 During this period the work in the microbiological laboratory came 

 to a virtual standstill. This explains, for example, why the studies on 

 the methane fermentation, in part already performed prior to the 1939 

 Helsinki lecture in which Kluyver had mentioned some of the early 

 results, were not completed and published until 1947. And when the 

 war was ended, conditions for the resumption of scientific activities 

 were anything but favourable. Apart from the lack of necessary equip- 

 ment there were other causes that hampered the development of his 

 programme. In other countries, especially in the U.S.A., scientific in- 

 vestigations had been continued, albeit at a reduced rate and with a 

 pronounced emphasis on application to the war effort. The vast 

 quantity of papers published during this period was not accessible to 

 Kluyver until after the liberation, and when he realized how much 

 had been accomplished, he despaired of ever being able to catch up 

 with the advances made in the interim during which he had been 

 entirely shut off from contacts with science and scientists. 



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