As we entered through the door, someone stated that there was a lot of organic solvents being used and to please keep the cigarettes out. Dr. Wilkins agreed, made two steps backward and kept his lighted cigarette behind his back, like a child caught smoking by his parents.
This first lab was a very large room with a working bench in the middle, each side of the bench being a working area. There were also benches on three sides of the room. The fourth side, on our left when we entered included a big fume hood and on the right was a large sink attended by a short black lady of about 50 years of age, Miss Virginia who prepared glassware. She was the first person I met in the lab; I was told that she was a wonderful lady who was most important to all the work of the lab as all the results depended on the cleanliness of the glassware. Miss Virginia was born and raised in the Johns Hopkins neighborhood. She had worked all her life at the hospital and was part of a group of African-Americans who labored in this Institution and were thoroughly dedicated.
Then Dr. Wilkins introduced me to the two technicians, Henry Schulte and Mary Ellen Crafton. (Figure 5) They said hello rather quickly as they were very busy with their work. The last person in the room was Dr. Lytt Gardner. Dr. Wilkins explained that Lytt was an Assistant Professor. He had just arrived from Boston where he had been working with Nathan Talbot, Edna Sobel, Fred Bartter, Jack Crawford and Ann Forbes. At that time, I did not know these investigators, but the fact that Dr. Gardner was coming from Harvard was impressive enough for me. After the busy and noisy laboratory, Dr. Wilkins showed me two little rooms which were located on the other side of the galleries of chemicals. In the first one we stowed my luggage. In the other small room was a huge instrument taking almost all the space, and a young tall man, Dr. John Crigler. At that point, Dr. Wilkins told me that this instrument, a flame photometer, was the last word in electrolyte measurement. This was most important in the study of electrolyte balances in the children with salt-losing adrenal hyperplasia. I was also told that John had just finished his year as Chief Resident at Harriet Lane and that now he was deeply involved in the studies of electrolyte balance. A few bottles of urine were sitting on a cart and I guessed that the other bottles near the elevator would eventually end up here.
Out of this room and at the entrance of the narrow corridor were two pieces of furniture which did not appear to belong to each other. It was explained that one was a muffle furnace which went to a very high temperature in order to activate various earths needed for column chromatography. The other was a refrigerator which belonged to Dr. Harold Harrison. On one side of this hot/cold system was the secretaries’ office; Miss Mary Bachman and Mrs. Idaline Ratcliffe were the ladies who had “worked untiringly on the preparation of the Zurich exhibit and on the manuscript” of the Wilkins book. When Miss Bachman retired, she was succeeded by Miss Eleanor Warfield, a distant cousin of Mrs. Warfield-Simpson who married The Duke of Windsor. Dr. Wilkins was very solicitous of his secretaries, often giving them a ride home. I must note that Baltimore is quite proud of its relationship with the British royalty as well as the Bonaparte family.
A door on the other side of the icebox entered into the Harrisons’ laboratory. We went in and I met Dr. Helen Harrison who was a Ph.D. doctor, working on calcium metabolism. I was told that her husband was the head of Pediatrics at Baltimore City Hospital; he was coming to the lab in the afternoon, the morning work being carried out by his wife.
Near the elevator was another large laboratory. This was the domain of Dr. Hugh Joseph who was a hematologist; he had been at Harriet Lane for many years. Dr. Joseph was a very soft-spoken and very kind gentleman. After his welcome words, we established that his wife, Dr. McCarthy, had been driving American ambulances in 1917-1918 in the northern part of the Allied front, near my hometown of Lens (Pas-de-Calais) in France. Dr. Wilkins was quite amazed; he explained that, at that time, he too was in France with the Hopkins group.
Leaving Dr. Joseph’s lab, Dr. Wilkins passed the elevator and immediately we entered another lab that belonged to Endocrinology. On the left of that room, a low table was holding an instrument: a Geiger counter. Dr. Wilkins explained that the clinic used this counter to determine the radioactive iodine, 131I, thyroid uptake of our patients, and that it was a very useful new methodology. Apparently, we shared the cost of the 131I with Dr. Sam Asper in Adult Endocrinology. The radioactive iodine was sent directly to Hopkins from the Atomic Energy Commission. At the back of the room, in front of the windows, there was a high lab bench. Half of it was covered with papers belonging to Dr. John Crigler. Dr. Wilkins suggested that I could use the other half of the bench for reading and writing. Now I had an office!
Dr. Wilkins and I left this room but went no further: this was the limit of Pediatric Endocrinology. I was told that, at the other end of this building, were the laboratories of Dr. Victor Najjar and also a routine bacteriology lab for the pediatric patients, run by Mrs. Bonny Behner.
Dr. Wilkins concluded our tour, saying that this was all of the 5th floor of Harriet Lane. This floor had been added after the first four patient floors had been constructed. He also explained that it was rather hot here because of the structure of the building. Needless to say that, in those days, there was no air-conditioning. I did not need Dr. Wilkins’ explanation for understanding that this place was the closest to hell one could ever go unless one was actually in hell itself.
Indeed, this was an absolutely miserable environment in which everybody suffered but no one appeared to complain, so it was difficult for me to even comment. However, I must confess that I suffered a great deal for 13 summers, until we moved to the new and air-conditioned Children’s Medical and Surgical Center in 1963.