Science: Dickey's Dudes

Dr. Herbert Spencer Dickey was back in Manhattan last week from his discovery of the Orinoco's headwaters (TIME, Sept. 28 et ante). Each day he went to his office in the Explorers Club to work on a tart book for which fellow explorers, lounging in the club's red chairs, may denounce him. To be published this winter, the book is a denunciation of expeditions, particularly those to South America. Dr. Dickey considers the aims of most expeditions falsely pretentious, insincere. Men go on most of them really for sport, not for science. Their scientific results are in few cases worth the money spent. Dr. Dickey, certain of his own scientific security, decided last week to make his next expedition primarily and frankly a sporting matter. There are de luxe steamship cruises, "dude" ranches. His next trip will be a "dude" expedition. Twelve men will go with him from Ecuador across the Andes and down the Amazon to the Atlantic this winter. Each man will pay $5,000. That will cover all his expenses and equipment except clothing, cigarets and liquor. He will have a personal Indian valet; will get travel. Inca exploration, fishing, hunting, mountain-climbing, a four-month vacation. No women, not even Mrs. Dickey will go along. On the last Orinoco trip Dr. Dickey, 25 years a physician in the tropics, told her not to eat native raw vegetables unless she first washed them with permanganate of potash. She disobeyed, caught amebic dysentery.

Strict stipulation for membership in the "dude" expedition: "Guests must be healthy and they must be men of breeding and education. This will make them congenial. Men of culture are the easiest to get along with in wild country."