HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
32 
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- 
