ton and the Professor would scurry out to the telephone. It was sev- 

 eral years before we could convince him that he deserved to have an 

 extension telephone on his desk, which he finally did with great 

 reluctance. 



To me it seemed that Professor Abel lived in the clouds rather than 

 in this world. However, he was an extremely practical person when 

 his attention was focused on something, as can be seen from his or- 

 ganization of scientific societies, journals, his laboratories, and courses 

 for both biological chemistry and pharmacology. It was he who ad- 

 vised Mr. Passano of the Waverly Press to specialize in the publica- 

 tion of scientific periodicals, a thing which had not been done in this 

 country before and which was followed with very great success, on 

 account of which Mr. Passano has ^vritten a very fine tribute to Pro- 

 fessor Abel. But everything having to do with the laboratory, his 

 work, and science had a supernatural interest for him. When he 

 would come in to see an experiment. Professor Abel would talk in a 

 hushed voice. He would speak with the greatest reverence of scien- 

 tific publications and men, as well as their Avork. He gave to science 

 a certain halo, which at times seemed out of place in our humdrum 

 life of America but which corresponded to that aura which enveloped 

 a German professor in Europe. This was very greatly appreciated by 

 some who worked with him, and I am sure that it was entirely sincere 

 and natural to Professor Abel but not in others who attempted to copy 

 him. 



That Dr. Abel had courage is well known to anyone who had any- 

 thing to do with him. After months of work when he fully expected 

 that a final experiment would prove what he had been seeking for all 

 this time and it proved the exact opposite, he would draw himself up, 

 shake his rather frail shoulders, and say, "Oh, well, there are many 

 fish in the sea," and immediately begin on his work again. In the 

 course of his early w^ork on epinephrine an explosion occurred which 

 filled his eye with glass and must have been an extraordinarily painful 

 affair, but those who were with him at the time told of his great cour- 

 age then and during the removal of his eye under local anesthesia. 

 He almost never spoke of this in any way, but one time did tell me 

 that it was quite interesting when they cut through his optic nerve. 

 In minor matters, however, I think he more or less enjoyed having 

 something happen which made him exert himself against circum- 

 stances. He used to tell the most extraordinary story of how a nurse 

 accidentally poisoned him with atropine in the hospital. After he 

 underwent a rather serious operation at one time and, again, when he 



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