Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-08-02
ART SERVES SCIENCE
BY Frederic J. Hsskin

ton and wool are breathed IN by work
ers In mills.
lie alec made picture Of Hour
duet which blows about IN the air of
n -four mill. Hls picture showed thar
this flour dust which falls on the floor
and then blows up into the dry air IL
largely impregnsted with organic mat
ter The sa mpie pictures Of dust we're
all sent to rio 70 show the people that
such industries may be dangerous un-
losa workers are cleanly.
Artists Varied career.
Mr.. Wilder's work takes IN every
phase Of art training. and he says that
| n he had not had o varied career he
would not be able TO paint all Of the
| pictures that Government invevatigaf-
ora casually request Before doing
government work, ne had a long career
as a landscape artist, portrait painter,
and teacher Of art lie studied en-
| craving and etching and was regard
ed al an expert etcher. Then scien-
lists persuaded him that science need
cd artlsts with q pa ssion fos truth
and eKactness. lie gave up prOduc-
| ing beauty and began to make his art
serve science, frst ~ the University
Of Chicago and now for 10 years az
the Public Health Service Laboratory.
His scientific art attracted attention
In England and he was msde Fellow
Of the Royal Art Society
He chose an extremely difficult field
In drawing a nv, magnifed 80 that i
/ Is as large as hand. the artist must
the leg Of the insect. The delicate
colors Of the wings. the marking and
the modelling must be perfectly copied
and the drawing must be enlarged ao-
curately to scale.
Much harder, however. is the tack
OF painting from memory. often A
Laboratory expert sends for Mr. WI
der to come and sketch A rat o-
guinea pig that has been inocuiated
with some disease. The picture f. gen
orally wanted 70 accompany a report
on the experimental work. and x NAV
he necessary to sketch the animal AZ
| once because It's condition viii change
The artiet selves pad and pencil and
hurrles to the laboratory Ten min j.
utes quick work IN the laboratory and
I
the points that are peculiar to that
particular animal He notes unus,iai
, or unnatural color, ewelling. and tbe
disease symptoms. Then he spend.
several dsys making an elaborate oH
: painting.
Once he skatchef 2 rat thet had
!. | bubonic plague There was no way NJ
5 getting close 70 the animal w'fthou'
n exposure TO the disee se The artis
{ had 70 observe it through the gIsss M
r top of a tank
6 Two things have Impressed tn.
Q Government s,fist about scientific art
v One 10 thst the order Of the univsrs,
J, extends TO the most minute organisms
{. The parasite such az q mite or loue,
Q has tens Of thousands Of para sites. per
. fectiy formed. preying on t. Thss
q organisms in the tissue~ and blood q
n a parasitic have "a much space 81
which to move about az wa have fr.
:. room
# The other fact which seems 20 ~
Q artist a. OF paramount importance. (
: the war which disesee germs srs con
p stantIy waginR against humanity
\ Most Of them ara dangerous. ssppin
u the vitality Of human beings whe-
! they do not rapidly destroy tissues an
IS cause disease
"a In his pictures Mr. Wilder show
: other people as vividly "a he can. ho-
!" germs do their deadly work Throug
his art he breaches silently a power
full creed OF cleanliness and prevent!o
~ of disease.