CHAPTER XIX 



THE BIRTH OF THE MICROBIOLOGIST 



In the beginning of the year 1884 Beijerinck was an ambitious 

 young botanist who had already attracted world-wide attention by 

 his fundamental contributions to cecidology. Moreover his position as 

 a professor at the Agricuhural College of Wageningen seemed to 

 offer many prospects for a harmonious development of his botanical 

 career. In previous years he had devoted himself chiefly to hybridisa- 

 tion experiments on cereals, and there were signs of a growing realiza- 

 tion by the educational authorities of the importance of such in- 

 vestigations. 



Nothing then seemed to foreshadow any change in the direction of 

 Beijerinck's scientific aspirations. Yet an outside agency was to lead 

 to something which at least at first sight seemed nothing short of a 

 revolution. 



At that time in Delft an enterprising industrial concern for the 

 production of yeast and alcohol was developing steadily and quickly. 

 The farsighted managing director of this concern, the "Nederlandsche 

 Gist- en Spiritusfabriek", Mr. J. C. van Marken, realized that fur- 

 ther progress of his enterprise might well depend on a more thorough 

 understanding of the properties of the yeast and of the many mi- 

 croscopic enemies which of ten interfere in its production on a technical 

 scale. For this reason he was anxious to engage on his staff a young 

 biologist with broad scientific qualifications. One need not be surpri- 

 sed that his attention should have been drawn to Beijerinck, who, 

 in the autumn of 1884, was offered a position, which not only was 

 very tempting as far as the financial conditions were concerned, but 

 also included the offer of the erection of a new well-equipped labora- 

 tory. Beijerinck hesitated a long time, but two circumstances made 

 him decide to accept the post. In the first place, the government sho- 

 wed no willingness to meet his wishes as to the building of a new la- 

 boratory in Wageningen. Secondly the personality of van Marken 

 seemed to assure that the new post would offer a large measure of 

 personal liberty, especially as to the kind of work to be undertaken. 

 We shall see that Beijerinck's faith in this direction was not 

 betrayed. 



Thus it was decided that Beijerinck should become a microbiolo- 

 gist. Nevertheless this did not mean that he already was one! There 

 are only slight indications that he had already given any attention 



