Page 7 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 1

Chamber in the Government Building in Pretoria. Theiler took as many of the delegates to the Conference as he could to see his Institute and they duly signed his visitors’ book, but Onderstepoort, which had cost the then extravagant amount of £60 000 (according to economists the equivalent of R64 million in today’s terms), was never officially inaugurated.
Consolidation
With the Onderstepoort Laboratory now well established and staffed, Theiler could devote himself to his work according to a daily routine. Theiler’s office in his new laboratory is said to have been on the top floor of the two-storey building in the labora- tory on the west side from where he could survey the entire surroundings for latecoming and early departures of his staff. His routine typically consisted of a very early morning stable round to check on the experimental animals and the efficiency of the stable and yard staff. Then he left for his capacious, elegant new home, which was situated no more than 100m away from the laboratory, for breakfast. This was followed by the examination of temperature charts of the experimental animals as well as the animals themselves, perusal of the progress reports of his staff and daily correspondence, and lastly, attention to his own research work. In between came lunch and a 20 minutes’ siesta from which he was roused by the Institute’s hooter. The reading of literature was reserved for after hours before and after supper until about 11 pm.
ONDERSTEPOORT 100
Improved library facilities greatly facilitated this activity in later years. Three nights a week, however, he and his wife indulged in doing mathematics as a form of ‘relaxation’. The lands and staff quarters were visited over weekends. Animals forming part of critical experiments were also routinely inspected by storm lantern at night.
In 1909 Theiler attended the Ninth International Veteri- nary Congress in the Hague, and while in Europe he canvassed some potential staff members and checked the progress of Louis Botha’s veterinary student bursars, P.R. Viljoen (who subsequently received his degree with 1st Class Honours), Gilles van de Wall de Kock and G.F. Marais, who had been sent overseas to study. They were doing exceptionally well at the Royal Veterinary College in London. Two of the personnel problems encountered by Theiler at Onderstepoort was his disappointment with Frei and the serious dis agree- ment between him and the very competent Meyer over the nature of the pathogenesis of ECF which led to the latter’s departure for the USA in May 1910 where he later became Director of the George Williams Hooper Foundation for Medical Research of the University of California in San Francisco. Anecdotal history claims that Onderstepoort was too small for ‘two giants’.
The Union of South Africa was established on 31 May 1910 with a caretaker (not elected) Government of which Botha was the Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. It had been decided, against considerable resistance especially from Natal,
A. Theiler walking to his home from the Laboratory in the background
7
Early days (1908-1927)
1908-2008
Years