34 



their final degree. It was not until June 21st that he and his sisters 

 left Delft for his summer residence at Gorssel. The hour of departure 

 was undoubtedly one of the saddest in Beijerinck's hfe. In the 

 quarter of a century which he spent at the laboratory in the Nieuwe 

 Laan he had become so enmeshed in his surroundings that he came 

 to look upon them as his private property. The necessity of departure 

 he feit as an act of injustice. This feeling may have contributed to 

 Beijerinck's never returning in Delft. 



