2 book remains. His expertness as a draughtsman is revealed on 

 every page. No wonder that his sisters were wont to write to 

 him for "drawings," "portraits" and "caricatures." It was 

 an ability that he was to use many times in his future work. 

 When praised for it, he would smile and blush and then when 

 speaking to an intimate add: "You know I once dreamed of 

 becoming America's second Audubon." Such ambition did 

 not lie beyond his reach; but "duty" (upon which he once 

 wrote a story and an essay) always laid a prior claim upon 

 him. This was the task at hand. Thus time and circumstance 

 were to yield him but small opportunity to continue his forays 

 into the macroscopic aspects of either zoology or botany; 

 they drove him to consideration of life's microscopic forms, 

 but even here always to those aspects that were living and 

 dynamic. 



But his hunger for more "literature" also grew. In 1896 

 he begged his father to send him what he could of "the new 

 discoveries in science, especially in medicine." Never buried 

 by the chaff of officialdom the elder Wherry wrote directly to 

 the representative from the first district of Pennsylvania. 

 Addressing his old college chum, the Honorable (and General) 

 Henry H Bingham (out of Jefferson College in 1862), as 

 "Harry," he wrote: 



My son, William B Wherry, is a student at W and J College. 

 He belongs to the Junior class and seems to be following the 

 natural bent of his mind by making a specialty of natural 

 science. Some time since he expressed an anxiety to secure cer- 

 tain publications of the National Museum . . . and said he 

 thought they could be had from Government provided he 

 could get the interest of some member of Congress who would 

 aid in the matter. Naturally my mind turned to you & I ad- 

 vised his writing to you. This note is intended to introduce 

 him to you. From childhood, when he caught beetles and but- 

 terflies in the Himalaya Mountains, my son has exhibited un- 

 usual talent in the direction of natural science & comparative 

 anatomy. As a boy of twelve he would pore over Cuvier. I 

 mention this to show that his request is not based upon a mere 

 curiosity to see and to possess a rare book . . . 



