Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  i 
August,  1907.  f 
Book  Reviews. 
391 
p.  460,  1905).  These  papers  have  been  collected  into  one  volume 
by  her  brother,  Francis  R.  Abbott,  who  with  singular  good  taste 
has  left  the  estimate  of  his  sister's  work  to  others  without  one  word 
from  him. 
The  accompanying  biographical  sketch  was  written  by  Nathan 
Haskell  Dole,  who  also,  while  speaking  of  "  her  lovely  nature,  her 
admirable  character,  her  astounding  ability,  and  her  epoch-making 
work,"  makes  use  of  her  own  materials  to  construct  his  narrative. 
He  compares  her  to  Maria  Mitchell,  and  says  that  she  did  for  chem- 
istry what  Professor  Mitchell  did  for  astronomy.  The  materials 
drawn  upon  are  in  part  an  autobiography  entitled  "  A  Brief  Outline 
of  Ten  Years  of  Scientific  Life,"  certain  "  Scientific  Notes  "  and  the 
notes  which  she  made  on  a  '*  scientific  pilgrimage"  to  Europe  in  the 
summer  of  1887.  On  this  trip  she  met  a  very  large  number  of  the 
most  distinguished  botanists  and  chemists  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent,  including  such  botanists  as  Pringsheim,  Pfeffer,  Schwen- 
dener  and  Kny,  and  such  chemists  as  Bunsen,  Crookes  and  Kekule. 
By  the  chemists  she  was  welcomed  as  a  chemist,  and  by  the  botan- 
ists as  a  botanist ;  and  she  records  that  Professor  Pringsheim  showed 
her  a  list  of  all  the  botanists  of  the  world,  in  which  he  had  included 
her  name. 
The  "  Studies  in  Plant  and  Organic  Chemistry  "  are  accompanied 
by  an  introduction  written  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Wiley,  who  says :  "  She 
was  among  the  very  first  investigators  of  this  country  who  began  in 
a  systematic  way  to  study  the  relations  of  chemical  composition  to 
species  of  plants  and  to  plant  growth."  The  relation  of  plant  con- 
stituents to  plant  form  and  plant  evolution  was  a  central  idea  with 
Dr.  Michael,  and  she  wrote  three  papers  bearing  on  this  subject. 
The  titles  of  these  papers  are  as  follows :  "  Certain  Chemical  Con- 
stituents of  Plants  considered  in  Relation  to  their  Morphology  and 
Evolution,"  "  The  Chemical  Basis  of  Plant  Forms,"  and  "  Com- 
parative Chemistry  of  Higher  and  Lower  Plants."  Doubtless  such 
a  relation  exists,  but  the  problem  seems  a  difficult  one,  particularly 
in  view  of  the  tact  that  only  now  are  chemists  beginning  to  formu- 
late laws  governing  the  relation  between  -molecular  structure  and 
crystal  forms. 
Upon  her  literary  work  we  need  not  comment  here  other  than  to 
say  that  she  contributed  to  both  prose  and  poetry,  and  that  again 
we  have  evidence  of  the  depth  and  beauty  of  her  nature. 
