BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
i5 
ing wax was isolated from this bark which was also known 
locally by its Mexican name ocotilla. 
This paper was afterwards published in the “American 
Journal of Pharmacy ” and in the American Philosophical 
Society’s “ Proceedings.” 
Following the meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, I went on a geological expedition in 
September, 1884, into the coal regions for the study of plant 
fossils. Later, on my way to the Susquehanna Valley, I was 
taken ill with peritonitis, and not until the month of February, 
1885, was I able to return to the laboratory. I spent the follow¬ 
ing months until July in the study of the Mexican plant Yucca 
angustijolia. A paper on the subject was read at Ann Arbor 
at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
meeting in August, 1885. It was published in the American 
Philosophical Society’s “Transactions;” also a synopsis of it 
appeared in other journals and in the “Proceedings of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science.” 
My attention had been especially directed to plant chem¬ 
istry at one of the weekly meetings of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences. Some one had sent from Danville in Pennsylvania, 
specimens of what were supposed to be Daucus carota. A party 
of children in the woods had found roots that were supposed 
to be these, and had eaten of them with disastrous results, as 
one death had occurred. It was probably roots of wild parsnip, 
which greatly resembles those sent as specimens. Presumably 
death resulted, if the children had eaten wild carrot, from 
conium, the volatile alkaloid contained in roots belonging to 
this botanical group. 
About that time, I was working in Dr. Leffmann’s labora¬ 
tory at the Polyclinic Hospital, and I made some experiments 
on some of the roots sent to me from Danville to determine 
the presence of this alkaloid. The species sent were not the 
noxious w T ild carrot, but Mr. Thomas A. Meehan informed me 
that it was very difficult from the roots alone to identify the 
species, and that the only way to ascertain the fact was to plant 
some of the roots and await the foliage. The chemical work 
in the study of identification fascinated me, and from that time 
