^ASn'.SosT*}  Helen  Abbott  Michael.  179 
HELEN  ABBOTT  MICHAEL:  AN  APPRECIATION. 
By  Edward  Kremers. 
Helen  Cecilia  De  S  lver  Abbott,  youngest  child  of  James  Abbott 
and  Caroline  Montelius,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  December  23, 
1857.  After  a  careful  home  education  under  governesses  and 
private  teachers,  who,  without  exception,  were  delighted  with  her 
affectionate  and  studious  disposition  and  her  extraordinary  quick- 
ness of  mind,  she  was  inclined  to  make  a  specialty  of  music,  a  genius 
for  which  she  early  manifested. 
She  went  abroad  in  1878,  spending  the  winter  in  Paris.  In  May, 
1879,  she  returned  to  America,  but  the  season  I  880-81  again  finds 
her  in  Paris  engaged  in  the  study  of  chamber  music.  Returning 
once  more  to  Philadelphia,  she  took  up  the  study  of  musical  com- 
position. 
A  copy  of  Helmholtz's  work  on  optics,  purchased  in  one  of  the 
second-hand  book  stalls  on  the  quays  along  the  Seine,  caused  her  to 
seek  instruction  in  physics.  From  optics  her  "  interest  ran  to 
zoology  and  to  the  dissecting  of  animals."  Next  she  enters  "the 
Woman's  Medical  College  as  the  open  sesame  to  the  undiscovered 
lands."  She  <l  passed  the  first  year's  examinations  in  chemistry, 
anatomy  and  physiology  with  a  record  of  one  hundred  in  each 
branch."  During  the  second  year  of  her  medical  studies  "  she  met 
with  a  serious  accident  that  interfered  with  her  work,  yet  she  passed 
the  examinations  with  the  same  record  as  in  the  previous  year." 
During  the  previous  year  she  had  published  a  short  paper 
entitled,  "Some  Observations  on  the  Nutritive  Value  of  Condiments/' 
published  in  The  Polyclinic,  in  which  she  records  the  ash  content  and 
the  percentage  of  P2Os  in  twenty  different  condiments.  As  a  result 
of  her  work  in  Professor  Trimble's  laboratory  in  1884,  she  read  her 
first  scientific  paper  on  "  Preliminary  Analysis  of  the  Bark  of 
Fouquieria  Splendens,"  before  the  A.  A.  A.  S.,  which  met  in  Phila- 
delphia in  the  month  of  September  of  that  year.  It  is  essentially  a 
report  of  a  so-called  proximate  analysis  with  selective  solvents. 
Sickness  prevented  her  from  continuing  her  studies  until  Febru- 
ary, 1885,  when  she  began  the  "  Chemical  Study  of  Yucca  Angusti- 
folia  "  in  Professor  Trimble's  laboratory,  the  paper  on  this  subject 
being  read  at  the  Ann  Arbor  meeting  of  the  A.  A.  A.  S.  in  August 
.  of  that  year.  It  is  a  much  more  extensive  report,  but  along  similar 
lines  to  the  one  of  the  previous  year. 
