John Jacob Abel: A Portrait 



PAUL D. LAMSON, M.D. 



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N 1913 I was working at the University of London, the sole occu- 

 pant of a new chemical laboratory attached to the Department of 

 Pharmacology. I was swishing salt solution from one end of a dog's 

 gut to the other, whistling to myself, and dancing a bit to keep warm, 

 when I chanced to turn around and saw in the doorway with Professor 

 Cushny a rather tall, thin man dressed in a morning coat, top hat, 

 and spats, with an umbrella in one hand, a wire cage with two enor- 

 mous toads in the other, and wearing on his face a composite expres- 

 sion of interest, surprise, and amusement which I shall never forget. 

 It was in this way that I first met Dr. Abel, who was looking for 

 someone who would deposit his precious Bujo agua in the Zoological 

 Gardens until he demonstrated them at the International Physio- 

 logical Congress which was to be held that year in London. 



Several biographical sketches of Dr. Abel have already been written 

 (1), the most complete of which is that by Dr. Carl Voegtlin, who 

 has given us an exceptionally well-chosen outline of Abel's life beside 

 an expert analysis of his work. Dr. Abel's personal correspondence 

 from the time of his marriage was carefully saved by Mrs. Abel and 

 is now in the hands of competent custodians, and it is expected that 

 these letters from scientific men of all types in all parts of the world, 

 covering a period from approximately 1885 to the time of his death 

 in 1938, will be analyzed and published eventually in some form as 

 an historical document, which should be of great value as giving us a 

 picture not only of this truly great man but of the times in which he 

 lived as well. 



Although short. Dr. Voegtlin's biography is so complete that when 

 I was asked to write this note for the Bulletin, I felt that there was 

 nothing which I could add except my own impressions of Dr. Abel 

 as I saw him during the years 1914 to 1925. One should realize, how- 

 ever, that this was a very brief period in Abel's long life, that he 

 was almost sixty when I first went to his laboratory, and that this was 

 at a time when he had completed his active years of teaching and 



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