tumors, showing that these pigments did not contain iron in significant amounts. 

 In Berne he formed a hfe long friendship with Cushny, who at that time was work- 

 ing in the laboratory of the Physiologist Kronecker. 



After this year with v. Nencki, it was Abel's intention to return home where he 

 expected "to carry on medical practice and to do some research work, if possible, 

 in internal medicine in connection with one of our American medical schools." 

 This decision was partly due to the advice given in a letter by H. C. Wood, who, 

 though recognizing Abel's "extraordinary training," told him he must first be 

 known in America as a lecturer and independent investigator in order to have a 

 chance to get a professorship of from $1,500 to $3,000 a year. However, the 

 outlook for a clinical career would be more "promising." Having used up all his 

 funds Abel decided reluctantly to enter clinical work. Then in the late summer 

 while still in Berne, Abel received a cable from Vaughan which was the turning 

 point in his life. On Schmiedeberg's recommendation Vaughan offered him the 

 Chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the University of Michigan, with 

 the understanding that he was to establish a modern department of pharmacology; 

 materia medica and therapeutics being retained in name only. Here was the 

 chance Abel had looked for to enter a career in experimental research and with v. 

 Nencki's advice he accepted the offer to return to his Alma Mater. But before 

 returning home he induced Vaughan to let him have a last fling at biochemical 

 research with the able biochemist Drechsel in Ludwig's laboratory. Drechsel 

 at that time was doing important work on the chemistry of proteins and on pro- 

 tein metabolism. Drechsel and Abel thus began a joint research on the occurrence 

 of carbamic acid in alkaline horse urine. This association led to a close friendship 

 which lasted until Drechsel's death in 1897. 



On his homeward journey Abel stopped at Berlin to obtain first-hand informa- 

 tion on Koch's tuberculin treatment, which had attracted international attention. 

 This was the subject of his first lecture at Michigan in January, 1891. In a 

 letter to C. W. Edmunds he writes: "Here at Ann Arbor I was given the oppor- 

 tunity of starting the first professorship of pharmacology in the United States, 

 whose holder should devote himself entirely to giving students the best possible 

 instruction by means of lectures, demonstrations and quizzes, in the manner in 

 which my European teachers (Schmiedeberg and Boehm) had long carried on 

 their work. All my energy that was not given to this kind of instruction to 

 students was devoted to research work and to arousing the enthusiasm of others 

 for it. . . . There was no laboratory of any kind at my disposal. There was not a 

 scrap of apparatus, not even a test tube, a flask or a beaker." But soon he had 

 organized his small laboratory and with a senior student, Muirhead, he imme- 

 diately gave demonstrations on animals and carried out a research on the occur- 

 rence of carbamic acid in human and dog urine following the administration of 

 large amounts of lime water. . . . 



While Abel was active in Michigan the Johns Hopkins University under Presi- 

 dent Oilman began the organization of its medical school. Welch, Osier, Halsted, 

 and Kelly had already been appointed, and equally outstanding men were needed 

 to fill the chairs of the preclinical subjects. In January of 1893 Abel received a 

 letter from Osier inquiring whether he would be a candidate for the chair of 

 Pharmacology. Ele replied that he was strongly attracted by the prospective 

 intellectual contacts with Osier, Martin, Welch and Remsen. His main concern, 



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