12 



boiled dead moles with caustic soda, freed the skeletons, and then 

 treated them with hydrochloric acid with the aim of preparing glue 

 from the bones. This resulted in the landlady giving them notice to 

 quit. 



It has to be admitted that a good deal could be learned from the 

 theoretical teaching at the Polytechnical School, and Beijerinck did 

 work hard at this part of his studies. Sundays being devoid of lectures 

 were very lonely days for him. It was only occasionally that he could 

 afford to go and see his people at den Briel, sometimes together with 

 VAN 't Hoff, who generally spent his Sundays at Rotterdam. Beije- 

 rinck was a melancholy lad in those years, and when the final exa- 

 mination approached he became even more depressed than usual. 



However, on July 5th, 1872 he passed brilliantly, but started wor- 

 rying at once how to obtain a post. For this purpose he answered an 

 advertisement of the Minister of the Colonies who was appointing 

 three young men with the secondary school certificate to study in 

 Prussia at the expense of the State for the Forest Service in the Nether- 

 lands East Indies. Beijerinck had an interview with Minister 

 Fransen van de Putte, and obtained his promise of the vacant post, 

 provided he satisfied the medical examiners. To his great distress, 

 however, he was not accepted because of an assumed heart weakness. 

 "He might stay alive here, but in the Indies he would develop heart 

 trouble within two years", was the opinion of the medical authorities. 



We do not know which were the circumstances that enabled 

 Beijerinck at last — af ter losing three years, as he expressed himself 

 later — to follow his inclination, and to start the study of biology at 

 the University of Leiden. On October 23rd, 1872, he placed his name 

 on the books of the University and set to work with great diligence. 

 Being already well trained theoretically, he was able to pass the can- 

 didate examination after eight months. Minister Thorbecke had given 

 him, as well as van 't Hoef and Hubrecht i), special exemption from 

 matriculation, so that he could study at Leiden without having the 

 classical education that was then requisite. The certificate of this dis- 

 pensation got lost on the day before the examination, and in despair 

 Beijerinck went to the Minister of Home Affairs, de Geer, who 

 sent him another copy that same night. Afterwards one of his friends 

 helped him to look for it, and found the original document behind the 

 mirror of a dressing-case. On the day of the examination, therefore, he 

 possessedtwocopies. On June 7th, 1873 he passed the candidate exa- 

 mination magna cum laude. He immediately applied for the post of 

 teacher at the secondary school in Wageningen, unsuccessfuUy how- 

 ever. 



1) The later well-known professor of embryology at the University of Utrecht. 



