6o 
HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
“The heads, of course, are such eminent men that they are 
too busily engaged in their own researches to devote time es¬ 
pecially to students. The latter are then given to the care of 
an assistant. The assistants even show the most minute ma¬ 
nipulation, and it is a quite easy matter to become thoroughly 
conversant with chemical technique. In looking over the 
university calendar for each semester, one will notice the many 
different minor courses in schematic analysis, in spectroscopic 
work, etc., and each small branch has its professor and sepa¬ 
rate lectures. In this way it is possible to obtain an immense 
amount of facts quickly.” 
She had an interesting visit at the Botanical Garden. 
“After a trial in German speaking, I made the servant un¬ 
derstand that I would speak with Professor Pfeffer. He was 
out, and the servant could not name the hour for his return. 
As I was leaving the building, Pfeffer appeared, and I handed 
him Drude’s card of introduction. He welcomed me kindly 
and said that the laboratory was not as yet installed. He 
had just come from Tübingen, where he said he had left a 
very beautiful Botanical Institute. He hoped in about a year 
to have a fine school here. He thought that it would be dif¬ 
ficult to have permission to admit a lady-student. He had 
just come to Leipsic and knew nothing of the rules and regu¬ 
lations. . . . 
“He thought that the most difficult problems in plant phy¬ 
siology were the mechanical ones involving mathematical 
explanation and treatment.” 
Professor Ernest von Meyer, to whom she presented her 
card of introduction from Wislecenus, and Professor Stroh¬ 
mann, an authority on plant-chemistry, showed great interest 
in her work, and made her feel that she might spend some 
months in Leipsic with great profit, since in addition there 
were good bookstores, fine music, excellent sources of chemical 
supplies, and admirable educational facilities including Pfef¬ 
fer’ s botanical garden and Dr. Gruber’s chemical physio¬ 
logical laboratory. Her diary has this interesting entry: — 
“ Oct. 20. Visited Prof. Ernest von Meyer’s private labora¬ 
tory. It is a private one, though Prof. Meyer is one of the 
