48 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



speech. I believe I am the first lady who ever attended one 

 of these meetings. There were some original communications. 

 Then a little discussion followed. Pinner read extracts or 

 gave abstracts of the papers sent in to the society containing 

 new discoveries, etc. In some cases, he wrote formulas on the 

 blackboard. 



"Hofmann thanked him for his able presentation of the 

 papers, and the meeting adjourned to supper, to which I did not 

 go, though Liebermann asked me. The ladies at the Lieber- 

 mann dinner thought I did well in declining the supper, and 

 that I should have laid myself open to talk if I had gone. There 

 was no temptation on my part to go. I met Witt. He speaks 

 English almost perfectly, indeed with no accent. He is a large 

 man (young), light mustache, and wears a diamond and gold 

 rings on one hand, a seal ring on the other. 



"He is especially interested in how the diatomaceae dissolve 

 the silica which they contain in their cells. He had by no means 

 any explanation to give, except that the amounts found in them 

 was greater than could be expected from the silica dissolved 

 in salt water. In speaking of the amorphous condition of starch, 

 he said he doubted that any amorphous substance could po- 

 larize light, and that all starch granules must be crystalline, 

 although the crystalline character was not made out. Lieber- 

 mann' s communication before the society was an exhibition 

 of dramatic gymnastics on the blackboard. It was given with 

 an agility really phenomenal. Liebermann's eye is as quick as 

 lightning. A rosy face, Jewish countenance, dark beard and 

 hair, rather short stature and slender, make up his personality. 

 He was most anxious to examine the chemical compounds in 

 fresh plants, and spoke of obtaining indigo plants from Mex- 

 ico. He thought that I should rather work on some well-known 

 substance, which was not yet studied chemically, and which 

 was of practical use. He was very nice about my work, apolo- 

 gizing in regard to suggesting, but doing it all so nicely that he 

 could never have been objectionable. He questioned me with 

 interest about my plant-compounds, and said it was an espe- 

 cially interesting field, and one that chemists had not much 

 touched upon." 



