i8 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



for use at some special time or season, and frequently these 

 would be the text on which we discoursed, ranging from these 

 to wider and more spontaneous themes. Wilhelm von Hum- 

 boldt furnished many passages which were stimulating and 

 enjoyable. George Sand was another of our favorite writers, 

 and "Indiana," which, so beautifully portrays human devo- 

 tion, we found well worth reading more than once. 



Dr. Brinton used to say that writers from whom he could 

 derive no thought leading to the higher life were valueless to 

 him. Balzac contained no message for him. 



The autobiography ends abruptly, and requires a little sup- 

 plementary filling in. 



In 1883-84, Miss Abbott acted as assistant in the chemical 

 laboratory of the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and published her 

 first scientific paper under the title, "Some Observations on 

 the Nutritive Value of Condiments." 



Her paper on the analysis of the bark of the Fouquieria 

 splendens was published in the Proceedings of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science and in the " Amer- 

 ican Journal of Pharmacy." Her studies into the chemistry of 

 drugs attracted the attention of the trustees of the College of 

 Pharmacy, and they not only asked her to lecture before the stu- 

 dents, the first time that a woman had ever been thus hon- 

 ored, but went so far as to expend the sum of five thousand 

 dollars in purchasing some small houses at the rear of the college 

 building adjoining the main laboratory and fitting up a portion 

 of the space thus acquired as a research laboratory for the use 

 of such women as wished to go into higher work. Miss Abbott 

 had here her own special apparatus, which she imported from 

 abroad, and the trustees furnished her with all facilities neces- 

 sary to carry out the line of her investigations. 



Dr. William Thomson, the eminent oculist of Philadelphia, 

 to whose stimulus Miss Abbott was indebted for much of her 

 success in scientific work, did not approve of her digressions 

 into the field of art and literature, and urged her not to dissi- 

 pate her energies, but concentrate them on her chemical labors. 

 In reference to this she says, in one of her " Scientific Notes:" 



