32 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



her notes are full of drawings which she hastily jotted down 

 as she found anything in the way of apparatus or convenience 

 to interest her. She discovered that Ekman had worked con- 

 siderably in physical chemistry, and that he had studied botany 

 with the view of making researches into plant chemistry. At 

 the Pharmaceutical Laboratory Library she was shown, among 

 other treasures, copies of her own ocotilla paper and her lecture 

 on sugar. She also visited the "Medical Institute which is 

 identified with the name of the celebrated Doctor Retzius " 

 (whose wife and son she had met at .the Ibsen reception), and 

 was much pleased with the chemist Jolin, who was at the time 

 " engaged in research on the acids in the bile of pigs a very 

 bright and intelligent man." 



At Upsala where she remarks on the fine University build- 

 ings and particularly the Grand Hall for commencements, 

 "said to be the finest in Europe," she found an instructive 

 cicerone in Dr. Bovallius, the famous geologist. She met Pro- 

 fessor Cleve, the discoverer of scandium, and was delighted 

 with the immense activity displayed in his laboratories, espe- 

 cially in original research. Professor Cleve advised her to go 

 to the Charlottenburg Technical School. She says : 



"I was impressed by the fact that all of these chemists had 

 studied for more or less time under distinguished chemists in 

 France or Germany, and that they are continuously going to 

 those countries to renew their knowledge or to acquire more. 



"The plain interior of many of the laboratories is in direct 

 proportion to the magnitude of the work accomplished by the 

 men. A foundation of most accurate and solid information and 

 study is why they are so eminently ahead of some of us. Cleve 

 seemed thoroughly acquainted with the literature of all depart- 

 ments of chemistry. His collection of chemical preparations 

 was complete. Specimens of many of the rarest metals, a 

 specimen belonging to Berzelius and one of the first double 

 chlorides of platinum made. His collection of organic com- 

 pounds was equally fine. The cases containing the specimens 

 were of the poorest and meanest, of painted wood, dirty white. 

 The cases containing the inorganic classified specimens were 

 jammed into a small miserable portion of the room immedi- 



