31 



and uplifted left forefinger, he would explain the significance of his 

 discoveries to his disciples. In doing so he often railed at the many 

 mistakes made by his predecessors in studying the subject in ques- 

 tion i). 



It should not be concluded from this that Beijerinxk never showed 

 any respect for the work of other investigators. As a matter of fact 

 he had a profound admiration for the great founders of science, es- 

 pecially for the biologists, such as van Leeuwenhoek, Pasteur, and 

 Darwin. But he also worshipped physicists hke Newton and Fara- 

 DAY, the first of whom he, however, could not forgive for ha ving spent 

 so much time on the exegesis of the Apocalypse. 



Beijerinck's activities as a professor were marked also by a long- 

 sustained interest in general botany. Not seldom he passed a con- 

 siderable time in his garden, in which many rare species were as- 

 sembled, and in which Beijerinck often made remarkable experi- 

 ments. Sometimes his enthusiasm for the results obtained was so great 

 that he commanded his students to join him in the inspection. 



It is noteworthy that Beijerinck became deeply interested in 

 problems connected with the squaring of the circle, trying to relate 

 these with phyllotaxis. The latter phenomenon occupied him till the 

 last days of his life, but he never came to a conclusive treatment. 



Apart from his purely scientific work, Beijerinck gave attention 

 to problems in the field of applied science. 



For instance he acted, as an adviser to the flax industry, for which 

 his laboratory studies on the retting of flax had pre-eminently quali- 

 fied him. Moreover, he was adviser to the "Nederlandsche Heide- 

 Maatschappij" 2), a member of the Board of the State Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations, and of the State Committee for the Purifica- 

 tion of Sewage ; an adviser of the State Institute for Fishery Research, 

 and during the war he was a member of the State Committee for 

 Public Welfare and Defence. 



It is not surprising that Beijerinck's many-sided activities brought 

 him several marks of respect and recognition. The government 

 acknowledged his merits by making him as early as 1 903 a Knight of 

 the Order of the Nederlandsche Leeuw, and at his resignation in 1 92 1 , 

 a Commander of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. 



That the great significance of his scientific work was already early 

 recognized by his fellow-countrymen appears from the fact that in 

 1898 he was offered a professorship in botany at the University of 

 Leiden, in succession to his former teacher. Professor Suringar. 

 Beijerinck, however, declined this invitation. 



The distinction which Beijerinck valued most was the award, by 

 the Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam in 1 905, of the Leeu- 



1) A favourite expression in this connection was: "een echte vieze knoeier" (a real 

 dirty bungler). 



ï) "Netherlands Society for Heath Reclamation". 



