BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
73 
inferiority of English and American chemists, when compared 
with the Germans, was due to a less thorough training and 
the lack of those long years of preparatory study which Ger¬ 
many required. 
It seemed to Miss Abbott that it might be well to com¬ 
bine, if possible, the quick, progressive, and original character 
which Lunge attributed to the Americans with the solidity 
and carefulness of the Germans. “ It occurs to me,” she 
says, “as I have thought before, that the only guide to one’s 
investigations must be the standard of the German publica¬ 
tions.” Lunge spoke to her of the few who were pursuing 
physiological chemistry, and of its great needs in research. 
She was greatly struck with the mixture of nationalities 
in Zurich, and by the intelligence of the young Japanese whom 
she met at dinner. He had come there without knowing a 
word of German, and within a few days was already able to 
use the language. 
Of course women-students abounded in Zurich, but Lunge 
remarked that their conduct was sometimes objectionable. 
She was overwhelmed at the magnificence of the laboratories, 
though she thought Lunge’s department was deficient in ap¬ 
paratus for extracting the constituents of plants, and doing 
plant-work on a large scale, — a lack which their abundance 
of means would easily correct. The rooms seemed to her 
lighted and heated admirably, and everything was “so clean 
and bright that a student would enjoy working under such 
auspices.” The general impression was so favorable that 
she was inclined to return there, especially when Lunge told 
her that she would be received as an advanced student and 
allowed to follow whatever courses she pleased. 
From Zurich she went to Berne, which she found “of won¬ 
derful interest,” with its splendid views of the Bernese Alps 
covered with freshly fallen snow. The lower part of the town 
was swarming with children, and she w T as struck with the 
beauty of many of them; she wondered that some of them 
were not drowned, for “a rapid current runs in the street 
near the river’s bank.” Of course, she, like every one else, 
was drawn to the bear-pit, and she was interested in the in- 
