“…He selected the subject according to tendencies and predilections he observed in his disciples. (Aragão 1950, 16;my translation) Although the library's holdings underwent a "rapid and violent hypertrophy … in the most varied idioms and subjects" concurrent with Cruz' establishment as federal head of public health and the 1907 congress in Berlin, his appetite for scientific literature was nothing new (Aragão 1950, 16;my translation;Rodrigues, Marinho 2009, 528 citing Bustamante 1958. As early as 1900, Cruz was described as "always carrying a voluminous black leather briefcase full of papers and scientific journals under his arm", in pursuit of "the grandiose project he brought with him from Europe, to found, one day, in Brazil, a great school of experimental Biology and Medicine" (Aragão 1950, 5, 3, respectively;my translation).…”