28 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



with his library and its rare books, its walls beautifully tinted, 

 its frieze with the Aristotelian elements air, earth, fire, and 

 water represented in it, and in each corner the arms of the 

 doctor and his wife; the ceiling in blue and gold, a large sun 

 . in the centre and around in squares the alchemistic symbols, 

 the inlaid floor, beautifully polished, and the motto on the 

 wall end of the room, so suitable for a chemist: "Thou hast 

 ordered all things in measure and number and weight.' 1 



She chronicles meeting Sir William Crookes, who remarked 

 that her Yucca essay "was a model of a good scientific paper." 

 Professor Leech, of Owens College, who had written a notice 

 of her Yucca paper for the Manchester "Chronicle," "was ad- 

 mirably polite" and showed her over the college, the museum 

 where were "glass cases fitted with drugs in jars labeled," 

 and the laboratories with their convenient arrangements 

 for students. She was particularly interested in Professor 

 Leech's method of showing the effect of drugs in destroying 

 nerve-fibres and the "immense effects of impurities in drugs 

 on tissue." 



At a reception at the college, she met a number of distin- 

 guished scientists, Springer, Newcomb, Dewar, Professor Arm- 

 strong, of London, as well as Ladenburg and Lothar Meyer 

 of Germany. At the luncheon of sandwiches and champagne 

 that was served, she had some chance to talk with the Ger- 

 mans. She asked their advice about studying in Germany, 

 but was informed that there was no chance of her gaining 

 admission as a private student in Kiel or Tubingen, and per- 

 haps not in Germany. She says : 



"They gave me cards of introduction to Dorpat and Leipsic. 

 Ladenburg is accomplishing syntheses of alkaloids. He said 

 he would never come to America. His wife would not let him 

 go without her and she had to rest with the children." 



After a few weeks in England, the record of which seems 

 to have disappeared, Miss Abbott sailed first to Christiania 

 and then to Sweden, and one of her first experiences in Stock- 

 holm brought her into acquaintance with the famous Nor- 

 wegian poet and dramatist, Henrik Ibsen. Her description 

 of the reception where she met him deserves to be preserved : 





