I had been told that it would be a waste of time to go to Baltimore 

 to work with Abel, because he was always too busy with his own work 

 and I would see nothing of him. When I arrived, he had just been 

 asked to write the first Mellon lecture (2) and devoted the better part 

 of a year to the preparation of this. Anyone wishing to get an idea 

 of the thoroughness with which he did things, and of the breadth of 

 view which he had, would do well to read this as well as his other ad- 

 dresses. This would also give one an idea of Dr. Abel's feeling that 

 one should give all that one had to whatever was being done. Dur- 

 ing the first year that I was in his laboratory he carried out almost no 

 experimental work and would drop in to talk for hours at a time. 

 We would often leave the laboratory early and drive about the coun- 

 try, ending up at his house for tea or supper; but after this first year 

 things were very different, and except when he came out of the se- 

 clusion of his corner laboratory for lunch or to carry out an animal 

 experiment in the large laboratory, one saw very little of him. 



I shall never forget the day Dr. Abel decided he should move. 

 A real estate company made plans to develop what is now Guilford. 

 This involved the house and land where Dr. Abel lived. They tried 

 to induce him to build another house, but he was afraid of 'being 

 crowded', as he put it, and decided to go else^vhere. I had an old 

 car at that time and spent many afternoons driving Dr. and Mrs. 

 Abel all over the country looking for another house. One afternoon 

 as the day was getting on and with a violent thunderstorm coming 

 up, we drove out some ten miles from the middle of the city and up 

 a hill where there was an enormous unoccupied house very similar 

 to the one in which he used to live on Charles Street. This was off 

 the Windsor Mill Road and had fine groimds with wonderful, great 

 trees, a driveway lined with hemlocks, the same type of cupola on 

 the house, and goodness knows how many rooms. The house was 

 by no means in the best state of repair, and neither were the grounds. 

 The Professor jumped out of the car and rushed into the house, leav- 

 ing Mrs. Abel and me behind in the rain. Mrs. Abel got slowly out 

 of the car, stood looking at the house in a horrified manner, and, 

 turning to me, said in her quiet way, "My goodness. Dr. Lamson, 

 did you ever see anything so awful?" A few minutes later Dr. Abel 

 came dashing out of the door shouting, "Mary, this is just exactly 

 what we want." Mrs. Abel then went in, looked the house over, and 

 said, "Yes, I think this will do very well indeed." This was typical 

 of Mrs. Abel. I have never seen such devotion in anyone as she had 

 for the Professor. It made no difference what his plans might be, 



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