woman. Mrs. Thomas was getting on in years, was very fat and very 

 polite, and also a devout Catholic. She would sit on a stool at the dog's 

 head and pump away on a pair of hand bello^vs, but she had a habit of 

 dozing oft very frequently and had to be ^vaked up, usually by Charlie 

 Drain, Avith a polite nudge and the remark, "A little more air, Mrs. 

 Thomas, please." At one time Mrs. Thomas' husband had to be dug 

 up and moved, and for years after this during lulls in an experiment 

 she would describe in great detail just how he looked and the various 

 colors of his face. This always ended in tears, and w'e had to distract 

 her with a call for more air. After all was well under way, and while 

 the chemists were giving general directions, entirely unheeded by the 

 operating staff, Professor Abel would be ceremoniously called by 

 Charlie Kamphaus, and he would appear with his little glass evaporat- 

 ing dish, his capillary pipette, and his notebook. A hush would come 

 over this scene of blood, red ink, and artificial respiration, and the 

 Professor, entirely oblivious of everything, would fill a syringe, and 

 someone ^\•ould make the injection for him. 



In the early days when I first went there, Professor Abel wore a 

 white laboratory coat. Later, he added to this a white apron which 

 he had become interested in, because Dr. Binger wore these. As time 

 went on and as the laboratory was none too well heated, Professor 

 Abel added an ordinary sack coat over the apron, and some years 

 later discovered a very long, heavy, red rubber apron, 'which he then 

 wore underneath the white one. At about this time Dr. Abel had his 

 portrait painted in a gown with which there was a black velvet hat 

 ^vhich pleased him a great deal. He often spoke to me about what a 

 nice thing this hat was and how he thought it a splendid custom to 

 wear such a hat. One day a member of the surgical staff came into 

 the laboratory for luncheon wearing a Avhite operating cap, and I 

 noticed that Dr. Abel was particularly abstracted that day and kept 

 looking at our visitor ^^'ith an interest all out of proportion to what the 

 surgeon's conversation seemed to merit. After lunch the Professor 

 took me aside and asked if I could manage to get him one of those 

 little white hats. I did, and he ^vore it to the end of his days. 



On the street and around his house Professor Abel was always very 

 spry and walked with great alertness and rapidity, but for several 

 years I had been semiconscious of the fact that he went about the 

 laboratory in a decrepit manner. He would come out of his room and 

 shuffle across the laboratory with very short steps, almost on his toes, 

 and ahvays holding his evaporating dish in one hand and his pipette 

 or his notebook in the other. One day I happened to notice that he 



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