HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
48 
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.” 
