BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
83 
learned importer informed her that Huxley believed that no ill 
existed which some drug could not be found to cure. She was 
warmly welcomed by the junior member of Cross and Sevan’s 
Laboratory, with whom she “discussed the field.” He gave 
her some very interesting analyses and compounds and the 
results of his experiments with cellulose, telling her that each 
plant had its own kind of cellulose, that in the lower plants 
being less complex than in the higher. He listened with plea¬ 
sure to her idea of the chemical evolution in plants. 
One of her most interesting experiences in London was her 
interview with Professor, now Sir, William Crookes. 
“His house is large and elegant. An open fireplace in his 
library insured a warmth, and he said to me that he could al¬ 
ways think better in a warm room. Bookcases lined the walls. 
The chair before his desk was wooden, with two depressions 
where the thighs would come. The back was toward the fire, 
and the desk stood parallel to the fireplace, the side almost 
against the window. 
“He is a curious-looking man, gray-bearded, and his hair 
also shows signs of snow. His mustache was waxed out sev¬ 
eral inches, and this gave him quite a unique look. He was 
handsomely dressed in dark cutaway coat and waistcoat, 
light trousers, and a brilliant red necktie with long ends. This 
color seems to be, just at present, the style, as I saw later sev¬ 
eral of them at the Royal Society meeting. I asked him to 
show me the photograph of his laboratory as I had seen it. 
This surprised him very much. He said, £ You must be a clair¬ 
voyant.’ I described some of the laboratory to him, and he 
declared it was indeed like his room, but as the photographs 
were only recently taken, and he had not given them away, it 
was quite impossible for me to have seen them. 
“We soon passed to his laboratory which was adjoining 
the library. He has in his first room the physical laboratory. 
There is a tool-room, also used for glass-blowing. Then the 
chemical laboratory. There is an entry which he can close 
into a dark room for photography. He told me that he 
amused himself a great deal with photography, and during 
vacations and on trips he always took his camera and 
