passed between the two until a request three pages long at [^0 

 Christmas asked Wherry to join the leprosy staff in Honolulu 

 at three thousand. "I don't want assistants but men capable 

 of working on their own," Brinckerhoff wrote. The tropics, 

 leprosy, the serum investigation of disease, were items very 

 close to Wherry's heart. But he was already under army 

 rule, had been before, and was gun-shy. Brinckerhoff wrote, 

 "If at any time you change your mind, let me know." 



Mother in India kept Wherry informed of their daily life: 

 "A young Hindu has just come to call your father to a tem- 

 perance meeting ..." Father had forgotten the appoint- 

 ment. Mother explained: "Old age, you see!" Whereafter 

 she wished statistics on the California plague situation, adding 

 her own on the situation in India. Then this more distinctly 

 family inquiry: "Have you still with you the woman who 

 can cook curry and pilau for you?" It referred to "Auntie" 

 Boyle, English born, India raised, now resident of California 

 and the nurse to Marie and her baby. The father harbingered: 

 "We have good news from Aunt Sarah, who is busy in the 

 villages telling the women of Jesus and His love." 



Wherry's studies brought him much praise. Ward sent 

 eulogy every week. "I have read three times about the rat's 

 liver and its nodules," he said. McEachran told him of his 

 "admirable reports" on the squirrels and the leprosy in rats, 

 adding that Dr Montezambert (chief health officer for 

 Canada) had "appreciated them very much." Wherry's 

 admired fighter of Bombay, W B Bannerman (chief of the 

 Indian plague commission) , home on furlough wrote from 

 Edinburgh: "I wonder if the rat leprosy has any relation to 

 the human kind; such a thought suggests ideas!" Smith sent 

 word: "The relation of plague to the native rodents appears 

 to be a formidable one. I am hoping that in passing thro' and 

 adapting themselves to these rodents they will equally lose 

 their virulence for man. Let us hope so for our country's 

 sake." Howard T Ricketts, fresh from his victories on Rocky 

 Mountain spotted fever, said: "Splendid, your work on plague; 

 wish I could have had a share in it." 



Wherry stood in need of cheer from such finite sources. His 

 own school, those in San Francisco, and business scarcely knew 



