The Atlantic Seaboard


  in Switzerland, Smith and his son drank beer. The father became ill,
  attributed his illness to the beer and thereafter abstained entirely from
  alcoholic beverages. Almost every evening, after playing the piano until
  8 o'clock when the young Philip went to bed, he worked later into the
  night. He especially enjoyed his summers in the family cottage on a
  point of land which they bought on Silver Lake near Chocorua, N. H.
  His life there included botanizing, wood-chopping, some rowing, no
  swimming, and reading and writing. He always had a microscope and
  slides along for further study.
    He had few intimates; the one man with whom Smith did unbend was
  his old professor and chief at Cornell, Simon Henry Gage. Great prepa-
  rations were always made in the home when Gage was about to pay a
  visit. Much backslapping and free and easy conversation prevailed."8
    One of his close associates states:
 He was a very gentle, courteous, and considerate person in his home, and
was really a
 wonderful host. However, he wanted the party to break up by not later than
0 o:"oo P.m.
 Dr. Smith was careful of everything to a degree which is almost inconceivable
to the
 average person. It permeated his entire life, both in his home and in his
laboratory. He
 would not tolerate any waste of time or material. One example: he had four
jacks for
 his automobile-small lever type-and would jack his car up every night to
take the
 weight off the tires. He never used antifreeze in his radiator, but drained
the water
 every evening and filled the radiator in the morning with heated water in
order that the
 engine would warm up more gradually before starting. These tales are typical
of the
 many true stories about Smith's foibles, stories that show his impatience
with any
 form of waste, a thrift that was at times extreme.
   Is it not strange that, even now, twenty-three years after his death
 we have no definitive biography of our most noteworthy microbiolo-
 gist?19 The sketch by the French parasitologist, F. Mesnil (1935), is
 important, especially since it came from another land. He cites many
 of Smith's contributions and stresses his foreign honors; he is both criti-
 cal and laudatory. He summarizes the Texas Fever work.
   "It is the first time that the physiologic cycle of a protozoan pathogen
has been traced. It belongs in the history of our knowledge beside the
work of Patrick Manson who discovered ten years earlier the develop-
ment of the blood filaria in the mosquitoes."
   Of the many sketches published after Smith's death (1934), the
memoir written by Hans Zinsser for the National Academy of Sciences
is by far the best, being both critical and appreciative. I shall quote his
farewell paragraphs.


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