BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 15 



ing wax was isolated from this bark which was also known 

 locally by its Mexican name ocotilla. 



This paper was afterwards published in the " American 

 Journal of Pharmacy " and in the American Philosophical 

 Society's " Proceedings." 



Following the meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, I went on a geological expedition in 

 September, 1884, into the coal regions for the study of plant 

 fossils. Later, on my way to the Susquehanna Valley, I was 

 taken ill with peritonitis, and not until the month of February, 

 1885, was I able to return to the laboratory. I spent the follow- 

 ing months until July in the study of the Mexican plant Yucca 

 angustifolia. A paper on the subject was read at Ann Arbor 

 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 meeting in August, 1885. It was published in the American 

 Philosophical Society's "Transactions;" also a synopsis of it 

 appeared in other journals and in the " Proceedings of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science." 



My attention had been especially directed to plant chem- 

 istry at one of the weekly meetings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences. Some one had sent from Danville in Pennsylvania, 

 specimens of what were supposed to be Daucus carota. A party 

 of children in the woods had found roots that were supposed 

 to be these, and had eaten of them with disastrous results, as 

 one death had occurred. It was probably roots of wild parsnip, 

 which greatly resembles those sent as specimens. Presumably 

 death resulted, if the children had eaten wild carrot, from 

 conium, the volatile alkaloid contained in roots belonging to 

 this botanical group. 



About that time, I was working in Dr. Leffmann's labora- 

 tory at the Polyclinic Hospital, and I made some experiments 

 on some of the roots sent to me from Danville to determine 

 the presence of this alkaloid. The species sent were not the 

 noxious wild carrot, but Mr. Thomas A. Meehan informed me 

 that it was very difficult from the roots alone to identify the 

 species, and that the only way to ascertain the fact was to plant 

 some of the roots and await the foliage. The chemical work 

 in the study of identification fascinated me, and from that time 



