MEMCAL 
 
 COLLEGE OF PHARMACY 
 
:.!irorr,!a College of Pharmao* 
 
STUDIES IN 
 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 AND 
 
 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 BY 
 
 HELEN ABBOTT JVIICHAEL 
 
 (HELEN C. DE S. ABBOTT) 
 
 WITH 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 California Cottage of Pharmacy 
 
 itfcersiDe JDrrss 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 
 1907 
 
COPYRIGHT 1907 BY FRANCIS R. ABBOTT 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . . -3 
 
 STUDIES IN PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 INTRODUCTION in 
 
 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CONDIMENTS 114 
 PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS or THE BARK OF FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 117 
 
 A CHEMICAL STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 126 
 
 CERTAIN CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS CONSIDERED IN 
 
 RELATION TO THEIR MORPHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION . . . .168 
 ON H^MATOXYLIN IN THE BARK OF SARACA INDICA . . . .171 
 
 PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE. 175 
 
 PLANT CHEMISTRY, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE PRODUCTION OF 
 
 SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 210 
 
 THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 232 
 
 COMPARATIVE CHEMISTRY OF HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS . .257 
 ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS . . 280 
 UBER EINE NEUE BILDUNGSWEISE VON AROMATISCHEN NITRILEN 286 
 ZUR KENNTNISS DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES NITRILS . . .292 
 ZUR KENNTNISS DER ADDITION VON BROM UND CHLOR zu FESTER 
 
 CROTONSAURE 300 
 
 ZUR CONSTITUTION DES PHLORETINS .313 
 
 A REVIEW OF RECENT SYNTHETIC WORK IN THE CLASS OF 
 
 CARBOHYDRATES 318 
 
 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 349 
 
 THE DRAMA IN RELATION TO TRUTH 364 
 
 WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 370 
 
 THE CONCEPTION OF TRUTH AMONG THE GREEKS AND IN 
 BROWNING 393 
 
 INDEX . 4 iQ 
 
 409 
 
HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 THE arc of Helen Abbott Michael's life swept through several 
 fields of human activity, in each of which she showed remark- 
 able ability and achieved unusual success. Versatility, how- 
 ever brilliant, is often a dangerous gift, leading to a scattering 
 of energies and to practical failure; but she had great power 
 of concentration, and realized, as few have, the necessity of 
 systematic application. She was not led by her manifold tal- 
 ents into desultory or spasmodic expenditure of energy, but 
 having deliberately chosen a path which seemed to offer her 
 opportunities of usefulness, she was not content to abandon 
 it until she had followed it to a profitable ending. Nor, even 
 after she had proceeded to another department of work, did 
 she lose her interest in that from which she had passed. She 
 "assimilated all that was best in every branch of knowledge 
 that she took up, and her symmetrically developed character 
 proved that her attainments were not made for selfish ends. 
 Her altruism was ever apparent. 
 
 Certain marked qualities of hers deserve commemoration. 
 Lovely in person, graceful in figure, she preserved a charming 
 simplicity and modesty. She was wholly lacking in self-con- 
 sciousness. Her association with men of science and her own 
 keen zest in subjects of scientific import gave to her conversa- 
 tion a note of deep seriousness ; but she had a natural play of 
 wit, and she was quick to see the ludicrous aspect of any ques- 
 tion. Broad and liberal in her ideas, she displayed a genuine 
 sympathy with all phases of thought, scientific and religious. 
 She had made a special study of the plastic arts, and her diaries 
 are full of brief and always pointed criticisms and appreciations 
 of the paintings, sculptures, and beautiful buildings that she 
 studied, even while making her specialty of chemical or medical 
 investigations. 
 
4 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 Through her zeal for study she met with an accident which 
 affected her health for many years, but this unfortunate deple- 
 tion of physical power never stood in the way of her ambition; 
 she fought against suffering with Spartan heroism. 
 
 Another of the great lessons of her life emphasizes the value 
 of thoroughness. She was not satisfied to be a smatterer. After 
 she had won an enviable reputation as an original investigator 
 in plant chemistry, she made a pilgrimage to Europe, with a 
 view of perfecting herself in the use of methods and appliances ; 
 and she records with sweet humility her consciousness of what 
 she lacks in training, with humility, but with no sense of dis- 
 couragement, rather with quickened zeal and enthusiasm. 
 Even at that time it could have been said of her, as was said 
 later of what she had already accomplished, "Her studies in 
 tracing the relations existing between chemical composition and 
 botanical species are of the highest interest from the view-point 
 of research." 
 
 Women have ever been leaders in great popular movements. 
 History is studded with the names of queens. Mythology, which 
 is in a sense crystallized history, gives equal honor to goddesses 
 and gods. It seemed to the Greeks perfectly in accordance with 
 the order of Nature that a whole tribe of women should have 
 had a comity and state by themselves, with Hippolita their mis- 
 tress. Sappho held rank with the greatest poets of antiquity. 
 Yet in modern days, when the tendency of the Church, based 
 on a chance remark or possibly a set principle of Saint Paul, 
 has been to condemn women to silence and to subordination, 
 the occasional woman who has had the genius and the courage 
 to break a path for her sex into the more active life of the world, 
 has compelled recognition. 
 
 Such a woman was Helen Abbott Michael. She did in chem- 
 istry what Maria Mitchell did in astronomy, and others before 
 and since have done in other branches. It seems almost in- 
 credible that within so short a time she accomplished so much. 
 Woman has in the last decade made such tremendous strides 
 in all professions that it sounds strange to state that she was 
 a pioneer. Only twenty years ago she made her first investi- 
 gations, and it is perfectly true that, in the words of Dr. H. W. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 
 
 Wiley of the United States Department of Agriculture, her 
 "papers on plant analysis were not only valuable when they 
 were written, but will continue to be so for an indefinite time." 
 
 She had something worth saying in regard to art and litera- 
 ture as well as science. Toward the end of her life she found 
 herself drawn to express her deeper feelings in verse, and there 
 is little doubt that if she had been spared she would have con- 
 tributed valuable thoughts in this beautiful medium. Her 
 numerous friends and all who are interested in the work ac- 
 complished by so daring and fertile a mind, all who admire the 
 splendid progress that women have made of recent years in 
 emancipating themselves from the shackles of conservatism, 
 all who are devoted to science, whether in its stricter analyses 
 or in its popular presentations of great facts, will be glad to 
 possess in valid and tangible form the outcome of Dr. Michael's 
 scientific and literary labors. They are a veritable contribution 
 to the growing collection of books that glorify the age. 
 
 It is a privilege to be allowed to introduce the volume with a 
 brief sketch of its author's career, and to add a few words of 
 appreciation of her lovely nature, her admirable character, her 
 astonishing ability, and her epoch-making work, as well as to 
 express the universal regret that her career was so prematurely 
 cut off, when she seemed to be entering upon a new phase that 
 promised to be of great benefit to her fellow-men. She was a 
 rare and radiant spirit, no less womanly that she chose to vie 
 with men in an active and laborious occupation. 
 
 Helen Cecilia De Silver 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 apd studious disposition and 
 her extraordinary quickness of mind, she was inclined to make 
 a specialty of music, a genius for which she early manifested. 
 
 She had excellent training. Among her instructors was Miss 
 Mary F. Howell, a talented pianist, a musician of the highest 
 ability, and a remarkable personality. Her father's house be- 
 came the centre of a musical circle, and solo and ensemble play- 
 ing used to delight such audiences as were favored with its 
 
6 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 entree. In her renderings of the works of the great masters, 
 she was notable for her union of strength and delicacy of 
 touch with sympathetic appreciation. She read at sight with 
 extraordinary fluency and correctness. She speedily secured a 
 reputation as being one of the ablest amateur pianists of her 
 native city. 
 
 This reputation she carried abroad with her in 1878, and 
 at the concert given at Ventnor in the Isle of Wight in aid of 
 the " Distress Fund," after the training-ship Eurydice, on its 
 way home from Bermuda, foundered off Dunnose Headland 
 with a loss of three hundred lives, she played three selections, 
 and was characterized by a local newspaper as "a performer 
 of great finish and artistic appreciation of her subject." An- 
 other newspaper said her performance "was marvelously 
 clever and testified to a most thorough acquaintance with the 
 pianoforte." 
 
 She spent that winter in Paris, and how well she improved 
 her opportunities and what an impression she made are well 
 shown by a recent letter from M. Alphonse Duvernoy of the 
 Conservatoire. He says : 
 
 " She had a superior mind open to everything. Her eagerness 
 for instruction recognized no obstacles, and under a frail exterior 
 she concealed an energy and will power of which many men 
 might have been envious. In a word, by her nature she was 
 one of the elect, and I was happy to appreciate her at her real 
 value. ... She worked under my direction from July, 1878, 
 until the end of April, 1879. Remarkably gifted for music, she 
 made very rapid progress, and her execution was sufficiently 
 advanced to allow her to grapple with the works of the great 
 masters, for whom she felt a passionate admiration. In May, 
 1879, she returned to Amerka, and was back in Paris in 1880. 
 At this time she devoted herself to chamber music, into which 
 she was initiated by two eminent artists MM. Armingaud 
 the violinist and Jacquard the violoncellist. In 1881 she ceased 
 to work with these gentlemen, whom she entirely won by the 
 quickness of her intelligence and by her musical feeling." 
 
 Madame Arabella Goddard, the eminent pianist, who made 
 her last public appearances in connection with Sir Arthur 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 7 
 
 Sullivan's concerts at the Paris Exposition of 1878, had advised 
 her to take up music professionally and had offered to be spon- 
 sor for her success on the stage; but even at this time wider 
 and more satisfying vistas were opening before her eager ambi- 
 tion. She was beginning to think for herself on many matters 
 of philosophy and religion. Perhaps the turning-point of her 
 career was reached when, in company with a pleasant party of 
 relatives and friends, she visited Spain. A glimpse of her in this 
 enjoyable tour is afforded by the late George Parsons Lathrop's 
 " Spanish Vistas, " in which she is frequently mentioned under 
 the appellation of "The Novice." 
 
 She returned to Philadelphia in 1881, and with characteristic 
 thoroughness attended a course of musical composition with 
 Professor Hugh A. Clarke of the University of Pennsylvania. 
 Her interest in music never waned; many years afterwards 
 she took a course of lessons in singing, and entered into the 
 subject with much enthusiasm. She was also in the habit of 
 going with a Boston friend to the Burrage Rooms, where 
 through the generous provisions of a music-loving young lady 
 who died at an early age, opportunity is provided for practice 
 with two or more pianos and the use of a valuable library of 
 pianoforte compositions. 
 
 An intimate friend of hers, writing of her abandonment of 
 music as a specialty, comments on the power that she possessed 
 "of taking up almost any study and carrying it forward to 
 completion; as soon as this point was reached," says this 
 friend, "her agile mind turned to another theme, with the same 
 result." 
 
 The impulse that led her to put the practice of music behind 
 her, and to enter into a far more laborious occupation, is clearly 
 explained in a fragment of autobiography which she began in 
 February, 1900. This writing also throws some light upon her 
 mental development, and is so interesting one could wish that 
 it had been more inclusive, that she had deemed it worth while 
 to relate her experiences during the time when she was devoting 
 herself to music and meeting many of the eminent virtuosi with 
 whom she was privileged to associate, and also that she had 
 brought it down to the attainment of her medical degree. But 
 
8 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 even as a fragment it is worthy of insertion in this place. A few 
 verbal changes, never in any way affecting the sense, have been 
 made here and there. Also a few paragraphs have been omit- 
 ted. She entitled it: 
 
 A BRIEF OUTLINE OF TEN YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC 
 
 LIFE 
 
 On my return from Europe, early in the eighties, after six years 
 spent in the study of music there and in America, I began my 
 education. My first introduction to scientific thought was 
 Helmholtz's great work on Optics. This book I had purchased 
 at one of the second-hand bookstalls on the quais along the 
 Seine in one of the old quarters of Paris. This book was trea- 
 sured and brought with me back to America. I may note that 
 when I was only eight years old, I found a small book of hu- 
 man anatomy belonging to my brother at home. 
 
 My governess, a highly instructed, conscientious Catholic, 
 saw me reading this book and studying the plates representing 
 the human skeleton. She remonstrated with me for my inter- 
 est in the subject, and said that Catholic teaching did not favor 
 such studies for youth. There never had been, as far as I know, 
 any one in my family who had been devoted to a scientific life, 
 although my father's father had shown an interest in botany, 
 and at one time followed in New Jersey the calling of phar- 
 macist. 
 
 My father was of an active, inquiring mind, but he had 
 never devoted himself to any special scientific studies. I had 
 been told that some generations back ancestors on my mother's 
 side had been scholars, graduates from foreign universities, 
 but I always inferred that their interest ran more in literary 
 lines. 
 
 A first cousin on my father's side is known as a veritable 
 Nimrod among the scientific collectors of the day. This is 
 Dr. William Louis Abbott, whose marvelous collections of 
 animals, skins, birds, plants, and ethnological specimens 
 fill or contribute to fill some of the leading museums of our 
 country. I think this is all that I need to say about the scien- 
 tific tendencies in the family. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 9 
 
 I am especially indebted to Dr. William Thomson of 
 Philadelphia for being the first to explain to me the laws of 
 physics, especially of light and refraction; and in the many 
 hours of his brilliant conversations I learned to appreciate 
 the meaning of a scientific life and the possibility that would 
 open up to humanity through the scientific spirit. From 
 Optics my interest ran to Zoology and to the dissection of 
 animals for closer anatomical study than the plates or speci- 
 mens offered. The horror of my friends and acquaintances 
 at this sudden change in my tastes from Art may be readily 
 imagined, but I persevered, and in June of 1882 Mrs. Ma- 
 tilda M. Cohen, the mother of one of my dearest friends, 
 accompanied me to the Woman's Medical College of Phila- 
 delphia and introduced me to the Dean. I had determined 
 to study medicine in order to get- a broader education. This 
 channel seemed the easiest way, as I had not had the special 
 preliminary training for entrance to one or two of the colleges 
 then open to women, and I did not care to spend the time 
 to secure this entrance knowledge. I looked to the Woman's 
 Medical College as the open sesame to the undiscovered 
 lands. 
 
 Upon my introduction to the college I was brought into 
 association with Dr. Emelie B. DuBois, who was the demon- 
 strator of anatomy. I went to her house several times each 
 week during the summer months, studying with her and 
 reciting to her Gray's Anatomy. This study had always a 
 most vivid interest for me, and I awaited with impatience the 
 opening of the dissecting-room in the autumn. I felt that in 
 the demonstrating and lecturing on anatomy I should find 
 my main interest for life, but I was turned aside from this in- 
 tention, as I shall show later on. 
 
 During the first year at college I devoted myself mainly 
 to becoming acquainted with the requirements in anatomy, 
 chemistry, physiology, materia medica, and with practical 
 anatomy by constant dissections. The cadaver had no terrors 
 for me, and the marvelous construction of the human frame 
 was an endless source of interest. There were a number of 
 women then studying at the college who have since become 
 
io HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 eminent in their profession. I may mention Dr. Grace Wolcott 
 and Dr. Lena Ingraham. 
 
 I formed a warm friendship at that time with a student 
 who entered the college with myself. She was Eda Wilhelmi of 
 New Philadelphia, Ohio. She later married Dr. McLane, and 
 took her degree in Cleveland, Ohio. She practiced medicine 
 in New Philadelphia with her husband, but subsequently gave 
 up medicine for literature, for which she had always a strong 
 bent. 
 
 We were inseparable companions and pursued our studies 
 together. The lectures which troubled us the most to under- 
 stand were those given by Dr. Frances Emily White on Physi- 
 ology. She followed the plan to introduce her class to a general 
 review of Biology and Morphology based on the principles of 
 evolution and a great deal of Herbert Spencer. To one who 
 had been from childhood associated with thoughts of Art, the 
 languages, and literature, shrouded in a mantle of Catholic 
 orthodoxy and mysticism, these lectures were puzzling in the 
 extreme. I found myself, out of college hours, devouring all the 
 works I could find on subjects to elucidate Dr. White's lectures. 
 
 I was no different from the rest of the beginners, who found 
 these lectures difficult to grasp, but I was assured that on reach- 
 ing my second year what then seemed obscure would become 
 very plain. I owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Dr. White 
 for the difficulties she had me encounter during these first 
 weeks at college. Her lectures and the private teaching which 
 I had from her later were most stimulating and full of enlight- 
 enment. I passed the first year's examinations in chemistry, 
 anatomy, and physiology with a record of one hundred in 
 each branch. 
 
 The summer following my first year at the Medical Col- 
 lege was full of interest. I spent a great portion of the time in 
 chemistry, geological expeditions, and delving more deeply 
 into books on biological subjects. I made the acquaintance, at 
 this time, of Professor Edward D. Cope. The versatility of 
 his mind attracted me, and his interest in all general subjects, 
 such as music, the stage, literature, metaphysics, and philo- 
 sophical speculation, was the basis of a congenial friendship 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH u 
 
 that then sprang up and lasted for some years. His mental 
 alertness and responsiveness to all the humorous sides of life 
 made him a delightful companion. 
 
 Of French and Quaker descent, with the stolid character- 
 istics of the Quaker, he had inherited from the French the art 
 of living a happy life. Notwithstanding Professor Cope's 
 mental broadness in general, he did not believe in woman's 
 equality with man. This rested mainly upon the fact that men 
 do the policing of the world, the hard labor, and the fighting. 
 He also based her more infantile traits upon the fact that cer- 
 tain embryonic characteristics are more persistent in her than 
 in man. Still he did grant woman some reason for her exist- 
 ence, as being essential to man's comfort and the perpetuation 
 of the race. He was generous to woman to this extent, though 
 he would deny her suffrage. He claimed that because she was 
 man's intellectual and physical inferior, she needed all the more 
 the higher education in order to help her overcome her natural 
 disabilities, and on every occasion, in public lectures or in pri- 
 vate, he was woman's warm aider in forwarding her scientific 
 work or opportunities. Later when I had taken up the study 
 of plant chemistry, Cope helped me secure specimens of unstud- 
 ied plants of Mexico and Central America; he urged me to 
 pursue research, publish my investigations, speak before so- 
 cieties, attend scientific meetings, collect specimens of fishes, 
 batrachia, reptiles, plants, and in innumerable ways gave me 
 the weight of his experience, encouragement, and hours of his 
 time to acquaint me with the subjects in which he especially 
 worked. I have still by me the summary of his instruction in 
 comparative osteology. I consider his influence in my life of 
 inexpressible importance. 
 
 It was mainly owing to his presentations of the life of re- 
 search that I afterwards discontinued my medical studies and 
 because of ill health decided to take up other lines. 
 
 Among the many pleasant scientific excursions we enjoyed 
 together I may mention one in 1885. After the meeting of the 
 American Association at Ann Arbor, which I attended accom- 
 panied by my father, he, Professor Cope, and myself started 
 on a trip across the continent to the Yellowstone National 
 
12 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 Park. I was daily enjoying the instructive companionship 
 of Cope during the month of our stay and, the company 
 having been augmented by several State geologists, we formed 
 parties for exploring some of the less frequented parts of the 
 Park. Some of us pushed on from the Yellowstone Canon 
 across the Mt. Washburn trail to Yancey's, the petrified for- 
 est, and amethyst mountain. That expedition was full of ad- 
 venture, including an encounter with a bear, a snowstorm on 
 top of Mt. Washburn, one of the ponies sliding three hundred 
 feet down the trail, and a runaway. Our journey later con- 
 tinued across the plains of Idaho to Utah. Cope had left us 
 for a few days to visit the Green River region for specimens. 
 He brought me back a perfect specimen of a fossilized fish- 
 skeleton. He said it was a most unusual find. 
 
 Our experiences in Salt Lake City were somewhat unique. 
 We met quite a number of women who were living in plural 
 marriage. Those with whom we spoke seemed generally con- 
 tent. On the Sunday of our stay we attended services at the 
 temple. They included reading from the Old Testament, 
 the singing of hymns, preaching, and the participation in a sort 
 of a communion, bread being handed around among the con- 
 gregation. My father had preserved a most reverent attitude 
 towards the services, and when the dish of bread was handed 
 to him, he took a piece, bowed his head, and proceeded to eat 
 it as all the good Mormons were doing. 
 
 Afterwards when we taxed my father with the query if 
 he intended to become one of the elders, he did not vigorously 
 affirm that he would not. He said, "Well, you would n't have 
 me refuse the hospitality they had extended to a stranger." 
 
 The second year I spent at the Medical College, I devoted 
 extra time to the dissecting-room, and in order to have an abun- 
 dance of material, I made arrangements, in addition to my 
 dissecting at the Woman's College, for the evening use of a 
 dissecting-table in the Dental College then at Twelfth and 
 Filbert streets. The dissecting-room was very thoroughly 
 equipped, and from eight until ten o'clock I worked there 
 nightly. This institution was so much more accessible to my 
 home that I was saved a long, lonely walk which I should 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 13 
 
 otherwise have had from the Woman's College had I attended 
 the night classes. 
 
 The previous spring, Dr. William H. Parrish became my 
 private preceptor in medical studies, and three evenings during 
 the week I spent at his office in recitation and in explanations 
 of medical subjects. Dr. Parrish was at that time the profes- 
 sor of anatomy in the Woman's Medical College. He offered 
 me opportunities for seeing operations and special cases. I 
 saw him perform the Porro- Mueller operation, which had at 
 that time not been so often done. During January of my sec- 
 ond year at the Medical College, I had an accident to which 
 may be attributed the ill health which has more or less attended 
 me all the years up to the present time. I had driven with Dr. 
 Parrish on one cold day in January from his office on Pine 
 Street to the old Blockley Hospital. I was much fatigued by 
 my work, and probably more susceptible in consequence to the 
 evil odors of the ward, which we visited together to see a pa- 
 tient whom I had seen him operate on a few days before for 
 fibroid tumor. Without any warning, I fainted, and falling 
 backward down a step, struck the side of my head on a marble 
 hearthstone. The result of the accident was serious, for the 
 articulation of the jaw was crushed and the bony ring of the 
 ear injured; concussion of the brain followed, and internal dis- 
 placement of the pelvic organs. 
 
 It was some hours after my return to consciousness be- 
 fore I was able to be taken home. Dr. Parrish spent the day 
 by my side, and I was confined to my bed for three or four 
 weeks before I was able to lose the constant dizziness which 
 followed the fall. Even years afterwards, suddenly turning 
 the head on the pillow towards the injured side would bring 
 on dizziness. Three attacks of peritonitis in following years 
 were the outcome of my Blockley expedition. The disturb- 
 ance to the nervous system which also attended the fall, forced 
 me to give up such close application to my work as I had pre- 
 viously given. I decided to spend four years over my medical 
 course instead of the three I intended to follow, but owing to 
 continued ill health I gave up the attendance at lectures and 
 clinics for the less exacting scientific work where I could con- 
 
14 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 trol my time. However, I came up for my final examinations 
 after the accident at the end of the second year's course, and 
 passed in chemistry, anatomy, and physiology, with the same 
 record as my examinations of the year before. 
 
 The autumn following my second year at college, that is, 
 in August of 1884, I read my first scientific paper before the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science, which 
 was meeting that year in Philadelphia. I had worked during 
 the late spring and early summer in the laboratory of Henry 
 Leffman, but I was dissatisfied with the opportunities for the 
 class of work I was doing, for I had become interested in the 
 chemical analyses of plants, and through the advice of scien- 
 tific friends I was introduced to Professor Sadtler, lecturer on 
 chemistry at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He of-- 
 fered me whatever help he could in the class of work I was 
 then interested in, and placed me as a private student with 
 Professor Henry Trimble, who was in charge of the chemical 
 laboratory at the College of Pharmacy and had made a special 
 study of plant analysis. 
 
 About this time there was published, in English, Dragen- 
 dorff's scheme for the chemical analysis of plants, which was 
 the best systematic method for plant analysis published up 
 to that time. Previously to the appearance of this book, plants 
 had been analyzed in a haphazard sort of way, and simply 
 special methods had been used for the isolation of certain 
 compounds that were suspected to exist in the plants under 
 analysis. 
 
 I was especially interested in the study of Mexican and 
 Central American plants, not only on account of their not hav- 
 ing been much studied up to that time, but because they con- 
 tained substances of interest both scientific and medicinal. 
 
 The facilities for this study were very good in Professor 
 Trimble's laboratory, and the College library was most com- 
 plete in works of reference and journals containing the litera- 
 ture on the subject. My first piece of work at the laboratory 
 was the analysis of the bark of the Mexican candle-tree, bo- 
 tanically known as Fouquieria splendens. This tree is men- 
 tioned in the Mexican Boundary Survey reports. An interest- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 15 
 
 ing wax was isolated from this bark which was also known 
 locally by its Mexican name ocotilla. 
 
 This paper was afterwards published in the " American 
 Journal of Pharmacy " and in the American Philosophical 
 Society's " Proceedings." 
 
 Following the meeting of the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, I went on a geological expedition in 
 September, 1884, into the coal regions for the study of plant 
 fossils. Later, on my way to the Susquehanna Valley, I was 
 taken ill with peritonitis, and not until the month of February, 
 1885, was I able to return to the laboratory. I spent the follow- 
 ing months until July in the study of the Mexican plant Yucca 
 angustifolia. A paper on the subject was read at Ann Arbor 
 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
 meeting in August, 1885. It was published in the American 
 Philosophical Society's "Transactions;" also a synopsis of it 
 appeared in other journals and in the " Proceedings of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science." 
 
 My attention had been especially directed to plant chem- 
 istry at one of the weekly meetings of the Academy of Natural 
 Sciences. Some one had sent from Danville in Pennsylvania, 
 specimens of what were supposed to be Daucus carota. A party 
 of children in the woods had found roots that were supposed 
 to be these, and had eaten of them with disastrous results, as 
 one death had occurred. It was probably roots of wild parsnip, 
 which greatly resembles those sent as specimens. Presumably 
 death resulted, if the children had eaten wild carrot, from 
 conium, the volatile alkaloid contained in roots belonging to 
 this botanical group. 
 
 About that time, I was working in Dr. Leffmann's labora- 
 tory at the Polyclinic Hospital, and I made some experiments 
 on some of the roots sent to me from Danville to determine 
 the presence of this alkaloid. The species sent were not the 
 noxious wild carrot, but Mr. Thomas A. Meehan informed me 
 that it was very difficult from the roots alone to identify the 
 species, and that the only way to ascertain the fact was to plant 
 some of the roots and await the foliage. The chemical work 
 in the study of identification fascinated me, and from that time 
 
16 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 my interest in chemistry centred around the chemical con- 
 stitution of plants and the chemical life-processes at work in 
 living tissues. 
 
 Some of my later views on the chemical evolution of plant 
 forms were the outcome of my studies begun with the little 
 incident I have related. 
 
 Early in the year 1886, I renewed a friendship dating from 
 childhood, but somewhat interrupted by my long residence in 
 Europe previous to the eighties, and later by my close appli- 
 cation to study. This friendship was with Dr. Daniel G. Brin- 
 ton, and for many reasons I regard it as the most important 
 influence of my life. 
 
 Dr. Brinton directed my thoughts to the higher intellectual, 
 spiritual, scientific, and artistic regions, and the year 1886 was 
 one of the most formative periods of my mental growth. With 
 few exceptions, our tastes and attractions for philosophic 
 speculation and literature were the same. In flights of the 
 intellectual imagination, I have never met any one who was 
 capable of soaring so boldly as he. 
 
 We seldom discussed the details of his scientific work, at 
 least in its more special phases, and I think I never heard him 
 speak of linguistic subjects or of the characteristics of the In- 
 dian tribes and races, but we often conversed on subjects ap- 
 pertaining to the general domain of anthropology, and we most 
 frequently found ourselves going over the broad outlines and 
 theories of science, especially its generalizations. 
 
 Dr. Brinton encouraged me to print some of the views I 
 had reached in my scientific work. These were afterwards 
 collected in two lectures published under the titles, " Chemi- 
 cal Basis of Plant Forms" and "Comparative Chemistry of 
 Higher and Lower Plants." 
 
 I also wrote out my impressions from the study of a collection 
 of pictures, exhibited at the rooms of the American Art Asso- 
 ciation, during the spring of 1886. This was about the first 
 time any collection of the works of a school of French painters 
 called the "Impressionists" had been exhibited in New York. 
 The paintings of Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Manet, and Pisaro 
 were among the canvases displayed. This pamphlet I wrote 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 17 
 
 after spending a week or more in New York studying these 
 paintings. It was published under the pen name of Celen Sab- 
 brin. Copies were sent to the various art journals, and to the 
 New York Art Exhibition, and many were sold at the door of 
 the gallery as supplementary to the catalogues. This article 
 was afterwards translated into French by the editor of "La 
 Vogue." 
 
 Some of the Impressionist paintings especially emphasized 
 the pitilessness of natural forces or of Nature where all human 
 interests were lost to view. It was as if the universe were a huge 
 scientific demonstration, with feeling, mental response, and all 
 that goes to form religion eliminated. It was the inevitable 
 onward march of the physical life of the world, as each aeon 
 brought it nearer and nearer to cold, death, and annihilation. 
 
 Such thoughts may have been due to an overwrought, sen- 
 sitive mental organization, but it was all very real, and even 
 the sunlight shining on the green trees and grass brought with 
 it a suggestion of the steel-blue light that astronomers tell us 
 prevails beyond this earth's atmosphere. To break the spell 
 of this mood, I gave up the study of the Impressionist paintings 
 at the time, and even the study of the physical sciences be- 
 came so painful to me that I felt obliged to discontinue it and 
 find relief in literature, poetry, and whatever else suggested 
 sentiency. 
 
 It happened to be Holy Week, and often in the late after- 
 noon, I would drive to some church and sit there in meditation 
 in the deepening twilight under the spell of the solitary altar- 
 lamp, symbolical of everlasting light, and the slowly-fading 
 colors of the stained-glass windows, as one by one they settled 
 into the common tone of the early evening dusk. 
 
 Especially in the domain of poetry were many hours at 
 this season spent. The works of Goethe received due share 
 of attention. Alfred de Musset, Murger, Beranger, Shelley, 
 and later, Browning, all contributed their delightful compan- 
 ionship. Spinosa and Novalis were constantly referred to and 
 read. 
 
 Dr. Brinton had a happy way of selecting passages from 
 his favorite authors and copying them in his own handwriting 
 
i8 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 for use at some special time or season, and frequently these 
 would be the text on which we discoursed, ranging from these 
 to wider and more spontaneous themes. Wilhelm von Hum- 
 boldt furnished many passages which were stimulating and 
 enjoyable. George Sand was another of our favorite writers, 
 and "Indiana," which, so beautifully portrays human devo- 
 tion, we found well worth reading more than once. 
 
 Dr. Brinton used to say that writers from whom he could 
 derive no thought leading to the higher life were valueless to 
 him. Balzac contained no message for him. 
 
 The autobiography ends abruptly, and requires a little sup- 
 plementary filling in. 
 
 In 1883-84, Miss Abbott acted as assistant in the chemical 
 laboratory of the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and published her 
 first scientific paper under the title, "Some Observations on 
 the Nutritive Value of Condiments." 
 
 Her paper on the analysis of the bark of the Fouquieria 
 splendens was published in the Proceedings of the American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science and in the " Amer- 
 ican Journal of Pharmacy." Her studies into the chemistry of 
 drugs attracted the attention of the trustees of the College of 
 Pharmacy, and they not only asked her to lecture before the stu- 
 dents, the first time that a woman had ever been thus hon- 
 ored, but went so far as to expend the sum of five thousand 
 dollars in purchasing some small houses at the rear of the college 
 building adjoining the main laboratory and fitting up a portion 
 of the space thus acquired as a research laboratory for the use 
 of such women as wished to go into higher work. Miss Abbott 
 had here her own special apparatus, which she imported from 
 abroad, and the trustees furnished her with all facilities neces- 
 sary to carry out the line of her investigations. 
 
 Dr. William Thomson, the eminent oculist of Philadelphia, 
 to whose stimulus Miss Abbott was indebted for much of her 
 success in scientific work, did not approve of her digressions 
 into the field of art and literature, and urged her not to dissi- 
 pate her energies, but concentrate them on her chemical labors. 
 In reference to this she says, in one of her " Scientific Notes:" 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 19 
 
 "I returned with renewed energy to my laboratory work, 
 which I had omitted for some months. 
 
 "After I discontinued my medical studies, I had the thought 
 to work at the University of Pennsylvania for a Ph. D. degree, 
 and during some portions of the years 1885 and 1886, 1 studied 
 with close application, mathematics, with a Mr. Howard 
 Lukens. He undertook in coaching me to prepare for passing 
 the preliminary examinations which would allow me to enter 
 the University as a student of the Junior year. The Dean of 
 the University had arranged to allow me to pursue my studies 
 in chemistry and botany with a view to the degree, if I should 
 satisfactorily pass some preliminary examinations in mathe- 
 matics, German, French, and English literature. The require- 
 ments in mathematics were considerable, and Mr. Lukens 
 worked conscientiously with me in that branch. Mr. Nathan 
 Haskell Dole, the writer and translator, was then living in 
 Philadelphia, and he was introduced to me by Mr. Henry Ho- 
 bart Brown, the principal of a boys' school in the city, as the 
 most competent person to fit me for the examinations in the 
 other branches, and we spent the winter in as serious work as 
 my health permitted. I do not wish to forget mentioning Dr. 
 Frederick P. Henry, a well-known practitioner in Philadelphia, 
 and at the time when I met him, a professor of Histology and 
 Microscopy at the Polyclinic College. 
 
 "He was a warm advocate of the higher education for 
 women, and later on became a professor of the Practice of 
 Medicine in the Woman's Medical College. I took one private 
 course of his instruction in his branches at the Polyclinic. 
 Dr. Henry was interested in my scientific work, and after our 
 lessons, he would often keep me in his laboratory discussing 
 subjects relating to science and literature. He was a fine 
 classical scholar. . . . 
 
 "Dr. Henry had heard me speak of a Mr. Thompson, the 
 keeper of the snake-house at the Zoological Garden. I had, on 
 several occasions, assisted him in feeding the rattlesnakes 
 according to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's method of forced feed- 
 ing of reptiles in confinement. He was desirous of seeing 
 the process, and I arranged to take him to the Zoo with me 
 
20 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 one day to witness the performance. When it came to 
 the point, our excursion ended merely in a visit to the gar- 
 dens, as Mr. Thompson was not willing longer to undergo 
 the risk. 
 
 "This Thompson was an unusual character; he had had 
 few opportunities for education, but he was a keen, natural 
 observer of the habits of animals, and he had made a close 
 study of the habits of snakes in the wild state. His interest in 
 the snakes that he had under his care had resulted in his ob- 
 serving closely their habits in confinement, and Professor Cope, 
 who often visited the gardens, enjoyed discussing with him the 
 ways of his pets. Thompson was an artist. He had taught him- 
 self to work in oil colors, and some of his canvases were quite 
 creditable." 
 
 Another brief extract from Dr. Michael's "Scientific Notes" 
 gives fuller details of her experiment in trying to overcome 
 the natural feminine antipathy to snakes, and shows how zeal- 
 ous she was to help along the cause of science. Dr. S. Weir 
 Mitchell, the distinguished neurologist and poet, was at this 
 time engaged in analyzing the venom of poisonous reptiles, and 
 his discoveries of the deadly alkaloids were exciting much 
 interest in the learned world. She says : 
 
 "Thompson's arrangements for snake- feeding were some- 
 what more primitive possibly than those used in the Mitchell 
 laboratory, but they were quite as effective. A stout piece of 
 leather nailed on to the end of a wooden stick and, with a loop 
 for the strap to pass through, made a solid noose to hold the 
 snake's throat securely. Two persons were required to carry 
 out the feeding. The snakes in the cage were disturbed by 
 touching them with a stick, and as the head was raised the 
 noose was quickly slipped over and drawn sufficiently tight to 
 allow the snake to be pulled out of the cage to the opening. A 
 small porcelain dish, like the evaporating dishes used in the 
 chemical laboratories, was forced between the snake's jaws. 
 The enraged reptile bit the edge of the dish savagely, and the 
 poison from a sack above the fangs would then flow through 
 a hole in the fang into the dish. This not only proved a safe- 
 guard for those engaged in the feeding, but also served to use 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 21 
 
 in the investigations on rattlesnake poison which were still 
 being continued under Dr. Mitchell's direction. 
 
 "The next step in the process was by all means the most 
 difficult. A smooth glass tube from one quarter to one half 
 inch in diameter was thrust down the snake's throat. The 
 assistant who was holding the snake by the noose was obliged 
 to loosen the strap sufficiently to permit the tube to be inserted. 
 Finely chopped beef was then rammed down the glass tube 
 with a small stick until some ounces of beef had been used in 
 this way. This was the only means to keep rattlesnakes, cop- 
 perheads, or the poisonous Mexican lizards in captivity, for they 
 would refuse even live food. Rattlesnakes would live many 
 months without food, but would eventually die of starvation 
 unless this method was resorted to. 
 
 "They were fed every two weeks or later according to cir- 
 cumstances. On one occasion, Mr. Thompson took out of the 
 cage eight or nine rattlesnakes, and let them crawl over the 
 floor of the room where we were. They made no effort to mo- 
 lest us, but the sensation was rather strange, feeling that so 
 many poisonous snakes were close at hand. 
 
 "In order to overcome a natural repugnance I had for 
 snakes, at Thompson's suggestion I used to pick up and handle 
 the king snakes of Carolina. They were really beautiful crea- 
 tures, but their cold slippery surface and constricting propen- 
 sities, for they would twist themselves around my arms, and 
 only by striking them along the back by the percussion of 
 my hand could I loosen them, only intensified my repug- 
 nance." 
 
 Two further isolated "Scientific Notes" which she left in 
 manuscript may be pieced together and afford a glimpse of 
 her activities during that memorable year. She says : 
 
 "A portion of 1886 was spent by me working in the labora- 
 tory over an interesting bark called CMchipate. This plant 
 contained a class of compounds which I had not found before 
 in any plant. On analysis they were proved to be solid hydro- 
 carbons, also from the same plant was isolated a yellow dye 
 substance which gave a good and permanent color on wool 
 and cotton fabrics. 
 
22 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 " A short vacation in July I passed with my aunt, Mrs. Ellen 
 Abbott, at the Delaware Water Gap. There she introduced 
 me to one of the resident clergymen, a man who was immensely 
 interested in scientific work, and who had brought up his chil- 
 dren to be familiar with natural history and botany, and al- 
 though his means were extremely limited, he had spared no 
 opportunities that he was able to command to train them in 
 scientific methods. My aunt knew my tastes and of Professor 
 Cope's encouraging me to collect specimens. He had pur- 
 chased her home in Haddonfield and, to her despair, had al- 
 lowed her beautifully cultivated garden to become a perfect 
 wilderness and headquarters for all the small game and rodents 
 of the country around. I desired very much to obtain a col- 
 lection of the geological specimens of the country around and 
 of the numerous fossils in which the neighborhood abounded. 
 My Aunt Ellen entrusted me to the escort of her clergyman 
 friend, and with the assistance of my colored maid, Fannie, 
 a 'stone-breaker,' as she called herself, we started out bright 
 and early of mornings with basket and hammer in hand. These 
 excursions were amply rewarded by the interesting finds that 
 we made. 
 
 "Fannie and I had been warned by our friend to look out for 
 copperhead snakes, as the ridges where the fossils abounded 
 were the favorite haunts of these snakes. The color of the 
 stones and ground were so nearly like the color of the snake 
 that some care was necessary not to pick one up. It was the 
 season when snakes were plentiful. Rattlesnakes were at times 
 encountered in the region, and often when we would be seated 
 resting, an odor from the woods would be wafted to us, and 
 then Fannie would say, 'Come on, Miss Helen, there's rattle- 
 snakes about here. Don't you smell the watermelon odor?' 
 As she had come from the South and had lived long in a lo- 
 cality where rattlesnakes were plentiful, I did not dispute her 
 knowledge, and I invariably 'moved on.' 
 
 "The autumn of '86 I attended the American Association 
 meeting held in Buffalo, and I read before the chemical section 
 two papers, one on the classification of plants on a chemical 
 basis, and the other on an analysis of the Honduras plant Chi- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 23 
 
 chipate in which I had discovered the interesting yellow dye 
 that compared favorably with fustic. 
 
 "At this meeting I made the acquaintance of quite a num- 
 ber of scientific men and renewed the acquaintance of others 
 whom I had met at former meetings. 
 
 "Professor Edward S. Morse of Salem was the president, 
 and his delightful geniality never showed to better advantage 
 than at this meeting. Professor S. P. Langley, whose labora- 
 tory I had visited near Pittsburg in '85, also attended the meet- 
 ing. I saw a good deal, too, of Dr. Wiley, the chemist of the 
 Agricultural Bureau. He was president that year of the chem- 
 ical section, and he had me preside in his place on one or two 
 occasions when he read papers before the section. 
 
 "I saw a great deal of Dr. Wiley the following winter, and 
 we talked over many subjects relating to my chemical theory 
 of plant classification. He was himself interested in plant 
 analysis, as it was a part of the work of the Agricultural Depart- 
 ment, and his private researches were almost exclusively in that 
 field. In my public lectures, given during the winter of '86 and 
 '87, Dr. Wiley came from Washington especially to attend 
 them, and assisted me in arranging the diagrams and experi- 
 ments in the hall before the lectures. 
 
 "That season I gave two lectures before the Franklin Insti- 
 tute, and I lectured at the Academy of Natural Sciences and at 
 the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy to large audiences. In 
 the spring of '87, I gave, in Washington, one of the Saturday 
 lectures under the auspices of the Philosophical and Anthropo- 
 logical and Biological Societies, in the United States National 
 Museum. The subject chosen was the chemistry of the higher 
 and lower plants, and owing to the courtesy of Dr. Wiley, the 
 government greenhouses were placed at my disposal, and a liv- 
 ing exhibition of plants, from the highest to the lowest, illustrated 
 my lecture. Most of the Washington science coterie were pre- 
 sent, and after the lecture we met at an informal reception." 
 
 The Philadelphia " Ledger," in a long and appreciative 
 notice of her Monday night lecture on plant chemistry before 
 the Franklin Institute, called it "an entertainment altogether 
 unique," and remarked: 
 
24 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 "The spectacle of a graceful young girl, surrounded by a 
 battery of chemical appliances, and explaining, with the fa- 
 miliarity of an elderly savant, the valuable results of laboratory 
 researches among plants strictly as related to commercial uses, 
 was interesting from more than one point of view. All the other 
 girl-students and Philadelphia has a number who are 
 engaged in original research in various departments of science 
 must take courage from Miss Abbott's success and her enthu- 
 siasm. When she tells us that we shall some day have bottled 
 up for purchase as perfumes, the delicate aroma of the buck- 
 wheat cake, the delicious fragrance of birch, hickory, and 
 other trees, and the elusive scents that now fill the spring air 
 in woodland, meadow, and the farmer's fields, it will be seen 
 how fascinating is the subject, and how it may be expanded 
 from the rose and violet culture of the south of France, and be- 
 yond the orange and lemon laboratories that give us now such , 
 rich fragrance and flavors. 
 
 "When Miss Abbott prophesies that the wax in the sugar- 
 canes, now only an impediment in sugar processes, will one 
 day be made an article of commercial supply, when she points 
 to the paper made from sorghum canes, and to the pretty pink 
 specimens obtained from the familiar yucca plant, as witness 
 of the great magazine in the cellulose of plants, her hearers are 
 charmed by the practical vision. 
 
 "In a range of tall glasses, like organ tubes, on one table 
 were shown the various tints of the familiar logwood and mad- 
 der dyes, and in other tubes the new haematoxylon, the dis- 
 covery made by the lecturer of the same coloring principle in 
 another plant hitherto held innocent of this mercantile im- 
 portance. The new gum, which can be made to replace the 
 now lessening supplies of gum arabic, was shown among the 
 glass jars of the exhibit. A variety of sugars was also exhibited, 
 and some of the processes of making beet and sorghum sugars 
 illustrated by the camera on the screen. 
 
 "But a greater charm than was in the subject even, was in 
 the clue all these demonstrations and the elaborate prepara- 
 tions for illustrating the lecture, gave to the energy, the com- 
 mand of resources, and the skilled industry of this young lady. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 25 
 
 The laboratory, the prolonged and absorbing study into the 
 secrets of plant life, compelling it to yield up its foods, its fuels, 
 its fabrics, its flavors, its essences, its hues, its tonics; adding 
 from hitherto useless plants, or developing additional resources 
 from those already partly known, what more dainty, more 
 beautiful, more useful work to set before the girl- student ? 
 What a good and brilliant development of woman's work 
 this is! 
 
 "It is, perhaps, permitted to say of Miss Abbott, that her 
 inclination first led her into the study of medicine, but discov- 
 ering in one of its auxiliary sciences the unharvested field, she 
 promptly accepted the line of special research as one which 
 fully satisfied her ambition and her talents. She has made her 
 own way therein, and not only a distinguished position, but, 
 what is even better, she furnishes one more example of what 
 a girl may do who wishes to fill her life with occupation formerly 
 -held to be only possible to the young man." 
 
 A Washington newspaper, a few months later, commenting 
 on her lecture there on the Chemistry of the Higher and Lower 
 Plants remarked that she had "evolved a theory by which the 
 flora of past ages can be demonstrated. This theory is original 
 with her and is attracting the attention of scientific men." 
 
 This theory would seem to have a prophetic bearing on the 
 recent experiments made by an American scientist, with a view 
 to follow back the steps of creation by an empirical collocation 
 of certain chemical elements, and resulting, microscopically 
 at least, in startling imitations of vegetable, mineral, and ani- 
 mal forms. 
 
 The same April, Miss Abbott gave a lecture on Plant Chem- 
 istry in a course offered by the Philadelphia Academy of 
 Natural Sciences. It was remarked at the time and after- 
 ward that she had an extraordinary faculty of "bringing the 
 results of her investigations within the scope of lay readers and 
 hearers." 
 
 In the summer of this year, she went abroad carrying with 
 her an unsolicited letter of introduction from Mr. S. P. Lang- 
 ley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, to its foreign cor- 
 respondents, and commending her as one "who visits Europe 
 
26 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 for study and advancement of knowledge." The writer in a 
 private letter accompanying it called attention to the fact that 
 it was " intended to be more than an ordinary letter of introduc- 
 tion to an individual or individuals would be." In the notes 
 that she made of her experiences in various educational centres, 
 at universities, museums, and laboratories, she usually found, to 
 her. surprise, that she had no need of any introduction. The 
 magic of her name was an open sesame to all doors. Her re- 
 searches had made her known to the learned world of Eng- 
 land and the Continent. 
 
 These notes were jotted down, as she went from place to 
 place, and were afterwards, as she found time amid all the dis- 
 tractions of travel and assiduous work, copied into a book. 
 Many of them are accompanied by quick pencil-drawings of 
 such chemical or scientific apparatus as attracted her attention 
 by their usefulness, originality, or peculiarities. Occasionally, 
 also,- the autographs of famous foreign chemists, German or 
 Swedish, are attached to the manuscript. With the aid of these 
 notes, we are enabled to follow her pilgrimage for a strictly 
 scientific pilgrimage it was from place to place, almost from 
 day to day. One cannot fail on reading them carefully to be 
 impressed by her keenness of observation, her enthusiasm for 
 knowledge, her readiness to adapt and adopt every improve- 
 ment brought to her notice, the breadth of her views, and the 
 wonderful dignity and charm of her attitude as a representative 
 of American science in the person of a young woman asking 
 admittance to conservative institutions on equal terms with 
 men, and yet never in any way transcending the proprieties 
 of womanliness. She was accompanied by her colored maid, 
 who served as a sort of bodyguard and symbol of station, and 
 everywhere attracted much attention, which she endured with 
 imperturbable good nature. 
 
 She went directly to Manchester, England, where the Brit- 
 ish Association for the Advancement of Science met in the 
 early days of September, during the great Exhibition of 1887. 
 Of the evening meeting, which was addressed by Professor 
 Sir Henry Roscoe, she says : 
 
 "The hall was crowded. We had seats in front row of gal- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 27 
 
 lery, left hand, facing and near stage. A few green plants were 
 arranged in front of the platform, and above rose a mass of 
 heads of the most distinguished scientists of our day. The 
 ladies were in evening dress, low necks, and many aesthetic 
 costumes were in the hall. The audience present seemed of a 
 higher social caste than our own scientific assemblies." 
 
 The weather grew unpropitious ; Miss Abbott was con- 
 fined to her room by a bad attack of bronchitis and found no 
 other amusement on the 2d of September, than "a wiry up- 
 right piano, Chopin nocturnes, and the Schumann Carnival." 
 She records a call from Joseph S. Ames, of the Johns Hopkins 
 University, who had been for eight months at Helmholtz's 
 laboratory at Berlin, and complained bitterly of the primitive 
 methods, the disregard of the value of time, and the boorishness 
 of the students that distinguished that university. As she was 
 informed that it was idle to go there without one's own ap- 
 paratus and with work already planned out, she notes that her 
 plan is "to get a number of products ready and to take them to 
 some one laboratory to work under advice." She was told that 
 the celebrated chemist, Sir William Crookes, and other distin- 
 guished men desired to meet her, and that when she should 
 once get out she would find herself " quite a lion." She says: 
 " I am gathering experience from my trip. It was just the thing 
 to do ; by the time it is over I shall have a clearer idea of how 
 to follow up my work. The meeting with men is the greatest 
 educator for me. A wide or limited experience makes the dif- 
 ference between people." 
 
 On the 4th of September, she was able to go to Dr. Edward 
 Schunck's, where she was delighted with his beautiful house, 
 grounds, and laboratory. She told her host, when she saw the 
 yellow brick exterior, the stone staircases, and the walls painted 
 robin's egg blue with fine gold bordering, the opal glass window- 
 panes with soft, mellow, creamy light, that it suggested to her 
 mind "celestial chemistry." 
 
 She remarked the exquisite crystalline products that Dr. 
 Schunck had isolated from plants, his specimens of substances 
 dyed with chlorophyll and various organic products in a glass 
 case with pomegranate-red glass doors. She was delighted 
 
28 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 with his library and its rare books, its walls beautifully tinted, 
 its frieze with the Aristotelian elements air, earth, fire, and 
 water represented in it, and in each corner the arms of the 
 doctor and his wife; the ceiling in blue and gold, a large sun 
 . in the centre and around in squares the alchemistic symbols, 
 the inlaid floor, beautifully polished, and the motto on the 
 wall end of the room, so suitable for a chemist: "Thou hast 
 ordered all things in measure and number and weight.' 1 
 
 She chronicles meeting Sir William Crookes, who remarked 
 that her Yucca essay "was a model of a good scientific paper." 
 Professor Leech, of Owens College, who had written a notice 
 of her Yucca paper for the Manchester "Chronicle," "was ad- 
 mirably polite" and showed her over the college, the museum 
 where were "glass cases fitted with drugs in jars labeled," 
 and the laboratories with their convenient arrangements 
 for students. She was particularly interested in Professor 
 Leech's method of showing the effect of drugs in destroying 
 nerve-fibres and the "immense effects of impurities in drugs 
 on tissue." 
 
 At a reception at the college, she met a number of distin- 
 guished scientists, Springer, Newcomb, Dewar, Professor Arm- 
 strong, of London, as well as Ladenburg and Lothar Meyer 
 of Germany. At the luncheon of sandwiches and champagne 
 that was served, she had some chance to talk with the Ger- 
 mans. She asked their advice about studying in Germany, 
 but was informed that there was no chance of her gaining 
 admission as a private student in Kiel or Tubingen, and per- 
 haps not in Germany. She says : 
 
 "They gave me cards of introduction to Dorpat and Leipsic. 
 Ladenburg is accomplishing syntheses of alkaloids. He said 
 he would never come to America. His wife would not let him 
 go without her and she had to rest with the children." 
 
 After a few weeks in England, the record of which seems 
 to have disappeared, Miss Abbott sailed first to Christiania 
 and then to Sweden, and one of her first experiences in Stock- 
 holm brought her into acquaintance with the famous Nor- 
 wegian poet and dramatist, Henrik Ibsen. Her description 
 of the reception where she met him deserves to be preserved : 
 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 29 
 
 "September 24, at Grand Hotel, there was an evening re- 
 ception to Henrik Ibsen, the distinguished Norwegian poet, 
 whom I was introduced to and shook hands with. He was of 
 rather short stature, ruddy face, wiry, brown hair, and side 
 whiskers. He wore decorations and a wide red ribbon across 
 his breast. The reception was held in a suite of rooms of the 
 Grand Hotel. About nine o'clock, the guests passed into the 
 large dining-room set with long table in middle on which 
 the supper was placed : cold fish dressed with delicious sauce 
 and cold peas, carrots cut fine, small cabbage, vegetable some- 
 thing like pods of beans, cold potatoes, delicate cutlets with 
 peas, the Norwegian game, white meat like a partridge, the 
 berry like cranberry only smaller, and salad cut fine. The 
 waiter passed, after serving the game, a tray on which was a 
 sauce and little dishes holding other articles. After that came 
 a kind of charlotte russe surrounded with ice cream. 
 
 "Before sitting down, the guests go first to smaller tables 
 covered with small round plates like soup plates with the food 
 arranged very artistically, cold beef in thin, small slices, 
 raw fish, sardines left in boxes. The middle of the table has 
 two piles of plates, which, however, the Swede never uses when 
 eating this hors d'ceuvre. First one helps one's self to a thin 
 slice of bread or a piece of the Swedish knakkebrad, a rye bread 
 which is like Jewish bread in appearance, a coarse kind of 
 passover bread. The knife is then brought into use, and butter 
 is taken from a large butter dish; then with a fork some kind 
 of cold meat or fish is chosen and eaten. I noticed also a small 
 kind of fried sausage, and a decanter and glass for the strong, 
 white, Swedish whiskey. 
 
 "There was an absence of obsequious serving on the part 
 of servants, each person helping himself, and no servants were 
 seen helping at the beginning of the supper. Wine, claret and 
 sherry, also beer and seltzer water, were opened and standing 
 about for each to help himself. 
 
 "Before drinking, the glasses are always touched with the 
 word skald, meaning "health.' In saluting, the ladies give 
 a little courtesy, bending the knee, which it is considered very 
 polite to do though not obligatory. The men bow quite low, 
 
30 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 nodding the head twice or thrice. I noticed an absence of ear- 
 rings; only half a dozen men in the room wore them, though 
 many of the ladies had their ears bored and doubtlessly wear 
 earrings at balls and the like. The dresses were generally 
 woolen, of dark colors, tastefully made though plain, very little 
 jewelry, clean, neat-fitting gants de Suede. . . . 
 
 "The reception was noted for the distinguished men and 
 women present: professors and their wives, a young man 
 of Stanley's corps who had walked across East Africa, Nor- 
 denskjold, who went in the Vega by the northwest passage 
 around from Sweden to Japan. He shook hands cordially. A 
 famous actress of Sweden, Lenke, zoologist, LefHer, mathema- 
 tician, Hildebrandt, and Montelius. 
 
 "Miss Topelius of Finland spoke in French. Her father is 
 a distinguished writer l of Finland. She was charming in man- 
 ner, a painter, and was most warm in her manner, patting me 
 on the shoulder and arms. This is quite a national trait since 
 Professor Loven and the chambermaid did the same. There 
 is much kindliness in their manner. After supper we went back 
 to the reception room. Miss Inez C. Rundstrom from Kansas 
 was a charming girl of Swedish parentage. She graduated from 
 one of the Western colleges, having begun the study of mathe- 
 matics when a child. She is here studying mathematics in the 
 High School (the beginning of the University) with Leffler 
 and Professor Sophia Kovalevskaya. The teaching is entirely 
 by means of lectures, and those of Kovalevskaya are regarded as 
 very profound. The atmosphere of great men was about the 
 room. The tremendous and gigantic strength of their mental 
 qualities very apparent. Many, if not all the ladies, speak ex- 
 cellent French, and they seem more thoroughly educated and 
 trained than our own women. They met me with such a de- 
 lightful spirit of welcome. 
 
 "Within a brief hour after the supper, we returned to the 
 dining-room. The long table was spread with a row of glasses 
 all around the table, filled with punch alternating color of 
 red and white opened bottles of seltzer water and glasses. 
 
 "At the end of the room near the head of the table sat Ibsen, 
 
 1 Professor Zakris Topelius, author of The Surgeon's Stories, etc. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 31 
 
 his wife by him. The other guests sat in two or three rows of 
 chairs around the room, all faces turned towards the poet. 
 Sven Hedin, a member recently reflected to Parliament, made 
 a long speech in honor of Ibsen, and then it was responded to 
 by the poet, but first each person rose, at a word, from their 
 chairs, approached the table, and took a glass of punch to drink 
 the poet's health; he had also a glass. Friends, guests, and 
 ladies hurried up to touch his glass and drink his health. Other 
 speeches and responses followed, one by the actress in which 
 she read from a slip of paper. A singer from the opera, Miss 
 Oka, sang several Scandinavian songs beautifully. She is from 
 the royal opera. 
 
 "The same spirit of solid intelligence I feel here in distinc- 
 tion to the brilliancy of home intellect. About midnight ladies 
 were leaving, the reception continued, as far as the men 
 were concerned, until late. Sounds of laughter and drinking 
 came to me. 
 
 "The memory of the reception was one of warmth, intelli- 
 gence, solidity, and of the highest culture. 
 
 "Governesses to high families, literary and artistic persons, 
 all belonging to the upper middle class, were represented." 
 
 One day in company with the famous Professor Hildebrandt, 
 whom she thought "the most magnificent intellectual giant" 
 she had as yet met, she visited a private school for girls where 
 she was impressed by "the seriousness with which the girls 
 followed the class, and the marked interest on the part of the 
 teacher." She says: 
 
 "The first class or reading lesson was very instructive. The 
 little girls in turn were reading from 'Robinson Crusoe' in 
 Swedish. The two little pupils on the front benches reminded 
 me of little birds in a nest reaching out their heads for food, 
 with such eagerness did they correct the mistakes in pronun- 
 ciation of the other readers." 
 
 With a letter of introduction from Sven Loven of the Svenska 
 Vetenskaps Akademien, a kindly old man of seventy-nine who 
 had patted her on the back and inquired into her work, she 
 visited the chemical laboratory of the "high technical school" 
 which was under the direction of Professor F. L. Ekman, and 
 
32 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 her notes are full of drawings which she hastily jotted down 
 as she found anything in the way of apparatus or convenience 
 to interest her. She discovered that Ekman had worked con- 
 siderably in physical chemistry, and that he had studied botany 
 with the view of making researches into plant chemistry. At 
 the Pharmaceutical Laboratory Library she was shown, among 
 other treasures, copies of her own ocotilla paper and her lecture 
 on sugar. She also visited the "Medical Institute which is 
 identified with the name of the celebrated Doctor Retzius " 
 (whose wife and son she had met at .the Ibsen reception), and 
 was much pleased with the chemist Jolin, who was at the time 
 " engaged in research on the acids in the bile of pigs a very 
 bright and intelligent man." 
 
 At Upsala where she remarks on the fine University build- 
 ings and particularly the Grand Hall for commencements, 
 "said to be the finest in Europe," she found an instructive 
 cicerone in Dr. Bovallius, the famous geologist. She met Pro- 
 fessor Cleve, the discoverer of scandium, and was delighted 
 with the immense activity displayed in his laboratories, espe- 
 cially in original research. Professor Cleve advised her to go 
 to the Charlottenburg Technical School. She says : 
 
 "I was impressed by the fact that all of these chemists had 
 studied for more or less time under distinguished chemists in 
 France or Germany, and that they are continuously going to 
 those countries to renew their knowledge or to acquire more. 
 
 "The plain interior of many of the laboratories is in direct 
 proportion to the magnitude of the work accomplished by the 
 men. A foundation of most accurate and solid information and 
 study is why they are so eminently ahead of some of us. Cleve 
 seemed thoroughly acquainted with the literature of all depart- 
 ments of chemistry. His collection of chemical preparations 
 was complete. Specimens of many of the rarest metals, a 
 specimen belonging to Berzelius and one of the first double 
 chlorides of platinum made. His collection of organic com- 
 pounds was equally fine. The cases containing the specimens 
 were of the poorest and meanest, of painted wood, dirty white. 
 The cases containing the inorganic classified specimens were 
 jammed into a small miserable portion of the room immedi- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 33 
 
 ately back of the lecture-table thrust upon the shelves in a 
 way disregarding their value. In public display of museums, 
 we are ahead." 
 
 She was amazed at the libraries, both at the Royal Academy 
 and at the University of Upsala, and she found the arrange- 
 ments of the botanical division of the Academy, as conducted 
 by Professor Willrock, excellent. She says : 
 
 "The flora of Europe and of other countries was kept in 
 portfolios behind locked doors. I never saw such beautiful 
 preservation of leaves and color of flowers. He said the colors 
 were only preserved by careful drying, it being necessary to 
 change the paper frequently during the drying and pressing. 
 He had series of dried plants showing the different stages of 
 growth and development from first to last. This same idea was 
 carried out with the plants in alcohol (about 50% alcoholic 
 solutions). This means of keeping plants is new to me and 
 most excellent. 
 
 "The fungi and algae were prepared by taking very thin 
 sections, drying and gumming them on paper. The spores were 
 allowed to drop from the fungi upon paper, which preserved 
 absolutely the arrangement of the spores as they are on the 
 fungi. 
 
 "The collection of alcoholic specimens of all fruits and 
 fleshy plants was very large and superb in value of specimens. 
 
 "Such collections and the ready access of other collections 
 in near towns cannot fail to make students. Study from ob- 
 jects, collections, and by observation seems to be the method 
 of study generally followed. 
 
 "The ethnographical collection, under the direction of Pro- 
 fessor Smitt, was very instructive. The specimens were outside 
 of cases and exposed for close examination. 
 
 "Smitt is working up the fishes and has made some com- 
 parative measurements of value. 
 
 "The Laboratorrein for the preparation of specimens for the 
 museum is outside of the city on a stretch of the Baltic. Smitt 
 took us in a yacht belonging to the museum; his wife accom- 
 panied us. The cold was intense. The water was covered with 
 little boats. The maceration, as the Laboratorrein is called, 
 
34 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 contains an enormous tank where the flesh can be boiled from 
 whales and other large animals. Other smaller tanks are also 
 in the building. Within a few feet of the door rise up a wilder- 
 ness of rocks showing glacier action, pine forests, and a dense 
 impenetrable wilderness of green growth." 
 
 Professor Hildebrandt showed her the ethnographical and 
 archaeological treasures of the museum, and she was much 
 interested in his description of the evolution of the modern 
 safety-pin, where gradually useless parts of the pin were dropped 
 "to forms of mere decoration," until the "ornamentation had 
 so far progressed as to be almost unrecognizable as the original 
 type." 
 
 She remarks: "The idea of studying evolution by means 
 of stone and bronze implements and other archaeological rec- 
 ords was new to me, and my interest in all these studies re- 
 ceived a new impulse." 
 
 Hildebrandt talked to her learnedly of dolmens, and the 
 stone implements found in them, and gave her an impromptu 
 sketch of one. She discovered that the assistant curator of the 
 museum, "who had written ably on antiquarian subjects, " bore 
 her mother's name of Montelius, and had not long previously 
 received a letter from a W. W. Montelius of Colorado, inquir- 
 ing if he could furnish any information regarding his family. 
 She remarks: "It seems the name may be common enough 
 here, since during the past hundred years it has been the 
 fashion to latinize every name. Persons living near the moun- 
 tains may have been called Borg-hjem, which would give the 
 name Montelius, from mons." 
 
 Professor Hildebrandt also took her to his own home, which 
 she describes as "a story in itself," its study facing the north, 
 its walls lined to the ceiling with histories, Oriental works, and 
 books on his specialty. She noticed that there were no carpets 
 on the floor of white boards, only rugs under the tables. She 
 says : 
 
 "Hildebrandt spoke much of the different Swedish customs, 
 and the matter of dropping titles. The younger of two acquaint- 
 ances would never suggest addressing the older without the 
 title Doctor, Professor, or Herre. When the proposition to call 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 35 
 
 each other by the surname alone is made, it is always done with 
 ceremony over a glass of wine, saying, ' Let us drink to drop all 
 titles.' The King and Queen and Crown Prince would address 
 Hildebrandt as ' thou ' and call him Hildebrandt without title. 
 The younger members of the royal family could not. 
 
 "In rare exceptions, a gentleman may address a lady with 
 'thou.' The case given was where a very intimate friend of 
 the gentleman married a lady who was an intimate friend of 
 the wife." 
 
 Taken all in all she was much pleased with Stockholm and 
 with Swedish people and customs; she says in her penciled 
 notes : 
 
 "The first impressions of Stockholm are lasting. It is one 
 of the most attractive and beautiful of European cities. Its 
 canals, handsome buildings, its sweet pure air, its dignified 
 inhabitants render it a place of growing interest. The polite- 
 ness of even the most menial is phenomenal. No servant 
 ever addresses you without first taking off his cap in saluta- 
 tion. 
 
 "The pavements are of Belgium block as well as the streets. 
 Before the large hotels and cafe's are little tables and chairs. 
 Large trees or screens of growing ivy shut off one table from 
 another, giving seclusion. 
 
 "The people seem to be under the care of a wise and careful 
 government. Along the quays are life preservers to be thrown 
 at once into the water in case of an accident. In winter, ropes, 
 lanterns, and hooks are along the water's edge for accidents 
 on the ice. . . . 
 
 "A market day in Stockholm on a clear day is as bright as 
 an Italian scene. The products are offered for sale from little 
 white-awninged stalls. White and black bread, flowers, fruits, 
 and vegetables are for sale. The square measures, Morse said, 
 were like Japanese measures. I noticed that all the baskets 
 and larger boxes were never oval, always square. The fishing- 
 nets along the banks were also like Japanese ones, only round 
 instead of square. Several resemblances to Japan occur: the 
 shop signs over the doorways. 
 
 "The market-places are near the water's edge, and all the 
 
36 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 products seem to be brought by steamer. I watched them un- 
 loading. Wood is also brought in large open sailboats. 
 
 "The fish-market offered the same features as the market in 
 Christiania. The lobsters' claws were tied. The politeness of 
 the market -people would have caused a shudder of dismay in 
 the minds of the coarse English marketwomen. As one ap- 
 proached the stalls, the men kindly raised their hats. 
 
 "The Swedish language when spoken is beautiful; the 
 sounds are soft and musical, flowing from the lips like Italian 
 words. 
 
 "There is a refinement among the people which has been 
 prompted by their surroundings, their great institutes of learn- 
 ing, and their pride and dignity are well warranted when the 
 country has given them such men as Gustavus Adolphus, 
 Linnaeus, Berzelius, Charles XII, and Hildebrandt. . . . 
 
 "Honesty in its highest expression marks the character of 
 the people of Scandinavia. They seem often slow to grasp an 
 idea, it being long before the transference reaches the brain. 
 It may be possible that other languages do not so readily con- 
 vey ideas as our own, and the people have developed a slow 
 habit." 
 
 From Stockholm, Miss Abbott proceeded to Copenhagen, 
 where she was everywhere welcomed and given encouragement 
 to come to the laboratories of the various institutions of learn- 
 ing. Professor Steenstrup himself, "a dear old man seventy- 
 nine years of age, and very lame, " conducted her over the 
 Zoological Museum of the Royal University which was housed 
 in the former palace of the princes, built in 1744, and nothing 
 escaped her inquisitive notice from the catches of the windows 
 to the arrangement of the fossils. She could not find herself 
 supporting the inartistic effect of ornamentation which she 
 says, "were birds of prey coming down upon the dead animals, 
 as Steenstrup observed, and above this, and as a frieze, were 
 windows painted and trailing vines of a bright green." She 
 found Steenstrup witty and of artistic feeling, but was surprised 
 to discover that he, like Professor Lb'ven, was not an evolution- 
 ist, and clung to the "old systems of classification." 
 
 She enjoyed "a lovely drive through the country to the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 37 
 
 Agricultural School, which fully repaid the effort." "The 
 buildings," she says, "are over very extensive grounds, where 
 all subjects relating to agriculture are taught. In asking the 
 usual question, if ladies would be admitted, the reply was, ' Of 
 course, but they must study general agriculture, and could not 
 come for only one branch.' The gentlemen in the laboratory, 
 also the servants, were extremely courteous and gave me a 
 warm welcome, at the same time showing me over the rooms." 
 
 Through the kindness of Professor Steenstrup, she was per- 
 mitted to visit the University Laboratory, where he thought 
 ladies "had even more opportunities than in Sweden." She 
 found many of the students working on elementary chemistry, 
 qualitative analysis, and the preparation of organic compounds, 
 while for quantitative work they went to the Polytechnic School. 
 "Lady-students are admitted on equal ternis with the men, 
 and the examinations are open to them. They receive their 
 diplomas. Only in law and theology they cannot receive a di- 
 ploma, for they cannot practice those professions, but they study 
 both branches if they desire to do so." She found that lady- 
 students were also admitted at the Polytechnical Laboratory 
 under the direction of Dr. S. M. Jorgensen, and that several 
 had studied there though "not with a view to practical applica- 
 tion of their knowledge." She was delighted with the Carls- 
 berg Laboratory, which had been founded by a Herre Jacobsen, 
 but after his death, in 1878, had come under the special patron- 
 age of the King. Professor Hansen, the director, "a noble 
 specimen of a gentleman, thoroughly courteous," welcomed 
 her "as the first lady who had ever visited his laboratory on a 
 scientific mission, and he expressed his admiration and grati- 
 fication." He told her that "his laboratory was first for 
 the acquisition of scientific truths, secondly for imparting 
 knowledge, and that students sufficiently advanced were free 
 to come, but they must be acquainted with some chemistry 
 and botany, since those subjects were not taught element- 
 arily." 
 
 Dr. Hansen had been cultivating many specimens of yeast- 
 ferments, and had determined which species of yeast gave the 
 best beers. Although he had not then found time to publish 
 
38 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 any account of his methods, she learned that they were car- 
 ried out in a Chicago brewery. 
 
 "Hansen said it would be necessary for one to come and 
 work by his methods to understand his work. Many of his 
 yeast-cultures have been living many years. He said that when 
 he was an old man he would perhaps give into the hands of 
 his successors culture-cells that were started years ago! He 
 keeps alive these cells in solutions of sucrose. He has experi- 
 mented widely in making different species of these organisms, 
 and he hopes to work out experimentally the chapter of Darwin 
 on the variation of species. 
 
 "Hansen has promised to send me his publications. He 
 gave us to drink some of his scientific beer." 
 
 Early in October, Miss Abbott left Copenhagen, taking "a 
 remarkably shallow and long boat from Korsor to Kiel. On 
 arriving in the dark of the early morning of the 5th, she and 
 her maid went to the Hotel Germania, were "shown into 
 a large cold room where they shivered in beds covered with 
 down pillows until eight," when she despatched a note to Pro- 
 fessor Ladenburg asking if he would receive her, and on re- 
 ceiving his courteous reply, started out for his laboratory, the 
 peculiarities of which she describes with the usual accompani- 
 ment of illustrative drawings. Of this visit she says : 
 
 "His rooms are in the university, beautifully furnished, in- 
 dicating a love of art and refinement. Ladenburg was charming 
 in his manner, so courteous, and giving me the fullest informa- 
 tion in regard to the apparatus. What a pleasure it would be 
 to study under such a man, and in such conditions! But it is 
 impossible since no lady can enter as a student within the uni- 
 versity walls. 
 
 "Ladenburg showed me his specimens of synthetically pre- 
 pared coniin. He has obtained two, one which turns the plane 
 of polarized light to the right, and this one, physiologically and 
 in every way resembles coniin obtained from the plant. The 
 one which turns the plane of polarized light to the left is not 
 like the natural product. He has been many years obtaining 
 this synthetical product. 
 
 " My visit to Ladenburg was wonderfully delightful. I should 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 39 
 
 have been glad to question him as to the course for students 
 and methods pursued in investigation, but the time was limited. 
 He had previously arranged to go with Mrs. Ladenburg to 
 Hamburg to the theatre, and it was impossible to undo the 
 arrangement. Mrs. Ladenburg invited me cordially to visit 
 her on my ever coming again to Kiel. She served me to choco- 
 late she had learned to prepare in Holland. The service was 
 of very costly silver; a kind of cake curled, and tasting like 
 lady cake with cinnamon, was eaten with it. 
 
 "A visit to the Museum of Antiquities, where an Anglo- 
 Saxon boat built 1500 years ago, and other Wydham Moor 
 relics well repay study. The Zoological Museum and Botani- 
 cal Garden closed one of the eventful days of my trip." She 
 spent two days in Hamburg where she visited the famous 
 Technical School for Girls. It may be all told in her own 
 words which were written down later in Nuremburg. 
 
 "October 6, 1887, was spent at Hamburg Hotel Kron- 
 prinz. Sent my card to Dr. Wiebel, but failed to find him dur- 
 ing my two days' stay. Early on the 6th, I sent my card of in- 
 troduction by a commissionnaire, who spoke only German, 
 and from a lack of teeth and other obstacles in his way, I found 
 it difficult to comprehend if my letter had been delivered and 
 received. No answer ever came. It may be Professor Wiebel 
 was absent. 
 
 " I hunted out his laboratory, which opened back of his dwell- 
 ing upon a very old street. The houses were extremely old, 
 and two were built at an angle so close together that passage 
 between was quite impossible, and even the light was impeded 
 from entering some of the windows. I had difficulty in mak- 
 ing the commissionnaire go to the laboratory door with my 
 card. I remained waiting in a garden outside of the laboratory 
 building. Ten pairs of eyes watched Fannie and me, for some 
 time, no doubt, wondering why we came and what we wanted. 
 During the delay, I could see through a window that energetic 
 conversation was taking place between three men, evidently 
 assistants. I noticed that the windows were utilized for carry- 
 ing on chemical operations. The sides were of glass slats 
 which, by an iron rod, could be opened at will. It is a very 
 
40 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 marked feature of European laboratories to utilize their win- 
 dows for chemical operations, and in botanical laboratories 
 for little hothouses. 
 
 "After a few minutes an assistant appeared, who most 
 affably took me over the Institute. 
 
 " Dr. WiebePs laboratory is a private one, and his students 
 are from the University, especially during the summer months. 
 I believe one or two ladies have studied here. The only condi- 
 tion exacted is that they should know German. There seems 
 to be no obstruction to ladies studying anywhere in the private 
 institutes; the regulation preventing their working in the lab- 
 oratories applies only to government schools. The Minister 
 of Instruction himself holds the right to grant permission even 
 here, but I am told that permission is rarely if ever given by 
 him. The rooms though small seemed to be conveniently fitted 
 up, but there were none of the great conveniences of the newer 
 and larger laboratories." 
 
 Dr. J. Brinckmann, Direktor des Museums fiir Kunst und 
 Gewerbe in Hamburg, gave her a card to Frau Ree, the head 
 of the Woman's Art Industrial School, and on the following 
 day she made her a visit, finding her " a lady perhaps over fifty, 
 with hair brushed smoothly down each side, and a quick blue 
 eye." She says: 
 
 "The Gewerbeschule fiir Madchen was started from a very 
 humble origin by Frau Ree. She took almost from the streets 
 young and ignorant girls who had no training or education, 
 and in a few small rooms had them taught the rudiments of 
 education, such as writing, arithemetic, and grammar. The 
 money for the present building was raised by subscription. 
 At present the institution is supported by the school fees, and 
 the payment by the public for work done. There is very little 
 capital from which to draw money. The highest school fee 
 for one year is 180 marks. The average is 150. 
 
 "The time of the course is about two years. The girls are 
 expected to work about thirty-six hours a week, six hours a 
 day, from nine to three o'clock. The present number of stu- 
 dents is three hundred, varying from fifteen to twenty-five, 
 though women of thirty years have come. There is no distinc- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 41 
 
 tion made as to rank, all classes must meet upon a common 
 footing. Many are the daughters of very wealthy men, mer- 
 chants, landed proprietors, and others; one of the teachers was 
 the daughter of a landed proprietor. Even some of the teachers 
 now in the school were former pupils, well-to-do, and would 
 have no need to work but do so from preference. Even now 
 in Germany it is quite common for girls of good families to 
 secure positions as governesses or to help in the domestic work. 
 
 "The girls' schools of Hamburg give an ordinary good school 
 education, but there is no 'higher education' of the women 
 here, no colleges, and the universities are closed to them. Frau 
 Ree considered that it was purely for a monetary reason, as it 
 is scarcely possible for a man of education to get a living since 
 there are so many educated men and few openings. They fear 
 if the intellectual avenues are open to women that they will 
 have even fewer opportunities than at present. Frau Ree said 
 Germany was a century or so behind in this respect. She de- 
 scribed the North German, the Prussian, as the representative 
 of centuries of culture, very able and conscious of his thorough- 
 ness in education, a little overbearing, but really of good stock. 
 
 "She described the people of South Germany as lazy and 
 of less active temperament. She thought that Wiebel would 
 have helped me very little, and that there was nothing of spe- 
 cial interest to me chemically at Hamburg. She described 
 Ladenburg and his wife (she is a daughter of the botanist 
 Pringsheim) as being extremely delightful and advanced peo- 
 ple. 
 
 "In speaking of the woman's suffrage movement in Amer- 
 ica, she said it had done harm, and that those women who were 
 advanced could afford to wait, but that women were not as a 
 rule prepared for it, nor fitted generally for the positions they 
 claimed by suffrage. 
 
 "The new building where the school is now was entered in 
 1874. One feature I noticed about the school is the fact that 
 very capable students are frequently paid to do the very finest 
 art work. They were engaged in embroidering samples of the 
 kind of work that can be done in the school. These samples 
 are sent to museums, etc. They are at present preparing a set 
 
42 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 for the Museum in Stockholm. The character of the art work 
 is general, embracing embroidery on linen or satin of every de- 
 scription, copies of Japanese patterns, on crepe, and the long 
 embroidery Japanese stitch in colors, beadwork, finest of laces, 
 etc. These samples are expensive because they are the finest 
 of needlework. Two hunderd and forty marks was asked for 
 one sample of linen which contained about nine different 
 kinds of embroidery. 
 
 "Frau Ree thought that it would be necessary to have sam- 
 ples of work in a museum, or in a school, showing the develop- 
 ment from the more simple to the more elaborate. She said in 
 case it was desired to have these samples, that if she were in- 
 formed of the amount of money that could be spent in this 
 way, she would do her best to select typical and good speci- 
 mens. 
 
 "The teachers were formerly obtained from Vienna, which 
 also has a famous industrial school, but she found the teachers 
 less anxious to work than the North Germans, and they now 
 train their own teachers. She said the drawing was the most 
 expensive ; the teachers required higher salaries, doubtless, than 
 the others. The South Kensington Museum Frau Ree felt was 
 too limited. The work done there is exquisite, but it is usually 
 done by ladies in reduced circumstances. Frau Ree thought 
 that such a school was much needed in London. 
 
 "She has various departments of industrial work in the 
 building, French, German, and book-keeping classes. The 
 latter idea was introduced from Munich and Nuremberg. 
 However, there are few opportunities for girls getting situa- 
 tions for book-keeping in Hamburg. The idea of women tak- 
 ing care of accounts, etc., has worked so well in France that 
 Frau Ree saw no reason why it would not work well in Ham- 
 burg. Typewriting is not much done, nor is there much call for 
 stenography. Formerly the school had a class of stenography, 
 but not at present, since there seemed to be no demand for it. 
 The Hamburg merchants are very particular about the hand- 
 writing, and one of the first questions asked is, ' Does she write 
 a good hand?' Samples of the different kinds of writing done 
 was shown by the teacher in charge. It was absolutely perfect 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 43 
 
 in every kind of writing and figuring. Drawing as a founda- 
 tion for forming good seamstresses and dressmakers was ac- 
 centuated very strongly by Frau Ree. 
 
 "Many of the pupils were occupied in designing original 
 patterns. These patterns are afterwards worked out in bead 
 or silk embroidery in the art-room. The patterns were all cut 
 in the underclothing-room on scientific principles. They were 
 first drawn on paper according to measure, then cut. They 
 were also taught the rules of enlarging or making smaller. The 
 sewing on white goods was exquisite. Every kind of stitch 
 known was made on pattern-slips of linen two or three feet or 
 less long. The seams sewed on the bias were marked, ' Felled 
 seams on the bias' To pass the board of examiners, it is neces- 
 sary to have made a shirt or chemise by hand, as well as other 
 articles. The board of examiners is composed of men. On 
 being asked what they knew of sewing, Frau Ree laughed, and 
 said that she was trying to have women appointed on the board. 
 
 "On account of having no special printing-establishments 
 in Hamburg, there are few opportunities for a girl to get a 
 situation as a designer. 
 
 "In speaking of the little regard for educated women, she 
 said those lady- doctors in Hamburg, who had studied dentistry 
 in America, were not allowed to put out their signs as American 
 dentists. Also I believe that one of the professors in the dental 
 department was not permitted to use his American title. 
 
 "All the girls who study underclothes-making (they are here 
 trained for going into large white-clothes establishments) must 
 learn to sew on the machine. Frau Ree said that the American 
 sewing machines were the best in the world, but that Ameri- 
 cans could not sew the best on them; when Singer, or Wheeler, 
 or others wish to exhibit samples of what their machines could 
 do, they would send to Hamburg to hire the work done. The 
 pupils made entire garments out of white tissue paper, sewed 
 with the same care and skill as if it were in linen. Carefully 
 feather-stitched around the neck and sleeves, the little chemises 
 looked very dainty. 
 
 "Frau Ree said the pupils delighted to make them, and she 
 encouraged it, since it gave lightness of hand. 
 
44 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 "Orders for underclothing, art work, millinery, washing 
 and ironing, lace renovating, etc., are taken from the public, 
 and the pay goes to help support the institution. Frau Ree 
 said that any industrial school, starting, should always take in 
 work from the public; it made the pupils more careful. Fine 
 work would only be done by those who were no longer pupils, 
 but who had been engaged by the Institution to do this work. 
 Room after room is filled with classes. 
 
 "In the basement is the laundry. Young girls come and 
 wash for three or four hours once in ten days or so. They all 
 learn. Frau Ree said that as soon as a girl became betrothed, 
 she came to the school to learn washing, etc., in order that 
 she might tell her servant how it should be done, or in case of 
 her going to remote country districts and out of reach of 
 servants from any cause. It was quite a pretty picture to see 
 two young girls of fifteen or sixteen starching collars. In the 
 laundry-room the laces were done up equal to new. It was im- 
 possible to tell the difference. She said that many ladies brought 
 their finest laces, knowing that they would not be injured. The 
 charges in the laundry were not above the laundries outside 
 nor lower. For very fine work, the charges were proportional 
 to what was done. They are taught to clear up their shop after 
 washing. Frau Ree said that often when some proud girl would 
 not condescend to wipe up the floor, she would stoop down and 
 clean up her place. The young girl would color, but the second 
 time would not leave a wet place. 
 
 "I noticed that strict discipline seemed to be exerted, and 
 the pupils were addressed with much firmness. We had a little 
 talk on servants, etc. Frau Ree said that the prejudice in Ger- 
 many against women earning money was still very strong, and 
 that her own husband would not have permitted her to take a 
 cent for the work she was doing at the school, though she re- 
 mained there from eight to five. Having no children at home, 
 and her husband being engaged in his work, she was free to 
 give her life entirely to her work. She agreed with me that the 
 servant was often the product of the mistress, and when a ser- 
 vant saw that the lady herself did not work, she was apt to im- 
 pose. It is the spirit of the age, said Frau Ree, that the public 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 45 
 
 are above work. Work is looked upon as a disgrace. Only 
 by years of patience can things be better. 
 
 "Frau Ree would have liked to combine a kitchen with the 
 school, but she said the building was too far out of town, and 
 pupils would not come so far for the food. Her idea, the lead- 
 ing one, was always to do for the public. 
 
 "This lady has erected a monument to herself. It has been 
 a colossal undertaking, now a success and running fairly 
 alone. The excellence of the work done in every department 
 requires much time, and in this respect Americans are super- 
 ficial, they do not take the time to work properly. 
 
 "I could not help feeling that the two years spent almost 
 entirely upon practical work was at the expense of intellectual 
 training. Even supposing that the pupils had not the intelli- 
 gence to become scientists or literary women, yet absolute 
 handicraft is narrowing to what intellect they have. To in- 
 troduce good, substantial work and art work into homes of the 
 middle classes certainly is a good scheme, since it helps to refine 
 and cultivate the lower. To what extent practical and intellect- 
 ual work can be run side by side is a question. Also to what 
 extent is intellect involved in so-called practical work. Many 
 of the parents only allow their children to stay part of the 
 course. This is the same old story everywhere. Many of the 
 young girls are only learning in order to make their own and 
 families' clothing. 
 
 "A half hour is given the girls for lunch during the day. 
 Some of the pupils come several miles from the country to 
 attend their classes. 
 
 "We talked over the difficulty to train servants in schools, 
 when they had no means of support during their learning. In 
 some cases, their families would be willing to help daughters to 
 get a good training, especially when higher wages could be 
 demanded for skilled work. Frau Ree believed that the public 
 should, from the first, be called in to add to the support of any 
 school of this kind, and on this account she took in immediately 
 sewing, washing and ironing, and art work." 
 
 Here the account of the visit comes abruptly to a close, the 
 remaining sheets having been lost or mislaid. From Ham- 
 
46 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 burg, Miss Abbott went directly to Berlin, where she spent 
 nearly a week. 
 
 She was pleasantly welcomed by the distinguished chemist 
 Liebermann, whose "immense collection of organic prepara- 
 tions were most interesting. Case after case was filled with 
 every variety of chemical compounds. It was certainly a start- 
 ling sight to see so much of value collected together. During 
 the lectures, specimens, as wanted, are exhibited. These large 
 chemical collections are parallel to the zoological and ethnologi- 
 cal collections in the big museum. It is in a great measure 
 owing to such collections that the excellence of European w r ork 
 comes in." She adds: 
 
 "I have found in all cases the utmost willingness on the part 
 of scientific men to give me all the information possible in the 
 limited time at our disposal. Never once have I seen the slight- 
 est sign of impatience or desire to hurry me away on their part. 
 They seem only too desirous of imparting, without ostentation, 
 information resulting from their own work. Here I want again 
 to say that from naturalists (botanists included) I have had 
 more sympathy and help than from chemists." 
 
 She gives an interesting description of Hofmann's famous 
 laboratory : 
 
 "October 12, 1887. 
 
 "About Hofmann. A silver-haired man, handsome. One 
 who shows the result of high school associations, amiable, 
 even charming in his manner. Speaks English very well. The 
 places in the laboratory are so much sought for, that applica- 
 tion must be made far in advance. I am to write and apply for 
 a place in his laboratory, to avail myself of the opportunities 
 of extending my knowledge. The question of attending his 
 lectures would have to be done in secret, since women are not 
 permitted in the auditorium, nor to work in the rooms with 
 the men-students. 
 
 "I did not meet or see the members of Hofmann's family. 
 His house, 10 Dorotheenstrasse, has always been the abode of 
 chemists. Margraff, who first got sugar from beets, was the 
 first to occupy it. Various busts and pictures of chemists adorn 
 the laboratory walls. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 47 
 
 "A new name to me was the Loggia. These are rooms which 
 are open on the side to the fresh air where dangerous opera- 
 tions may be carried on or reactions which give off deleterious 
 gases. There were several of these rooms. The space allotted 
 for each student is small, and necessarily requires that only 
 one operation be carried on at once. The number of water- 
 baths, drying-ovens, combination-furnaces, is extremely limited, 
 and it would seem that the students must wait their turns, a 
 slow and time- wasting process, but impossible to be avoided. 
 Closed tubes are used for combustions. 
 
 "The laboratory looked like a place, a home, which had 
 not the personal supervision of a head. I see where my weak 
 points are, and what is necessary for me to do to fortify my- 
 self by study. The beginners are made to work on some in- 
 organic compound first for qualitative study; then they are 
 hurried to organic chemistry. It is the worship of the benzole 
 ring. The assistant told me that it was all he cared for. Tie- 
 mann, the one who has synthetically made vanillin, was absent. 
 
 "Hofmann's study in his house is quite a large room con- 
 taining family portraits. Over his desk is a marble female 
 bust. The furniture is black and gold, sofas and chairs cov- 
 ered with green. The carpet looks like chinchilla, a velvet one. 
 The chemical lecture-room of the university (Hofmann's) is 
 where the chemical society usually meets. I was present on the 
 opening night, October 10. . . . 
 
 "Hofmann must be a most brilliant lecturer. I cannot help 
 feeling that the centuries of cultivation, and the early univer- 
 sity training, have established these men on a plane which we 
 cannot yet quite approach. The absolute familiarity and rec- 
 ognized mastery of the subject on the part of these men is what 
 the student would most profit by." 
 
 She gives a brief account of an evening spent at the Session 
 of the Berlin Chemical Society, which she thought most inter- 
 esting : 
 
 "Liebermann took me. It was not a very large attendance. 
 Hofmann presided. On his left sat Pinner; on the right Lieber- 
 mann. A notice of a defunct member was read, then Hofmann 
 introduced me to the members present by a very pleasant little 
 
48 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 speech. I believe I am the first lady who ever attended one 
 of these meetings. There were some original communications. 
 Then a little discussion followed. Pinner read extracts or 
 gave abstracts of the papers sent in to the society containing 
 new discoveries, etc. In some cases, he wrote formulas on the 
 blackboard. 
 
 "Hofmann thanked him for his able presentation of the 
 papers, and the meeting adjourned to supper, to which I did not 
 go, though Liebermann asked me. The ladies at the Lieber- 
 mann dinner thought I did well in declining the supper, and 
 that I should have laid myself open to talk if I had gone. There 
 was no temptation on my part to go. I met Witt. He speaks 
 English almost perfectly, indeed with no accent. He is a large 
 man (young), light mustache, and wears a diamond and gold 
 rings on one hand, a seal ring on the other. 
 
 "He is especially interested in how the diatomaceae dissolve 
 the silica which they contain in their cells. He had by no means 
 any explanation to give, except that the amounts found in them 
 was greater than could be expected from the silica dissolved 
 in salt water. In speaking of the amorphous condition of starch, 
 he said he doubted that any amorphous substance could po- 
 larize light, and that all starch granules must be crystalline, 
 although the crystalline character was not made out. Lieber- 
 mann' s communication before the society was an exhibition 
 of dramatic gymnastics on the blackboard. It was given with 
 an agility really phenomenal. Liebermann's eye is as quick as 
 lightning. A rosy face, Jewish countenance, dark beard and 
 hair, rather short stature and slender, make up his personality. 
 He was most anxious to examine the chemical compounds in 
 fresh plants, and spoke of obtaining indigo plants from Mex- 
 ico. He thought that I should rather work on some well-known 
 substance, which was not yet studied chemically, and which 
 was of practical use. He was very nice about my work, apolo- 
 gizing in regard to suggesting, but doing it all so nicely that he 
 could never have been objectionable. He questioned me with 
 interest about my plant-compounds, and said it was an espe- 
 cially interesting field, and one that chemists had not much 
 touched upon." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 49 
 
 After her visit to the Hofmann laboratory and to Frau 
 Liebermann's, she went to the Industrial School Museum, a 
 building adjoining the Ethnological Museum, where there 
 was an exhibition of students' industrial art work. Mr. Ewald, 
 the director, conducted her over the room. She says: "All 
 that has an industrial feature is taught in the building. Those 
 departments which teach a trade where it is impossible for a 
 woman to get employment are of course not attended by wo- 
 men-students. Both sexes work together. Professor Ewald 
 told me he was the one to push forward the idea of admitting 
 women, and to allow them to work freely in the classes with 
 men. There is an exception in the life-classes, where women 
 are not allowed. They study from the living model in the pre- 
 paratory school, but in divided classes from the men. The other 
 classes in the preparatory school are also divided, not from 
 prejudice, Professor Ewald answered me, but because the 
 classes of both sexes were sufficiently large to admit of separate 
 classes, and that the women preferred to be alone. They only 
 joined the classes in the higher school because the women were 
 very few in number. The girls working in the few rooms which 
 were occupied at the time I came, were timid and unaggressive, 
 and seemed as if they were unable to resist any masculine pres- 
 sure, and seeing the character of these girls, I did not wonder 
 at the impossibility of their working with men in the labora- 
 tories. Yet Ewald told me they had never any trouble, and 
 all went on peaceably. There were drawings from casts, the 
 flat, and from life. One room was devoted to modeling. The 
 models for beginners are first modeled in wax, part yellow and 
 part white wax, colored. The vases are modeled in sections, 
 then joined. All the fine modeling is done likewise in wax. 
 There are classes of anatomy but given with the skeleton and 
 few plaster casts. The etchings were very interesting. . . . 
 
 "The Lette-Verein is a large house, more like an apartment 
 house, utilized to serve the purposes of the school. They take 
 some boarders. The girls eat on a long table in the middle of 
 the restaurant, whilst persons from the street eat on small side 
 tables. The rooms are small, and the classes come in different 
 numbers for several hours each day. The lady who conducted 
 
50 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 me over the house explained that in Berlin the girls had not the 
 time to come all day, and some had even other occupations 
 which made an all-day attendance impossible. On an average, 
 three hours was all that was expected of them. The classes 
 held two sessions per day. The second began about four o'clock 
 p. M., but with different scholars. The attendant told me they 
 took all girls of respectability who applied, but as some pay 
 was required, the very poorest could not come. She said they 
 did not care much for the lower classes. 
 
 "The institution had none of the earnest atmosphere of the 
 Hamburg school, and the spirit of Frau Ree was absent. The 
 art work was quite beautifully done. I saw none so beautifully 
 done as the Hamburg samples. In the Kunst-Gewerbe Mu- 
 seum one thing pleased me, and that was the photographs of 
 the different pieces of work. Professor Ewald thought that it 
 was very important to get a general idea of the effect of any 
 work. The cooking department of the Lette-Verein smelt of 
 grease and fat. I was there after hours, and the kitchen had 
 not yet been cleaned up. The washing- rooms were steamy and 
 presided over by two very rough washerwomen. 
 
 " The scholars themselves very seldom do the washing, but 
 learn from observation. The ironing is done especially well, 
 and the Institution takes it in. The charges are high, the lady 
 said, in accordance with the good work done. The house is 
 under the especial patronage of the crown princess. Contribu- 
 tions have been given, and the scholars pay. But the lady com- 
 plained of every one in Prussia being poor." 
 
 Her experiences in Berlin led her to make the following ob- 
 servations : 
 
 "The position of German women, I think, is unenviable. 
 The broader avenues are shut to even the few who could claim 
 them. The domestic training of the women to become good 
 housekeepers and economical is excellent, and might well be 
 copied more by us. The thoroughness, too, of what education 
 they have is also where they seem ahead of our women, but in 
 comparing only the more highly cultivated here and our own 
 highly cultivated, the American of to-day is doubly ahead in 
 many ways. We do things, perhaps, too quickly, and it may 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 51 
 
 seem to foreigners superficial. There is probably no woman in 
 America capable of holding such a position through her ability 
 as Madame Kovalevskaya. There is very much to be learned 
 from the Europeans. Their tenacity and patience might here 
 be imitated by us." 
 
 In Berlin, she was invited to a dinner at the Liebermanns, 
 "the table elegantly set and the food deliciously cooked in the 
 French mode," --and she found it most interesting. 
 
 "We discussed many points of woman's position in Ger- 
 many. The young ladies, after leaving school at sixteen, take 
 conversation lessons in different languages. They do not study 
 from grammars, but acquire superficially for drawing-room use 
 several languages. They paint, do art work, and sing and play. 
 Mrs. Liebermann thought that it was because the language 
 lessons were fashionable that they were so generally followed. 
 Mrs. Liebermann designed patterns for artistic work; many 
 of her designs were given to the Lette-Verein. Her old mother 
 executed them in work. One screen nearly six feet high was 
 most beautifully done. Table-covers and other embroideries 
 wherever art work could be used had been placed. This is very 
 attractive and gives to nimble fingers employment which is 
 preferable to the waste of time at home. Mrs. Liebermann 
 told me that comparatively little time was spent in visiting 
 I suppose she spoke of her circle and in this way much time 
 was spent over lessons. Mrs. Liebermann took the lessons with 
 her daughter, and I noticed the same elsewhere. The mothers 
 take an active part in their daughters' and children's education, 
 and if they do not become renowned women, at least they keep 
 where they were when leaving school and do not retrograde. 
 There is very much for us to learn from these mothers. . . . 
 
 "The ladies complained very much of their restrictions of 
 liberty, and how Mr. Liebermann objected to their doing this 
 thing or that. It is a question of the man keeping the control 
 by imposing this discipline. Liebermann has a Jewish face, red 
 cheeks, dark hair and beard." 
 
 She was also entertained at dinner at the house of Professor 
 Pringsheim to whom she had brought a letter of introduction. 
 Here also her notes give a pleasant picture of herself : 
 
52 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 "The Pringsheims were charming. The old professor espe- 
 cially was kind, giving me cards of introduction to those for 
 whom I asked, also to others. The wife spoke only German 
 and French, but the daughters spoke very good English. I 
 cannot speak enough of the genuine kindness shown me. Mrs. 
 Pringsheim invited me to come to her home and stay with her. 
 My letter from Ladenburg must have been especially intro- 
 ductory from the reception I received. Mrs. Pringsheim thought 
 that of course it was strange for a lady to come over for such a 
 purpose as I had, also that Fannie would cause attention, but 
 she said nothing of an objectionable nature could come from 
 it as the object of my visit was so apparent, and Fannie held 
 her place so thoroughly as a servant. Her quiet dressing and 
 respectful manner gave at once a dignity to my position. 
 
 "At the dinner were Professor, Mrs. and Miss Pringsheim, 
 also Miss Du Bois Raymond. The table was set with autumn 
 leaves as decoration. They blended beautifully with the fruit 
 on the table. Professor Pringsheim rather showed signs of 
 slight displeasure with the decoration. Mrs. Pringsheim re- 
 sponded that Professor Pringsheim cared only for chlorophyll. 
 I replied that I did not like chlorophyll, it was too difficult a 
 subject. Professor Pringsheim in his list of botanists of all the 
 world (it was a printed volume) had written down my name 
 in ink as one of the botanists of Philadelphia. The dear old 
 man showed it to me. He has a laboratory of his own, where he 
 works when he feels like it. His home is large, and has a garden 
 attached. Some figs on the table had grown in it." 
 
 She also describes interestingly an hour spent with Kny 
 in his laboratory at the Agricultural School. "I went to him 
 on Thursday, Oct. 13, after my visit to Landolt's laboratory. 
 Kny has a good library attached to his rooms. The 'Botanischer 
 Jahresbericht ' contains extracts of all the botanical publica- 
 tions, and Kny said I should send to Dr. E. Koehne (Friedenau 
 bei Berlin) my papers for notice. He has, in connection with 
 his rooms, a hothouse for the cultivation of the necessary plants 
 required for use in teaching. Both Schwendener and Kny are 
 principally occupied with the mechanical rule of plant-phy- 
 siology. Schwendener told me there was just now wanting 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 53 
 
 in Germany a man who would devote himself to chemical 
 physiology. 
 
 "Water-culture experiments are carried on here some- 
 times. He had a table on wheels which ran on a rail to an 
 outside balcony where the jars could have access to the air 
 and light. The wheels were controlled to go very slowly by a 
 kind of crank. The hothouse was built quite on the top of 
 the house so that there was no obstruction to light and air. 
 Kny has displayed much originality in his methods of ar- 
 ranging his plants. He has injected many by mixing with the 
 soil colors that have been taken up and followed along the 
 tracks of certain vessels. In drying, the lines of these vessels 
 can be most distinctly seen. 
 
 "He has his dried specimens between sheets of heavy paper 
 and then placed in pasteboard boxes about the dimensions 
 of a music portfolio, and four to six inches deep. His fungi 
 are classified according to morphological points, or rather 
 all morphological points which can be brought out as particu- 
 larly characteristic are noted on the covers as features. The 
 morphological characters of fungi are so strongly marked 
 that they offer great chances for this means of identification. 
 The phaenogams and even the cryptogams had their various 
 physiological or chemical characters given on the portfolios 
 when they were especially notable. I think Kny had one 
 portfolio devoted to plants especially characterized by con- 
 taining iodine. 
 
 "The paper describing all this Kny presented to me. He 
 is still a young man of perhaps forty or more, and he was most 
 desirous of having me write him and meet his family on Sun- 
 day. I could not go, however, as I left too early to undertake 
 it. He had many specimens of Brendel's botanical models, 
 and praised them highly for the purposes they are intended 
 to meet. Kny is also the author of botanical charts which 
 I first saw in Copenhagen. They are drawn large and from 
 the specimens. ... He said it might be possible for me to 
 work with him, but I might have to be in his dark room. 
 This was indeed a funereal chamber, painted black. For- 
 merly it was used for conducting spectroscopic experiments." 
 
54 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 She goes on to describe a visit to Professor Schwendener 
 to whom she brought a card of introduction given her by 
 Professor Pringsheim. He received her pleasantly on Sunday 
 at his home, and made an appointment for her to inspect 
 his laboratories in the Botanical Institution on Dorotheen- 
 strasse near Hoffmann's house. 
 
 "Schwendener," she says, "was rather afraid to say he 
 would admit a lady- student. He was very firm in his opinion 
 that the Minister of Instruction was so much opposed to 
 ladies being admitted that it would be exceedingly rare to 
 have the permission, and to do so without permission, was 
 to lay one's self open to a severe reprimand. It is quite 
 opposed to the regulations to have any women present in the 
 lecture auditoriums, and when women attend lectures, they 
 must do so under cover, behind a screen, or back of a window 
 or door. Schwendener said he had been much reprehended 
 for having Miss Gregory as a student, but as he had her in 
 his private room, no one had a right to complain. My con- 
 versation with Schwendener was interesting in the extreme. 
 My idea of chemical constituents was new to him. His only 
 speaking German and French was a disadvantage as I was 
 unable to do myself full justice. Both he and Kny offered to 
 do anything for me which lay in their power. Kny especially 
 offered his services." 
 
 She remarks on the tremendous advantage that European 
 students had over American in the opportunities afforded 
 by the universities, museums, and gardens. She was amazed 
 at the great Botanical Garden of Berlin, with its 20,000 speci- 
 mens, its stupendous palm-house, and its facilities for study- 
 ing different species "classified according to order and all 
 fully labeled." But she thought that the trees "seemed rather 
 miniature and poorly nourished, especially those from other 
 countries, and our American trees." She adds: "The more 
 I go, the more I see the absolute necessity of knowing the art 
 of drawing sufficiently to reproduce what one observes;" and 
 this leads by a natural transition to a brief comment on her 
 enjoyment of the National Museum, the Kaulbach frescoes, the 
 splendid ancient statues and the fine paintings of the old masters. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 55 
 
 Indeed she found so much to interest her in Berlin "with 
 its colossal advantages that her stay of but a week, when 
 months of residence was required, seemed "only an aggra- 
 vation." She did not have time even to present all her letters 
 of introduction. Thus she refrained from seeking out the 
 famous Virchow, or Koch, the great experimenter, and several 
 others; but she consoled herself by remarking modestly, 
 
 "Perhaps, too, an idea that I had no claim to intrude upon 
 these men, helped to keep me away." 
 
 Under the impetus of her art enthusiasm, so rekindled in 
 Berlin, she went, directly on her arrival at Dresden, on the 
 i6th of October, to the Gallery and to the room containing 
 the Sistine Madonna, the effect of which she chronicles as 
 overpowering. She immediately entered into an elaborate 
 study of the colors, with the thought that a comparison of 
 the predominant tones used by different painters would be 
 interesting, and the suggestion "that the colors obtained by 
 one master may be owing to certain impurities," non-existent 
 in other localities, with the possibility that "our chemically 
 pure colors of to-day are perhaps the artist's worst enemies." 
 She would have been glad to spend months of study over the 
 collection of pictures, many of which were to her "dreams of 
 beauty," but she had only two days to spend in Dresden, "the 
 charming old place of her childhood," and there was much 
 else for her to accomplish. One thing she did not neglect to do, 
 and that was to visit her former music teacher, whom she 
 found still unmarried, and living with her old mother and sister 
 in rooms "filled with artistic souvenirs." Before making any 
 investigation of the chemical facilities of Dresden she visited 
 the wonderful glass-works of the celebrated Blaschkas, and 
 an extract from her account of them, well merits insertion 
 here, 
 
 "The father (who formerly made glass eyes) had been in 
 America many years ago. He spoke Polish, Bohemian, Italian, 
 and German. They have recently begun to model flowers 
 after nature. They are artistic productions and accurate, 
 after life. It would be a stupendous addition as a botanical 
 collection of flowers for a museum. It has occurred to me 
 
56 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 that by beginning on a small scale I could collect the plants 
 or these models and also have the chemical compounds con- 
 tained in these plants, at least those compounds of sufficient 
 importance. Blaschka has offered for $1000 to make Pro- 
 fessor Goodale, of Harvard, a unique collection. He has as 
 yet not replied, and I asked him to write me in case Goodale 
 should not be able to accomplish it. 1 
 
 "They said it would be necessary to deposit a certain amount, 
 perhaps the sum that I wished to expend for the collection, 
 and they would furnish by degrees, the flowers. They pre- 
 ferred to make the flowers directly from the growing plants 
 and not from drawings. The matter was left in such a way 
 that I was to write him what I wanted and the amount I was 
 willing to expend on the plants. It is difficult yet to decide 
 upon what I would order, whether flowers to illustrate an 
 evolutionary order, or those which apply directly to my work. 
 It will be later decided. I have an idea of forming a collection 
 to become an embryo museum where the chemical compounds 
 contained in any plant would be exhibited, and all else in con- 
 nection with the plant also shown. But the chemical side 
 made the most conspicuous. 
 
 "It would be a stupendous work to carry out such a plan 
 as I have conceived. But with a great fixed purpose, there would 
 be little time left for outside matters to come along as inter- 
 ruptions. I know of no place where the two ideas of botany 
 and chemistry could be combined. 
 
 "The workshop of these men was a very small room. The 
 flame was furnished by a paraffine lamp. It is not only glass 
 blowing, but they called it modeling. Various colors of glass 
 are used, and the flowers are also painted." 
 
 Her time being so limited, she determined to concentrate 
 it on the Polytechnic which she learned ranked almost with a 
 university for the grade of studies followed, though the students 
 rarely studied for the love of study, but generally because 
 they wished to follow some profession or business. Women 
 
 1 The arrangement was subsequently made, and Harvard University has a 
 unique collection of the Blaschka glass flowers, which are the admiration of 
 every visitor. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 57 
 
 were not admitted, "because there were no places for them 
 in the professions, and it never seemed to occur to the director 
 that they might wish to study for the study's sake." 
 
 Professor Walter Hempel, who had married an American 
 wife and spoke English, received her "with the greatest 
 kindness," and made an appointment with her to visit the 
 laboratories, where he afterwards showed her many inter- 
 esting pieces of apparatus which he had invented, particu- 
 larly for his specialty of gas investigation. She says: - 
 
 "The atmosphere for study was most promising, and I 
 was very much delighted with all I saw. Hempel impressed 
 me as a very able man, and one whose methods of gas-analysis 
 were both simple and good. . . . Hempel went over each 
 room describing to me the methods and uses of his apparatus. 
 Nothing could be more charming than his manner, and he 
 is one of the exceptionally pleasant chemists I have yet met. 
 It seems to be a sad fact that the farther removed the man 
 is from the study of life, just so far is his nature blunt. The 
 botanists have been by far the most agreeable and willing to 
 aid me. My visit to this laboratory is one of the bright days 
 of this journey." 
 
 Dr. Hempel gave her an introduction to his colleague, Drude, 
 and she was most enthusiastic over his kindness to her. She 
 thus describes it : 
 
 "What can I begin to say of my visit to Drude! For he 
 treated me like a prince. When I called at his home, I found 
 the number, an old two-story long building, up one flight of 
 stairs. I was shown into a very pleasant room. The servant 
 made the mistake of taking my cards to Mrs. Drude. She 
 is a bright-faced woman and, though she kept me waiting 
 to change her dress, she welcomed me heartily. I explained 
 my reason for calling, and then she went for her husband 
 who soon came. He is associated with Prantl and Engler 
 in bringing out the botanical encyclopedia. He is still quite 
 young and enthusiastic over his work. He has made a special 
 study of palms . . . and has given also much attention to 
 the geographical distribution of plants, and showed me a map 
 of the world which was divided into floras of a few districts, 
 
58 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 which is very convenient for general classification. Mrs. 
 Drude has herself made some studies in botany, and many 
 of the beautiful drawings in her husband's book were made 
 by her. The collection in the museum is excellent, though 
 the room is small. . . . 
 
 "His idea of having some of the plant's constituents ex- 
 hibited with the plant was a particularly good one. The plan 
 of the garden is given in the little guide which the author 
 presented. But he will have in his new garden a slightly dif- 
 ferent arrangement. He had in front of his palm trees a small 
 plot of ground with one bed given to each country of the 
 world's flora. A little rise in the garden was called by Drude 
 the Alps. We had much amusement clambering up the little 
 wandering path. His rooms and library at the Polytechnic 
 were full of interest. The library is particularly fine. 
 
 "The books are arranged according to the botany of each 
 country. The collection seemed very complete and con- 
 tained many rare and costly works. There is a set of plates, 
 painted by hand, of all flowers. Two former kings of Saxony 
 were great lovers of botany, and one had ordered this book 
 to be made. Each painting is absolutely perfect of the flowers, 
 and on the margins are paintings of the different flower 
 parts. The books number ten volumes and were lined within 
 the binding with pink satin. As the work is in manuscript, 
 it has no other title than ' Plantae Seleclae. Centurin.' Most 
 of the students in the Polytechnic are interested in botany only 
 for its practical side, but those who wish to carry on investi- 
 gations have the right to the libraries. The herbarium was 
 not new, and under Drude's orders is undergoing renovation. 
 The laboratory was small but fitted with all essential apparatus. 
 An apparatus for measuring and recording the hourly growth 
 of a plant was very delicate. The tracings of one plant showed 
 that the greatest growth occurred during the night, especially 
 between 2 and 4 A. M. The plant at night probably absorbs 
 for its growth what it makes during the day. Outside of a 
 window a glass case was built with opening doors for water- 
 culture experiments. ... 
 
 "Drude was simply lovely. He talked with me about my 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 59 
 
 studies and about my chemical idea. He said if chemistry 
 and morphology went hand in hand that it would be a great 
 thing to have discovered it, and he seemed immensely pleased 
 at the idea, saying that those who favored chemistry could 
 employ this means for classification, etc." 
 
 Miss Abbott promised to send Drude various specimens 
 of American plants, particularly the ocotilla and other Mex- 
 ican flora which she had studied, and they parted on the 
 friendliest terms. 
 
 From Dresden she went to Leipsic. She presented to 
 Professor Johannes Wislecenus a letter of introduction with 
 which she had been provided by Professor Ladenburg. She 
 found him "a large, tall man with silver-gray hair." He re- 
 ceived her at once in his study, and informed her that it 
 would be impossible to offer her a place in his laboratory, as 
 it was already very much crowded with men-students, and it 
 was altogether against the rules to admit women. She was 
 rather disgusted at the way in which he advised her to go to 
 Zurich : "the way all women are shoved to Zurich," seemed 
 to her " like the last stage of investigation which only pushes 
 the problem of life so far back without removing the veil." 
 He told her that it might be possible for her to attend the 
 lectures, but that that "depended entirely upon the wishes of 
 each professor and the exercise of individual right." However, 
 he gave her a card of introduction to Dr. Ernest von Meyer, 
 who he thought might be willing to take her into his private 
 laboratory. Then without offering to show her his private 
 laboratory, he turned her over to the tender mercies of an as- 
 sistant who had general charge of his fifty students, to show 
 her around the institution. Professor Wislecenus, when a 
 young man, had been chemical assistant at Yale. She was 
 impressed with "the great scale on which the laboratories 
 were run," but she found comparatively few new or origi- 
 nal pieces of apparatus; and her experience led her to the 
 conclusion, that though the accommodation for the training 
 of chemical graduates is immense, there was not much chance 
 of obtaining the best education rapiflly in these large univer- 
 sities. She says : 
 
60 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 lookingt 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 Tubingen, 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 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 61 
 
 professors at the University. Wislecenus thought he might 
 admit me, and Von Meyer said that if he had sufficient notice 
 in advance, he would make a place for me. He said he only 
 took very advanced students, those who were preparing their 
 dissertation, or who were pursuing researches. The labora- 
 tory is particularly a research laboratory. 
 
 "The rooms are few and small, but such a place as one 
 would be willing to study in. He said that Strohmann, professor 
 of agricultural chemistry and physiology, was my man, and 
 gave me a card to him, which I presented at once. Von Meyer 
 is an elegant gentleman, and the writer of a 'Handbuch der 
 Chemie,' I believe a new edition of Kolbe, but I am not sure 
 of this. His reference library was small, but contained the 
 best. I noticed very few, if any, American publications, and it 
 just occurred to me how inconvenient it would be not to have 
 access to English publications as well in investigation. This 
 is where we have the advantage in our libraries, since we buy 
 all the foreign and have our own, too. 
 
 "Strohman looks like an intelligent but more affable copy 
 of Von Biilow, with gray hair, bright eye, and a very penetrat- 
 ing glance. He spoke and understood English so well that 
 I was able to talk very freely with him about work and the fu- 
 ture lines in which to pursue my studies. He was of the opin- 
 ion that saponin and the study of the saponin plants was where 
 I ought to stop and work up the matter thoroughly. 
 
 "In regard to the study of the chemistry of growing plants 
 in different stages, he agreed to have anything planted and 
 started in a plot of ground belonging to the Agricultural 
 Station for my investigations. In order to save time, I should 
 have my plants all ready to bring over, in order that there 
 should be no delay, and that I should get to work at once. I 
 might have some plants cultivated at home during this next 
 summer, and at different stages of growth have them taken 
 up, dried, and ready to study during the winter. It seems 
 absolutely necessary to concentrate energies upon one group, or 
 a limited number, for studying generally results in accom- 
 plishing little. Strohmann said he would take me into his own 
 private laboratory as a special student. He seemed most anx- 
 
62 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 ious to have me return and to assist me with all his ability. 
 He urged me to send him my scientific papers very promptly." 
 
 From Leipsic our eager pilgrim hastened to Weimar, with 
 which she was favorably impressed. 
 
 ''There is an air of homelike refinement in the homes and 
 streets. The town seems to have been for all time to come 
 influenced by the wonderful coterie of Goethe, Schiller, Wie- 
 land, Herder, and the hosts of others." 
 
 She found it "a relief for once not to have any educational 
 institutions to visit," and she gave herself up "to the poetry of 
 her surroundings. 
 
 "The weather was very uncertain. Sunshine, pouring 
 rain, and hail alternated during the day. The low hills that 
 surround Weimar, the park and delightful bits of old archi- 
 tecture, are all fitting for the residence of Goethe. The venera- 
 tion in which that literary set was, and still is, held is shown 
 by the liberal monuments raised to them. 
 
 "Goethe and Schiller, Wieland and Herder each have a 
 fine statue raised in their honor. Many of the streets bear the 
 names of these illustrious men. Their houses of residence 
 are shown and preserved as the most precious relics. The 
 house of the painter Cranach is also preserved, and the house 
 which Liszt occupied during several years is also pointed out. 
 Well may the inhabitants of this city be proud of its intellect, 
 for the public good which Goethe rendered to the people is 
 everywhere apparent. 
 
 "His house, a fine roomy dwelling, now belongs to the town. 
 It was given by the last member of Goethe's family, now 
 dead. No descendant of that wonderful genius is now living. 
 Goethe's home is preserved very much as it was. It is now a 
 museum of the scientific collections of minerals, painting, 
 sculpture, and of books and engineering illustrating so plainly 
 the wide culture of the man and his power of appreciating the 
 good in all art, science, and literature. His workroom was 
 impressive. Plain, modern desk, bookcases, cabinets con- 
 taining specimens, table, and chair, all stand as used by him. 
 Opening into his study was his bedroom with his bed, the 
 chair on which he died. The table and cup, saucer, and medi- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 63 
 
 cine bottle last used. Each room recalled the man so vividly, 
 that I expected each moment to see him stand before me. 
 The greatest simplicity and refined taste were prevalent. 
 The bedroom was very small and devoid of lavish decora- 
 tion. Some of the paintings were a trifle coarse, but these 
 were exceptions to the general tone. The reception room 
 held many interesting paintings and a grand piano upon 
 which Mendelssohn played. I touched the keys. Portraits 
 of members of Goethe's family, of himself, and of his friends, 
 Charlotte von Stein and Bettina, adorned the walls. Presents 
 from famous artists of all objects were exhibited, rare medals, 
 and rich golden objects. The handiwork of different mem- 
 bers of his family were still in their accustomed places. His 
 traveling-bed, and so many things mentioned in Eckermann's 
 conversations, were right before me, so that any interest I had 
 ever had in Goethe returned a thousand fold. 
 
 " The way through the room to the balcony leading to the 
 garden is as dear to the art and Goethe lover as Gethsemane 
 is to the pious Christian. To look upon the garden where 
 Goethe used to walk and talk was like a dream. The rain 
 was pouring, and as I looked upon the very trees the good man 
 had planted, I remembered the curious phenomenon that 
 occurred during the earthquake of Lisbon when Goethe 
 mentioned at the time that some great terrestrial convulsion 
 was taking place and still not a leaf could be seen stirring in 
 quiet Weimar. 
 
 " The Bibliothek was formerly a residence, and the room 
 where Goethe danced as a young man, when he first came 
 to Weimar, is now the main library room. Goethe was the 
 director of the library, and began the foundation of a museum. 
 
 " Here are collected heads of the distinguished men and 
 women who once lived in Weimar. A colossal bust of Goethe, 
 also Schiller. Goethe said of the bust that the forehead was 
 that of Mephisto. A lovely head of Novalis held me spell- 
 bound. I tried to obtain a photograph of it, but could not. 
 The upper part of the head was very full, with large eyes, and 
 the face tapered to a pointed chin. A portrait by Vandyke of 
 himself was hung unframed against a bookcase. The Schroder, 
 
64 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 also painted by herself from a glass, occupied a good posi- 
 tion. Bettina, as a young girl and an old woman, showed a 
 lovely face with pathetic eyes. In age, the face was sorrow- 
 ful. The library contains a large number of books and many 
 objects of interest: Goethe's court suit; his dressing-gown 
 (light blue Japanese silk) ; the monastic gown of Luther, etc. 
 An ivory walking-stick with a snuff-box in the handle, of Fred- 
 erick the Great, is preserved in an upper room. It was in the 
 possession of Liszt and given by him to the Museum. A belt of 
 Gustavus Adolphus is shown. Portraits, miniatures, collections, 
 many of them having been collected by Goethe or relating 
 to him, give great interest to the room. A very original stair- 
 case occupies the tower: sixty- four steps cut from one oak 
 tree, arranged in a spiral around the centre of the trunk which 
 has been carved in a turritine manner. It is said to have been 
 the work of a prisoner. 
 
 "The castle contains what are called the poet's rooms. 
 The Grand Dukes have collected pictures or other objects of 
 interest relating to Goethe, Schiller, and Herder, and frescoes 
 on the walls illustrate scenes from the writings of each. 
 
 "To have missed Weimar would have been indeed an im- 
 mense loss. For all time will my readings of Goethe recall 
 this visit, and the sights that once influenced the poet will 
 come to me and vivify each of the poet's thoughts." 
 
 Leaving her colored maid, who was ill, at Weimar, she went 
 alone the hour's ride in a slow train to Jena with its four hun- 
 dred-year-old university, famous as the place of the great 
 naturalist, Ernst Haeckel. She was interested to see "the men 
 along the road at the gates stand with their sticks in hand 
 in military style," and the "women trudging along, carrying 
 immensely heavy baskets on their backs." She noticed that 
 the oxen at the plow were covered with bright-colored blan- 
 kets, but a horse attached to a plow was not protected, and 
 she explained the discrepancy by the supposition that "per- 
 haps his actions are more lively and he is kept warm." The 
 approach to Jena reminded her of Spain. 
 
 "The great antiquity of the town calls up such an unusual 
 train of emotions. The high hills back give a grandeur to 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 65 
 
 the place. A few quaint towers outline the town distinctly, 
 as it nestles among soft, green trees. 
 
 "It was market day, and a band played folk-lore tunes from 
 a high tower. This reminded me of the Moravian trombone 
 playing." 
 
 She had no special letters of introduction, but, from the 
 university directory, found who were the professors of chem- 
 istry and botany, and sent in her card, together with "her 
 dear Smithsonian letter," which served her, as always, by open- 
 ing to her at once all doors. 
 
 "The building where the chemical laboratory is situated was 
 originally a house, and not designed for the purpose, but the 
 rooms, though small and old, were more attractive to me than 
 the larger and more attractive rooms of the great laboratory. 
 Dr. Geuther, the chemist, was an old man who spoke some 
 English, and welcomed me so heartily that I at once felt at 
 home. He took me to see his collection of specimens. All 
 are made by himself, or students in the laboratory. . . . 
 
 "The kind old chemist took me into his auditorium. The 
 benches were primitive, as were also the appointments, and I 
 felt almost pity for him as he apologized for his unattractive 
 entourage. He doubtlessly thought that I had seen so much 
 grander rooms that I would look down upon his. But the 
 interesting lecture, illustrated by experiments, repaid for any 
 lack of show. . . . 
 
 "We passed from room to room. I found an assistant 
 working in one of the fatty acids. I noticed such neatness in 
 the arrangement of apparatus, cleanliness, and all absence of 
 smut or dirt. They rarely have more than one or two opera- 
 tions on hand at once, and seem to concentrate upon them 
 their entire attention. . . . 
 
 "Another assistant was distilling some plant extract. The 
 old gentleman shook my hand most warmly on parting, and 
 asked me to visit him again, should I ever return to Jena. He 
 was very lovely in manner and most courteous. I have found 
 it so often to be the case, where I have had no letter of intro- 
 duction, there I have had the most attention and kindness 
 on the part of the professors. It may be that the letters of 
 
66 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 introduction which I take may prejudice them against me, 
 in some cases, because the men may be rivals or have bitter 
 feelings against each other. 
 
 "Another interesting fact is this: that in the small laborato- 
 ries, the professors have been much more affable, and would 
 give me personally their time, whereas in the larger univer- 
 sities, I should be handed over to assistants. This is an ele- 
 ment to be remembered in case of returning for study. The 
 selection of a place where I could have the personal attention 
 of the director would be eminently preferable. The directors, 
 in many cases, are too great men to be easily and familiarly 
 approached, and are occupied very fully with their own 
 investigations. 
 
 "Ladies are not admitted at Jena, and I could not help 
 feeling that it was a wise decision on the part of the Minis- 
 ter of Instruction to prohibit it, since the German students, 
 as a rule, are a rough, brutal set. Dueling in Jena is very com- 
 mon, and the faces of many of the students were badly slashed 
 and showed the signs, too, in one case, of a very recent contest. 
 
 "I drove from Geuther's to the Botanical Gardens where 
 I had hoped to meet Detmar. However, Professor Stahl, 
 the associate professor, was in his laboratory, and after I had 
 given a few words of explanation for the reason of my visit, 
 he at once welcomed me and gave me an opportunity to talk 
 over the botanical ground of Europe, and spoke highly of 
 Strohmann my Leipsic friend. The laboratories and lec- 
 ture-room were very well lighted. The auditorium was hung 
 with many botanical charts like Kny's. The alcoholic speci- 
 mens were very beautifully preserved. 
 
 " Stahl said that up to this time no fluid had been found 
 which would preserve both the specimen and its color. The 
 herbarium was not new. I did not examine it. But a very 
 novel and beautiful feature of the museum was the imitations 
 of books. The front and sides were of wood, and the back was 
 the bark of the same species with its characteristic lichens or 
 other growths. The title of the book above was the Latin name 
 of the plant. The book opened in half, and within were con- 
 tained the cover, seeds, leaves, flowers, or any interesting or 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 67 
 
 instructive object in connection with the plant. Stahl did not 
 know who had made them, but he had seen them nowhere 
 else. The university was established 400 years ago. With 
 such a line of ancestry, the professors and students may well 
 feel a pride in their surroundings. 
 
 "The botanical museums are far below the zoological and 
 other collections, both in cases, arrangements, and in exhibits. 
 Willrock's in Stockholm is far ahead. There would be a 
 magnificent opportunity to form a botanical museum that 
 might compare with museums in other departments. There 
 seems to be often a lack among botanists of the virility that 
 influences zoologists and the other naturalists. . . . 
 
 "It occurred to me, from what I had seen in Kny's labora- 
 tory of injecting with colors, that flowers might be colored by 
 this means before placing in alcohol. It might be possible to 
 use insoluble colors, or colors that would not be dislodged from 
 the cells. I got one very excellent idea from Stahl. He has a 
 large tin box, made with double sides and tops and back 
 containing water which can be heated from below with a gas- 
 jet. It is a very large water-oven. Above can be inserted a 
 thermometer to gauge the temperature. There are double 
 doors and no means of admission of light. In winter time, 
 by this means plants are germinated very rapidly. The tem- 
 perature is kept quite constant. 
 
 "It is a great invention and would supply a need in germi- 
 nating seeds for lecture-illustrations, etc., and would also an- 
 swer for obtaining plantlets for chemical study. A glass case, in 
 addition to this, which could also be heated by hot water from 
 underneath, would enable a student to carry out, in his own 
 room, important investigations. This is where my trip has been 
 of such infinite service in giving me an insight into methods 
 and ideas for my own study on a small scale. The botanical 
 gardens in connection with all botanical schools are of great 
 importance to the student. The hothouses supply the plants 
 from tropical climates. s The- temperate and cold houses those 
 from other climes, and the out-door beds contain the hardy 
 plants and annuals.". . . 
 
 She learned that the evolutionary theory was not held in 
 
68 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 favor by the Emperor, who had grown very pious in his old 
 age, and that consequently the professors were wary about 
 promulgating it. Even the great Haeckel had been pretty 
 severely handled on account of his advanced ideas, and would 
 probably have been called to Berlin had it not been for his 
 outspoken defense of evolution. 
 
 She found time for a hasty trip to the city museum, and was 
 fortunate enough to meet the art-director, with whom she 
 had a pleasant talk. 
 
 She left Weimar on the morning of the 23d, but for an hour 
 before the train started, she strolled through the old town, pass- 
 ing by Herder's house, which she found larger and more pleasing 
 in appearance than the one which she the day before had sup- 
 posed to be his. Hearing the strains of music, she hastened 
 down to an old street with tumble-down houses in it, and was 
 surprised to find a band of about fifty brass pieces playing 
 the Briinhilde "Sleep Theme" from The Walkyrie, and she 
 thought how in America such a concert would have brought 
 two or three dollars. It was Sunday morning, and she noted 
 the children going to Sunday-school or church "two by 
 twos." 
 
 She found the slow, deliberate ride from Weimar to Wiirz- 
 burg very beautiful, as it passed through the Thuringian 
 Mountains, clothed in autumn coloring, and here and there 
 guarded by old ruined castles. 
 
 At Wurzburg she presented a letter to the famous Emil 
 Fischer, a young man, with brown beard and hair, and bright 
 eyes. He at once received her and conducted her over the 
 laboratory, and through the students' rooms, which she 
 found "much more homelike and suggestive of comfort than 
 in the larger laboratories." Dr. Fischer showed her many 
 of his preparations, particularly the substance from which 
 he had synthetically formed glucose. She says : 
 
 "Synthetical chemistry is the specialty of the institute, 
 and it reigns in supreme power. I put the usual question to 
 Professor Fischer, if he would allow a lady-student to study 
 in his laboratory. He stated that it was not permitted, but he 
 promised to write and let me know. He is very agreeable, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 69 
 
 and we spoke together in French, since he spoke little English 
 and I understood little German." 
 
 She had caught a bad cold, so that in spending some time 
 in seeking for a Russian bath, she missed seeing the Botanical 
 Garden, Museum, and Laboratory which she greatly regretted. 
 She says, "The effort ought to have been made." 
 
 At the quaint old city of Nuremburg, in spite of her sore 
 throat and chest, and the intensely disagreeable weather 
 which greeted her with hail and snow, she found great plea- 
 sure in all the curiosities there displayed, the Roman tower, 
 the Castle, and the instruments of punishment used during 
 the Middle Ages; the fascinating houses and churches. Some 
 of these "infernal means of torture," with their brutal 
 humorous names, she depicted with her pencil. A sketch of 
 St. Lawrence's church spire adorns her manuscript. She was 
 amazed at the wretched taste displayed in restoring some of 
 the rooms in the Schloss, and their furnishings of "common 
 dark paper and mean furniture," but the wonderful views 
 across the country delighted her. She spent some time in 
 Albrecht Diirer's house. One little glimpse of the interior 
 which she gives might have been painted by Diirer himself: 
 
 "An old man, the janitor's father, lives at the top of the 
 house. He is a distinguished glass painter. He is nearly 
 eighty years old. His room was scrupulously clean though very 
 simply furnished. His windows were adorned with bits of 
 painted glass, copies from Albrecht Diirer's paintings. In 
 the corner, between the stove and a window, were the easel, 
 stool, painting brushes, the old clock hung on the wall, a set 
 of pipes. The colors were in a little chest of drawers. The old 
 man must have been a lover of art, for a copy of the Sistine 
 Madonna hung on the wall. Two soft, lovely cats kept the 
 old man company. He had placed a sheet of paper on a chair 
 for one cat, but the other cat had to be satisfied with a stool 
 before the fire." 
 
 She also visited the old Rathhaus, the courtyard of which 
 dates from 1340. The building, with its wooden ceiling and 
 quaint chandeliers, and its enormous paintings by Diirer, is 
 now used for concerts. At the Church of Our Lady, a wed- 
 
70 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 ding was taking place. She was impressed by the superb 
 stained-glass windows, especially the reddish-violet color, 
 which she had never seen except in old Chinese porcelain. 
 She also gives a rather elaborate account of some of the curi- 
 osities in the immense German Museum. 
 
 One of the great treats of Nuremburg was a late afternoon 
 visit to the Albrecht Diirer restaurant, so called because the 
 great painter himself used to go there to drink his beer. She 
 notes that "the little, low room has been frequented by crowned 
 heads and the greatest celebrities of Europe." On one of the 
 age-and-smoke-darkened walls hung a framed poem com- 
 posed by Carmen Silva, Queen of Roumania. She was much 
 amused by the sausage factory connected with the tavern, 
 and thus describes it : 
 
 "The house is famous for these as the dish is made on the 
 spot. Two fat, live pigs were in a clean pig-pen in a corner of 
 the little house, waiting to be killed. The flesh is at once boiled, 
 chopped, and made into sausage meat. This is put into a 
 kind of mill like a coffee-mill, and comes out of the pipe the 
 size of a sausage, and is then pressed into the skins. Every- 
 thing about the working was so clean and interesting, that 
 the further evolution to the kitchen, and the final sausage 
 consumption followed, of course. The sausages were broiled 
 upon an iron, very close over a coal fire. They were browned 
 almost immediately. Cabbage is served, too. The little kitchen 
 was filled up with old appliances, and took the visitor back 
 quite to olden times." 
 
 At Nuremburg there seems to have been no chemical at- 
 traction, but in company of a quaint old character, whom she 
 called her " guide Napoleon," she visited the Industrial School 
 of which she has this to say: 
 
 "It was very poor in comparison with Hamburg. The 
 rooms, as well as their inmates, were very dirty. But one of 
 the head teachers very kindly explained about the school, 
 and lent me later a book with the drawings of the shape of the 
 garments and descriptions. The ages of the pupils vary from 
 fifteen to twenty years. The average school-term is for ten 
 months. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 71 
 
 "The first months are spent in needlework, the second 
 in muslin work, and the last in dressmaking. They do little, 
 if any, art work, but they hope to carry this on later. Book- 
 keeping will also be taught later. The idea of this school is 
 that it shall be a continuation of the elementary ordinary school, 
 for here the studies taught in the schools may be carried on 
 to a more advanced stage. French and English are taught 
 as well as German. The school expenses are met by the fees 
 paid by the students; also the State contributes per annum 
 500 marks. At present the school has four women-teachers 
 and two men-teachers. As in Hamburg, the candidates for 
 examination are examined by a gentleman appointed by the 
 State, and if the candidates are successful, they may be en- 
 gaged, by right of their certificates, as teachers in the school. 
 
 "The teacher, Miss Winter, who kindly made the copy 
 of the cutting-book, studied in Munich. These schools do 
 great good, and meet a certain demand, although I am im- 
 pressed with the thought that there is a great dearth of intel- 
 lectual stimulus. The German women, however, are trained 
 very equally, and, as I was later told by Mrs. Smith of Frei- 
 burg, one observes less distinction among the women than 
 in our country. Each one, as far as she goes, is taught very 
 thoroughly. The higher studies are not especially encour- 
 aged. It is not the custom of the country for women to turn 
 their attention away from domestic matters, and it is par- 
 ticularly unfashionable as well. . . . 
 
 " The girls buy their own materials, and what they make 
 they keep for themselves. The principles are quite different 
 from Hamburg and Berlin, where all is done for the public 
 and for sale." 
 
 From Nuremburg she went to Munich, where she arrived 
 on the evening of the twenty-sixth. The weather was cold, and 
 the buildings were so large that they gave the city a cheer- 
 less aspect. The next morning she visited the new pictures 
 at the National Museum, which as usual she criticises with 
 intelligence. 
 
 Unfortunately her accounts of a visit to Baeyer's great 
 laboratory, as well as the Botanical Institute under the guid- 
 
HELEN ABBOTT TUTrHAFT 
 
 the University , 
 
 to go, with tins <fi- 
 
 .:; i_i :::: L ~ i~ 
 , -to IULTC the <jryBr 
 Or m is posablc to |wvii^ two or thioc 
 
 J -'1 LL: . 7_ r7^: Il._: 1H1 r-r 
 
 thestazt. This begins in 
 
 of the Fi 
 
 ilc described the 
 poor." He Ihooghl that the 
 
74 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 genious way in which the bears were fed. At the astonish- 
 ingly fine Museum of Natural History, the mineral collection 
 suggested to her the advisability of studying the carbonates 
 occurring in minerals, as including amorphous conditions, 
 and determining if all minerals tending to organic forms are 
 carbonates. 
 
 She spent the afternoon of November i in an excursion 
 to Thun and Interlaken. The weather had cleared and the 
 Alps stood out most sharply defined. She says: "The wa- 
 ter of Lake Thun is perfectly clear, and the bottom can 
 be seen many feet under water a long distance from shore. 
 The old town of Thun is perched most attractively on the 
 side of a hill overlooking the lake and facing the mountains. 
 What more heavenly spot to select than this? The grandeur 
 of the Bernese Oberland cannot be more felt than under 
 these conditions under which I saw them. The total absence 
 of clouds and the soft, turquoise blue sky recalled the land of 
 Italy beyond, but the intense cold recalled the many trage- 
 dies which have occurred among those heights of snow. It 
 was indeed the best view I had ever had of the Alps, and I 
 felt my heart leaving me with the intense longing to stay among 
 them. The autumnal sun, of course, added to the charm. 
 The pine trees were lightly touched with a snowy mantle. 
 Many of the rocky prominences where the pines grow scat- 
 tered were also sprinkled. It reminded me of a grisly-haired 
 old man. 
 
 "As the landing was approached, the Jungfrau and her 
 companions rose in all majesty. The sky was of the tenderest 
 blue. At the mountains' base, this color took on a deeper tone. 
 The snow-fields interrupted this color symphony, and by con- 
 trast added new grace and beauty to the color gradation." 
 
 A short ride by rail took her to Interlaken, where she was 
 fortunate enough in having a full moon. "As I opened the 
 window, I believe I shall never again see such a sight. Not a 
 cloud was to be seen. The Jungfrau was a field of silver. The 
 red and blue stars showered smiles of admiration and light 
 upon these snow-mounds." 
 
 The next day she went to Grindelwald, and saw the moun- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 75 
 
 tains absolutely free from clouds or mist. She was struck with 
 the beautiful and artistic carvings on the exteriors of the 
 many chalets that she saw, in contrast to the dirt and squalor 
 that prevailed within, and the pale and pinched faces of 
 women and children, testifying to the poor food, hard work, 
 and miserable surroundings. She learned that the guides had 
 a hard time to make both ends of the year meet, the season 
 being short, and their families often large. She felt sorry for 
 the expressionless faces of the people whom she saw. "The 
 little children look like old people, as if even at birth the age 
 of the mountains had reflected itself upon them." She was 
 amused at the absurd cut of their clothes; the men wearing 
 homespun of snuff -brown color. "Some of the older men, 
 when dressed in their best, have the tail of the coat cut very 
 short like an abbreviated dress-coat. Their boots are of the 
 clumsiest make with wooden soles and leather tops. ... A 
 story is told of how one of the mountaineers thus dressed went 
 to camp, and the officer who made the inspection to see if 
 his uniform and boots were right, looked with his one eyeglass 
 at such a pair of nailed, solid boots which the poor fellow had 
 brought, and asked him how he could fight in such boots. 
 The mountaineer replied, 'Your boots are to run in, mine 
 are to stand in.' With this he stamped his foot on the ground, 
 and looked with contempt on the thin shoes of the exquisite." 
 
 At the Hotel de 1'Ours, at Grindelwald, she was delighted 
 not only with the homelike food and accommodations, but 
 also with the whole family of the proprietress, which con- 
 sisted of a lovely, refined girl, speaking very good English, 
 and seven sons. One of these sons, an alert, intelligent youth, 
 beaming all over with the daring and manliness that come 
 from an open-air, adventurous life, had been out chamois 
 hunting in the mountains for two days, and, more fortunate 
 than the famous Tartarin of Tarascon, had bagged one of 
 those rare deer. He had spent the night before camping out 
 in the deep snow, with the cold so intense that it had frozen 
 his bread, wine, and cheese. She says: 
 
 "He was a Protestant, and spoke of the two Swiss parties 
 being powerfully divided on religious grounds, the Catholics 
 
76 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 being the conservative body, and the Protestants going in for 
 radical measures. The President over all, is elected every 
 four years, and may remain in office indefinitely. It occurs 
 to me that it would be a very interesting study to collect the 
 systems of governments and parties, and methods of election 
 of all countries, and publish in a summarized form. Such 
 information is probably scattered in geographies and other 
 books; but in lieu of any such publication, I believe it would 
 be of general interest." 
 
 She gives an interesting account of a Russian countess who 
 had been spending the season at Grindelwald, making all 
 the excursions of the neighborhood: "She ascended the 
 Wetterhorn, and was obliged to stay two days upon the moun- 
 tain, for a severe snowstorm came up. The proprietor said 
 to look at her when she was dressed for the evening, one would 
 say she could not walk a mile 'not even to the glacier.' 
 
 "The day was so clear that I concluded to visit the upper 
 glacier, and at once engaged a guide. The horse had to be 
 caught and saddled. He was pretty lively after his week's 
 rest since the last tourists had been up the valley. The shadow 
 side of the valley was covered with a deep snow in contrast 
 with the green hills where the sun shone. As we approached 
 the glacier, the snow deepened. I had to leave the horse, and, 
 the guide leading, I waded through snow to my knees ; each 
 step the guide tested before I advanced. I had one fall, as 
 the ice under the softly fallen snow made the walking very 
 unsafe. 
 
 "At the glacier, the snow concealed many crevasses, and it 
 was with great difficulty that the entrance to the grotto was 
 found. At last I entered and walked for some distance along 
 the delicately blue tunnel. The imprisoned air-bubbles as- 
 sumed the most fantastic shapes, and several curious features 
 in the ice-formations indicated that glaciers would offer a 
 fruitful subject for study. I believe that very much is yet to 
 be done to explain the attendant phenomena. 
 
 "The proprietor said that twenty- seven deaths had occurred 
 this year from mountain accidents. The most distressing 
 was the Jungfrau accident, when six gentlemen fell 8,000 feet 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 77 
 
 from the summit. They were walking along what is called a 
 cornice, when it broke, and they were hurled to death. The 
 proprietor, though accustomed to mountaineering, said that 
 only the experienced and expert guides knew from certain 
 signs the conditions of the ice and snow, and no one should 
 ever undertake any excursion without a guide. These men 
 who tried the Jungfrau ascent refused to allow any guide to 
 accompany them, though several offered their services free. 
 They made the ascent by a new route, from the Lauterbrunnen 
 side called the Rotthal. . . . Miss Boss said they were quite 
 in pieces when found, and were brought down the mountain 
 in racks. Several other fatal accidents have occurred in the 
 same neighborhood. The proprietor said that nothing, how- 
 ever, deterred an Englishman from making the ascent, though 
 a hundred had been killed the same day. 
 
 "A party of Americans were at 'The Bear' on my return. 
 Their vulgar talk and actions repelled me, and I gladly took 
 the carriage to return. . . . 
 
 "It is advisable to travel out of the season, and the quiet- 
 ness of the surroundings with the magnificent scenery helped 
 to restore my head to a better state than when I left Zurich. 
 A life near these mountains would be the medicine for the 
 nerve wear and tear of city anxieties and worry. I thought 
 of a home near one of these lovely lakes where existence could 
 be made absolutely blissful. 
 
 "At the return to the 'White Cross,' Interlaken, a supper 
 awaited me; then bed. From my window, the moon poured 
 a flood of light over the Jungfrau, and the snowy chain and a 
 few brilliant stars looked like lamps before some sacred 
 shrine." 
 
 On her return to Berne, she had several hours to wait, and 
 spent them on the terrace by the old Cathedral where she 
 obtained another fine view of the snowy Alps. At a garden 
 dating from the fourteenth century, she bought a few flowers 
 of the old gardener, and gave them to the three pretty children 
 that were playing near the water's edge at the foot of the hill, 
 at the base of the terrace. They "smiled at me and reminded 
 me of the 'little maids from school.'" 
 
78 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 At Bale she slept at the "Three Kings," her room over- 
 looking the river. Her mood of enthusiasm had somehow 
 changed. 
 
 "It is dark and unsympathetic. The thought that this 
 river will flow on undisturbed by the changes in the lives of 
 men oppressed me, so that I gladly closed the curtains and 
 sought comfort from the candle-light and fire. It is very 
 strange to look on scenes that once were seen under different 
 circumstances, and with others who may now be dead. It 
 was in 1869, I visited here with my mother. This old river 
 with its current and retarding whirlpools reminds me of 
 Philadelphians, who with their progress must take it con- 
 servatively like the retarding action of the whirlpool on the 
 molecules. What a contrast to the sparkling and quick in- 
 tellect of other localities just as marked as this big Rhine 
 is different from the Alpine torrent." 
 
 At Bale she felt "too tired and miserable to hunt up the 
 university authorities," and so devoted herself to sight-see- 
 ing, though about all that rewarded her was the mediaeval 
 collection adjoining the Cathedral, and here all that she 
 deemed worthy of chronicling was "two wooden statues of 
 a man and a woman coquetting a good example illustra- 
 ting unrefined gallantry." After a three hours' ride from Bale 
 to Freiburg, she notes that she "feels quite at home returning 
 to Germany." The next morning, which was the fifth of 
 November, she went to the chemical laboratory of Professor 
 Claus, who received her amicably and himself conducted her 
 over the extensive rooms where there seemed to be great ac- 
 tivity. " He is a tall, wiry man, with blond mustache and 
 hair. He might be any age, dressed in a gray felt gown faced 
 with green, and wearing a smoking cap on his head." She 
 was pleased with the open yard around which the buildings 
 ran, allowing excellent ventilation, and minimizing the dangers 
 of explosion. 
 
 In the rooms adjoining those occupied by Professor Claus 
 worked Professor Baumann, whom Lunge had told her to 
 be sure to visit. 
 
 "I sent in my card and very soon was welcomed. He is 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 79 
 
 still a young man, of full habit, with a yellow beard. He spoke 
 little English, and our conversation followed slowly. He begged 
 to be excused for a moment, and then returned with a gentle- 
 man whom he introduced as Dr. W. J. Smith, working in 
 his laboratory. He reminded me very much of Dr. Brinton. 
 He is an Englishman, a physician, who has left practice and 
 is occupied with investigation at present on the changes 
 occurring in seeds during germination. I found him very 
 broad and intelligent. 
 
 "He conducted me over the rooms, and from him I found 
 that Baumann was a wise and able master, to be absolutely 
 relied upon as to his knowledge and power of aiding his stu- 
 dents. I saw the basement-room where Dr. Smith is study- 
 ing. On his table were three dishes of glass, such as we use 
 for crystallizing. The bottom was covered with moistened 
 filter paper, and on it many seeds were germinating. He 
 covered these with a glass plate, and a dark cover over 
 the whole to exclude light. The seedlings, as they grew 
 upon their own resources, lived perhaps three weeks. The 
 roots were of the most dazzling whiteness, and gave the ap- 
 pearance of the finest tufted spun-glass. Dr. Smith said they 
 were studying a glucoside and later would attempt the syn- 
 thesis of a ferment. He offered to ask if I might become a 
 private student of Baumann, and to the astonishment of us 
 both, he said 'Yes.' He even showed us the room in which 
 I might work. It was a private room of his assistant. 
 
 "Dr. Smith invited me to his apartment, and the same even- 
 ing Mrs. Smith called. I was unfortunately absent, having 
 gone to a performance of The Huguenots. It was not of a very 
 high order, but presented an interesting picture of provincial 
 life. The theatre and its occupants reminded me of a great 
 family party. The Grand Duke and some ladies of the party 
 were present, and sat in one of the upper stage-boxes. Upon 
 the Duke's entrance, a crier proclaimed in a loud voice that 
 His Royal Highness had arrived. Immediately every one rose; 
 then the orchestra began the overture of the opera. If a fire 
 had started, every one would surely have been burned, as there 
 seemed no means of ready exit. After the performance, a 
 
8o HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 crowd was seen some distance down the street before the 
 Duke's home, waiting for his carriage to drive up. It was too 
 cold to stop, so I hastened back to the hotel. . . . 
 
 "The cathedral square offers one of the prettiest sights to 
 be seen anywhere in Germany. The spire of the cathedral 
 is openwork of stone of a rich brown color; old houses border 
 the open place, and peasants with their Black Forest wares 
 crowd all around the space. The country is quite hilly all 
 around. The people seem kindly and sympathetic. One good 
 woman on a side street has a large store of the Black Forest 
 ware, and she allowed me to come into her house, and see where 
 the pottery was made. It is very coarse, but the decoration 
 and baking, as well as the moulding, are done under the roof. 
 The military band plays at noon, and though I hired a car- 
 riage and waited through the program, my ears were not 
 repaid for my pains. The event of the day was my visit to 
 Mrs. Smith. . . . 
 
 "The lady was intelligent and well-read, and was taking 
 an especial interest in woman's work generally. She said 
 that the finest needlework she had ever seen was made in 
 Spain, and one shirt in particular that had been made for .the 
 examination, was the most exquisite sewing she had seen. 
 She spoke about the German woman's education, and said 
 it had this general advantage, that all were evenly educated, 
 and as far as it went, this was very well, for no one noticed the 
 deficiencies of the other, and when one appeared with superior 
 attainments, she was in such a minority as to be forced to hold 
 herself in very much. She talked about temperance and 
 other American ideas. The hour passed in the most agreeable 
 conversation. 
 
 U A charming boy, their son, assisted in the delightful in- 
 terchange of ideas. At the station, as I was dragging a heavy 
 bag, a delicate little voice said, ' Give me your bag, please.' 
 It was the child, and a few steps back were the father and 
 mother. They waited until my train started off and wished 
 me good speed." 
 
 November seventh found her at Heidelberg, renewing the 
 memories of a visit made there six years before, but she 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 81 
 
 missed "the dear presence of former companions and also 
 the warm summer sun." She had a rather unique experience 
 at the chemical laboratory presided over by the famous 
 chemist, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. She had no letter to him, 
 but relying on her previous fortune, she drove to his residence, 
 adjoining his laboratory, and sent up her visiting-card. 
 
 "After a wait, I was asked upstairs by Bunsen himself to 
 his private room. I explained that I hoped to see his labora- 
 tory, and I was politely refused. He said that there was a 
 law against admitting women to the university. I explained 
 I had not come to study, but to visit. To this he replied that 
 the laboratory rooms were now filled with young men, but 
 if I would wait until Sunday seven days I could have the 
 privilege of going through probably. I explained that I 
 was leaving Heidelberg that day. This seemed in no way to 
 shake him, and so I departed, wondering what kind of young 
 men were in his rooms, different from those I had already 
 seen elsewhere in German laboratories." 
 
 From Cologne, where she renewed her earlier impression 
 of what she calls the "monarch of cathedrals," with its mind- 
 satisfying interior, she went to Bonn, where she was fortunate 
 enough to find all the prominent chemists. Of Professor Fried- 
 rich August Kekule, who had done so much to develop the theory 
 of carbon- compounds, she says: "He is a very charming- 
 looking person, gray- haired and bearded. He asked me why 
 in the world I wanted to study chemistry, why I did not do 
 something else! This was a very difficult question to answer. 
 He had had a very poor experience with his lady-students. 
 Two Russian ladies had applied and been admitted into his 
 private laboratory. One killed herself, by taking poison in- 
 tentionally in his laboratory. The other lady was always mak- 
 ing combustions and reading romances, so as Kekule said, 
 he never got results. I may say here that generally, in Ger- 
 many, the right to admit ladies into the professor's labora- 
 tory rests with him. It is his castle, no one has the right to in- 
 quire what he does there, and if the professor so pleases, he 
 can admit the woman- student." 
 
 She had a letter of introduction to Professor Rein, who pre- 
 
82 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 sented her to his wife, who spoke English with some fluency, 
 and as she had a little time to spare, he took her to the Beer 
 House, where they sat at the professors' table. It was so called 
 because a number of the university instructors, lawyers, doc- 
 tors, and scientists met there for an hour or so each evening 
 and discussed all sorts of subjects, special or general. 
 
 After a long, tedious ride to Paris, the weather being stormy, 
 she was ill for more than a fortnight, and unable to "record 
 events in chronological order." Then she fell in with "a dis- 
 tinctly artistic set," and so did not push forward her scientific 
 opportunities as she would have desired. But she visited the 
 School of Pharmacy and got there some new ideas and learned 
 that there were lectures at the Jardin des Plantes. 
 
 She visited the wonderful picture collection of M. Theo- 
 dore Duret. Among them were seventeen Monets, which he 
 had bought some time before when they still brought small 
 prices. Duret informed her that, having his pictures, he wished 
 for no wife. He slept on a low couch, which he called his bed, 
 in order that he might give some turkeys, by Monet, a good 
 position and light. She noticed on his table a new work on 
 Spinoza, and asked him if he was an admirer. He seemed 
 pleased to find her enthusiastic. He asked her if she liked 
 Wagner, and when she replied in the affirmative, he said 
 those things all went together. He then gave her his book 
 and a letter of introduction to Whistler. 
 
 She was delighted with the magnificent collection of Japan- 
 ese engravings and pictures which M. Bing had gathered 
 together. She spent an afternoon and evening at his house 
 looking over his treasures. She was amazed at the immense 
 variety in Japanese combs, many with exquisite crystal tips. 
 She also was fascinated with a "kind of jade green enamel 
 quite elaborately ornamented with gold tracings." At his 
 house, she met M. Gonze, the editor of " Les Beaux Arts," a 
 great authority on Japanese painting. 
 
 By the twenty-second of November, Miss Abbott was in 
 London again, full of zeal for her future work, and making 
 arrangements for an ample supply of seeds, plants, and drugs 
 which she found she could secure through Christy. This 
 
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 Bevan'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, l 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 
 
84 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 brought back views. He showed me quite a number of recent 
 ones. 
 
 "The physical laboratory contains a treasure: in fact many ! 
 A large stand on which rests his spectroscope, a most inge- 
 nious yet simple arrangement, where he obtains the most ex- 
 tended spectra. The reading is effected by an arc marked. This 
 is illuminated by the light being carried along a curved glass 
 rod from the gas-burner to a little looking-glass which is over 
 the figures and magnifies them perfectly. I was enthusiastic 
 over the glass rod. It seemed quite weird, and Crookes said: 
 ' Can you not carry water along a glass tube ? Then why not 
 light along a glass rod ? Indeed I can turn corners and carry 
 the light wherever I have a mind to.' " 
 
 Professor Crookes showed her his induction-coil, then the 
 largest in the world, and his various tubes, which she greatly 
 amused him by calling "spooky." He explained to her how 
 he tested the genuineness of gems by the use of his little pocket 
 spectroscope, " when by direct vision under ordinary con- 
 ditions, by simply holding up the stone before a window, the 
 most positive opinion may be had as to a stone's worth." A 
 large diamond placed in a tube and subjected to the electric 
 current gave forth the most beautiful phosphorescence. Others 
 from South Africa gave a pale-blue light, those from India 
 being harder gave a yellowish-green; others a yellow light. 
 One tube containing a number of small diamonds of different 
 qualities "were beautiful in their play of color when subjected 
 to the electricity." He showed her a crystal of some lead salt 
 which remained phosphorescent for some time after the current 
 had been turned off. It gave the most brilliant apple-green 
 color. She thought that, without exception, this exhibition 
 was the most remarkable and interesting of her whole trip. 
 She spent three hours in that "most wonderful room." When 
 she went away he presented her with two or three of these 
 tubes, one containing a large ruby. 
 
 She says: "I have not begun to do justice to my stay in 
 his laboratory. Nothing could surpass his courtesy, amia- 
 bility, and humor. He took me into his room containing his 
 rare earths. They were kept in a glass case. He had the va- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 85 
 
 rious rare earths from many sources of minerals and in many 
 cases these were different in color from the earth source. I 
 thought what an interesting thing it would be to find out if any 
 one of the ash-constituents from different plant sources would 
 present also differences. He showed me the first radiometer, 
 and a series of electric bulb-lights from the smallest in the 
 world to the usual size. 
 
 "Mrs. Crookes told the story. Professor Crookes said when 
 he discovered his radiometer he rushed in where Mrs. Crookes 
 was and cried, 'It moves.' She answered, 'Six oysters.' It 
 seems that she was engaged in going over the fishmonger's 
 book and found the account out six oysters. Crookes said he 
 could never forgive her for this! This was all amiable. Mrs. 
 Crookes is extremely agreeable and bright; both she and her 
 daughter were most hospitable. I had been invited in to lunch, 
 so we soon went into the dining-room. It is on the ground 
 floor front a very handsomely furnished room, rather dark, 
 but at night illuminated, as are all the rooms, by electricity. 
 A blessing was asked by Mrs. Crookes before beginning the 
 meal. Miss Alice Crookes, Mrs. Crookes's mother, and a visitor 
 made up the party. Mrs. Crookes regretted not knowing that 
 I would remain longer, for she had gathered from my note 
 that I should sail on that day, and they had no other free time. 
 Professor Crookes said he would like to have given me a din- 
 ner and to have invited some of the chemists to meet me. I 
 had expected to leave this week, and so had to endure the dis- 
 appointment of missing this opportunity. After lunch, we 
 went to the drawing-room and talked with the ladies. Crookes 
 absented himself a short time to correct a proof but he soon 
 rejoined us, and we went again to his laboratory and saw more 
 marvels. 
 
 "It was suggested that I should go with him to the Royal 
 Society meeting in Burlington House, and be taken from there 
 to Dr. Armstrong, whom I was to meet, to go from Charing 
 Cross to his house, half an hour out. Crookes said ladies did 
 not attend, but he proposed to take me; so off we drove in a 
 hansom to Burlington House, chatting on the way about many 
 subjects, novels, art, etc. Many members had already as- 
 
86 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 sembled in the anteroom. A large table where tea, coffee, 
 etc., were served was surrounded by members. Crookes in- 
 troduced me to McCleod, Austen, Frankland, and several 
 others; then we passed into the meeting-room. The papers 
 were principally on palaeontology (Seely). Professor Flower 
 and Whittaker were present, and many others whose names 
 I do not remember. It was very interesting to see the formal 
 manner in which the meeting was carried on. At 5.30 we ad- 
 journed to the Chemical Society rooms, and soon Dr. Arm- 
 strong came, and off we went to the station." 
 
 She cites some of Armstrong's recollections of Germany 
 and the German chemists and ends her account of that even- 
 ing with these characteristic words : 
 
 "I came back to London at 10 P. M. alone and reached 
 the hotel independently. What a delight to be < free! Arm- 
 strong said that abroad it was now quite generally recognized 
 that women could go about in the most independent way and 
 still be respected." 
 
 She had a long and "most instructive conversation" with 
 Professor Holmes, curator of the museum, and lecturer on 
 Materia Medico, at the Pharmaceutical Institute, whom she 
 found a man of immense knowledge of his specialty. He 
 showed her a great variety of specimens of plants and of chem- 
 ical compounds, many of them having the most delicate per- 
 fumes. She was interested to learn that great strides had re- 
 cently been made in determining the genus and species of any 
 bark or plant by its microscopical character. She questioned 
 him very closely on points touching her own theory, but found 
 that he had no answer ready; as in the case of others, "it is 
 so eminently a subject foreign to their minds that they are un- 
 able to grasp the thought." He expounded to her an inge- 
 nious theory as the reason for the sap mounting in the spring : 
 "He believes that the warmth of the spring sun shining on 
 the trunks causes the vessels to expand and thus allow the sap 
 to mount. I asked if the sap flowed more rapidly on sunny 
 days than at night or on cloudy days, and he said he believed 
 so. He had never been able to investigate this point and had 
 never published his idea." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 87 
 
 On the twenty-sixth of November, she presented a note of 
 introduction given to her by Mr. Christy to Dr. Murie, Li- 
 brarian of the Linnaean Society. She says: "The old man 
 placed every book in the library at my disposal. I spent nearly 
 four hours in taking notes and shall return on Monday. He 
 allowed me to bring home with me some books from the 
 library. One is in manuscript. I think women have every 
 opportunity for advancement if they will only persevere. 
 It will require very little effort to throw over the last bar- 
 riers." 
 
 Professor Armstrong had criticised Miss Abbott's Yucca 
 paper as showing evidences of hunting out methods and means 
 for herself, and he discouraged this as a waste of time, and 
 thought that she ought to be near some one who could teach 
 her rapidly the very newest methods, and really help her in 
 arriving at a successful termination of any research work. 
 He thought that before going to Germany, it would be well 
 for her to stop in England and have a good deal of personal 
 supervision, since in Germany "one is left to carry out one's 
 own fate a good deal." 
 
 On her return to America, she went to Boston, where she 
 studied for a time under the direction of Professor Arthur 
 Michael, of Tufts College, to whom she was married in 
 June, 1888. In the summer of the same year Professor and 
 Mrs. Michael started on a trip around the world. 
 
 It is unfortunate that we do not possess even brief and hasty 
 notes of this memorable journey, which lasted about a year 
 and a half. With her keen powers of observation, her unusual 
 interest in art, science, and life, she would have chronicled 
 a host of varied experiences, especially in Japan and in 
 India, where the prevailing phases of religious thought would 
 naturally appeal to her ever-widening sympathies. 
 
 In Japan she added materially to her unique collection of 
 art objects, rich silken embroideries, keramics, and kake- 
 monos, especially those portraying " the harmless necessary 
 cat." She had a host of bronze and porcelain effigies of her 
 favorite pet animal, and among her treasures was one painted 
 by a Chinese emperor hundreds of years ago. When she was in 
 
88 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 Egypt, Brugsch Bey presented her with a graceful little bronze 
 cat that had been dug up from a recently excavated tomb. 
 On their return to America, Professor Michael accepted 
 the position of Director of the Chemical Laboratory of the 
 newly established Clark University at Worcester. He re- 
 signed shortly afterwards, and the following year (1891) he 
 and Mrs. Michael took up their residence at Bonchurch, Isle 
 of Wight, England, where they equipped a private labora- 
 tory and continued their research work. After a residence of 
 four years, they returned to Boston, Professor Michael re- 
 suming his connection with Tufts College. 
 
 For a time, while living in a charming home on Beacon Hill 
 in Boston, Mrs. Michael resumed her chemical researches at 
 the Tufts College Laboratory, but her interests were becom- 
 ing enlisted in wider fields. 
 
 She was identified with many public organizations in Bos- 
 ton. She was an associate member of the American Branch 
 of the Society for Psychical Research, the New England Wo- 
 man's Club, the Walt Whitman Fellowship, of which she was 
 at one time secretary, and the Boston Browning Society. She 
 was one of the original members of the New Century Club of 
 Philadelphia on its foundation in 1887; she was also an early 
 member of the Twentieth Century Club of Boston. She was 
 one of the original members of the Boston Authors' Club. 
 
 In November, 1895, she read before the Browning Society 
 a paper on The Conception of Truth among the Greeks and 
 in Browning. That same year she read before the Franklin 
 Institute of Philadelphia, of which she had been elected a mem- 
 ber, a "Review of Recent Synthetic Work in the Class of Car- 
 bohydrates." She also contributed several articles to "Poet- 
 Lore," a valuable magazine edited by personal friends of hers. 
 In 1896, she went abroad again, and there are one or two 
 passages from scattered notes which merit reproduction as 
 showing how quick she was to respond to the beckonings of 
 humanity. Thus in June she was at Linthal in Switzerland. 
 She says : 
 
 "On Sunday, June 28, at the Linthal church, all the sing- 
 ing societies from the upper Linthal villages assembled in a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 89 
 
 singing festival. The choruses were admirably sung, notably 
 by the societies from the village of Diesbach; the men tak- 
 ing part were from all the village classes. Their faces were 
 earnest; many looked intelligent; but a serious expression 
 hardened by toil had sapped the life of inspiration. It was 
 as if the soul's spontaneity had been crushed by labor. It was 
 an affecting sight to see this number (400) from all these lit- 
 tle far-away mountain villages, giving themselves up to the 
 influences of music. I felt my heart going out to humanity 
 in sympathy and with ardor. The thought again .returned, 
 when all the promises or creeds are found void, and human- 
 ity is left alone without perhaps even the possibility of attain- 
 ing religion's ideals, what utter misery and despair 1 Cannot 
 those who have already passed through religious and many 
 other silenced ideals do something to lessen the anguish of 
 their poor, bleeding hearts ? Yes, it is a noble ideal to do some- 
 thing to assist this coming pang. The inscriptions on the vil- 
 lage tomb tablets, assuring the toilers on earth that the poor 
 soul is safe in heaven's peace, stand like mocking forms." 
 
 Two days later she went up the Sernfthal to Elms. She says : 
 " A beautiful, clear day; drive romantic; village inn (Elmer's) 
 very clean and so situated as to get a good view of Martin's 
 Loch a round hole in the Tschingelhorner, through which 
 the sun shines only twice a year on the village church spire. 
 It is a wild region, hemmed in by snow mountains, with 
 their saw-edged rugged piles of stone. The spirit of the ter- 
 rible landslide of 1881 hung around the spot. Under some 
 circumstances, how profitable would the spot and scenery have 
 proved for inspiration, the valley of approach passing through 
 Engi and Matt, sombre at times, again opening out to the 
 sunshine, with green fields spreading before the eyes, all in- 
 viting to meditation; but alas the soul-communion with 
 nature was disturbed by inharmonic influences. The breeze 
 blew strong from the west, and brought messages, interrupted, 
 but none the less real, from those that never fail to inspire. 
 The excursion, from the negative thoughts, longings for more 
 complete companionship, and the reflections on the disaster 
 of '8 1, was still a profitable one." 
 
90 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 About a month later, she was at Cortena in Austria, and here 
 again the scenery leads her thoughts to religious expression: 
 "The view from the Hotel Faloria is wide and grand. The 
 evening lights give architectural reality to the summits. I 
 thought I was looking upon an Indian rock city with mosques, 
 minarets, and palaces. The red and purple coloring with 
 tawny yellow shades gives already a superb background for 
 the play of direct and reflected light. The groves of larch trees 
 remind me of delicate, fringed ferns; the sunlight effects on 
 these limbs, and the vistas through the pendant branches, give 
 food for long meditation; the scene is one of great beauty. 
 The rocky, huge amphitheatre surrounding this plateau vies 
 with the clouds in taking fantastic forms. The air is dry and 
 invigorating. 
 
 " A feeling of absolute peace and calm pervades me. This 
 scene is a fitting cathedral for the services of the real religion 
 of humanity. This calm completes existence. Nothing more 
 is needed. Perhaps nowhere else could such absolutely restful 
 elements be found. Sweet pine air almost silence, no tur- 
 bulent streams, a long way off a pale Nile-green stream mur- 
 murs just enough sound to give movement to the scene. 
 The mountains do not oppress all gayly colored, not over 
 9,000 or 10,000 feet in height. They seem simply to exclude 
 too much of the world." 
 
 After her return to America she contributed to a paper 
 published in Portland, Oregon, a letter descriptive of her 
 experiences in the Austrian Alps. It was signed Alfred Kar- 
 son, the initials of which pseudonym she was accustomed, 
 during that year and the next, to affix to the poems which 
 she liked to send to her niece and one or two friends. This 
 letter is sufficiently interesting and characteristic to cite in 
 extenso. 
 
 A PAGE FROM A SUMMER DIARY 
 
 If I were asked to give of all the impressions of the past 
 few months spent abroad those which were then and still are 
 in memory the most vivid, they would not be of the streets 
 and sights of a gay capital, nor of a much-talked-of artiste 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 91 
 
 and a new opera, nor the pages of any recent literary success, 
 nor yet a woodland scene of exquisite grandeur, but they would 
 be the impressions of the daily life of a people in remote valleys 
 of Austria. This peasantry leads a life of toil incessant, un- 
 fruitful, and hopeless, with no other outlook beyond the life 
 their fathers led before them, with no other promise than the 
 promise held out by the wide-stretching arms of Rome to her 
 faithful children, in lieu of their allegiance. Not an unusual 
 picture outside of Austria. 
 
 A people bound by an iron band of authority, forged by 
 church and state, from whose clasp there is no escape, A 
 happy people withal, the discontented possibly the exception; 
 but happy only through an enforced ignorance of the truth; 
 the awful reality of their own helplessness and hopelessness. 
 Any day the clisillusion may come. How unprepared are 
 these people for disclosures ! Can their condition be imagined 
 at the awakening? 
 
 A people whose lands are taxed and mortgaged, only the 
 strenuous exertion of united family labor, and that is barely 
 enough, to meet their obligations. The money from this labor 
 goes for the sustainment and support of the nobility, and the 
 leisure classes. What are their lives? Very little beyond a 
 round of useless charities, pleasures, and idleness in the cities. 
 There is no need to enumerate in detail. Their lives are well 
 enough known to all. They do not want for bread. Whilst 
 the blood of the worn, scantily fed, meanly housed, poorly 
 clothed workers is shed, literally drop by drop, for beings call- 
 ing themselves human but in fact incarnations of aimless- 
 ness. This contrast, so unjust, so inhuman, opposed to the 
 teachings of the Nazarene whom all in that land profess to 
 revere cannot be portrayed by words. The condition must 
 be seen to be felt. 
 
 In conversing with men and women belonging to the titled 
 classes in Austria, I gathered that the desire on the part of 
 the majority of these persons was only an echo of a common 
 feeling to discourage the education of the poorer classes be- 
 yond a very limited standard. Others went so far as to pro- 
 nounce all education for these classes baneful, as leading to 
 
92 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 discontent and final rupture from the limits of their narrow 
 lives. 
 
 Again, many among the nobility are themselves simplify- 
 ing their own lives, especially those faithful Catholics who 
 may be classed as holding socialistic tendencies, their object 
 being to lessen the space between the very high and the very 
 lowly born. The simplicity of the home-life of these titled 
 families of Austria, compared with the reckless extravagance 
 of our own property-holding classes, would bring the blush 
 of shame to the reflective American, who believes himself in- 
 ferior to none. I do not accept this remedy, good in its intent, 
 as sufficient to relieve this cancerous growth sapping the pro- 
 gress of humanity. 
 
 Not the architecturally favored gem of a Tyrolese town, 
 nor the Ampezzo mountains with their natural rock- summit 
 cities, all outlined as really against a blank blue sky as the 
 purple coloring and tawny shades of their steep and precipi- 
 tous foundations, nor yet the valley of Heiligenblut with its 
 marvel of a church overshadowed by the snow-heights of the 
 Glocknerwand ; all of these, beautiful, pure and inspiring, 
 fail to move the heart so strongly as the scene of a sordidly 
 laid table for the toilers in and about the village inn. 
 
 The sounds of the evening Ave rang through the valley as 
 these tireless toilers assembled for their repast, a break in the 
 monotony of their hours. The table stood beyond the kitchen 
 door in the open air, in full view of my window. Amidst this 
 wondrous natural setting, these men and women had gathered 
 to sup. One small tureen of some meagre soup, scarcely suffi- 
 cient to fill the plates of the twelve or fourteen workers who 
 had come to the table, comprised the menu; neither bread, 
 drink, nor a second course supplemented the soup. I shall 
 never forget the hungry-eyed glance of a woman, herself the 
 expression of what her life had b*een, as she looked into the 
 unreplenished tureen, and then to the tables in the dining- 
 room, at whose boards sat those who scarce had known in their 
 lives what hunger meant. 
 
 I will not detain you by repeating the gist of many conver- 
 sations with the people that dwell in those valleys. Your sym- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 93 
 
 pathies would be moved to hear of these heartbursts, the 
 scanty and bare existence, the nominal wages and rewards 
 of toil, the longing in some hearts for a wider life, the glimpse 
 that some few had that all was not well in the world, the wait- 
 ing of others for a helping hand and leadership where alone 
 they would be powerless to go, the refuge of others in thoughts 
 of a reunion through their faith with loved ones now afar, who 
 have succumbed, alas ! after years of anguish. The hope and 
 aspiration of these souls, starving for sympathy, are engraved 
 in words on stones and tablets of their dead, to those dead, 
 asleep under the guardianship of fir-covered slopes and distant 
 snows, whose step will no longer resound within the walls of the 
 green-spired church, around whose base their graves cluster. 
 
 I carried away with me the sense of a great oppression, an 
 oppression the outcome and realization of what the causes 
 of this burden to my senses might mean. The horror of these 
 sharp social contrasts in life, whether brought to us by 
 painter or observation, is as great as other horrors in- 
 deed greater because the source of the misery besetting 
 our path. The errors of all systems fostering and harboring 
 such motives of light and joy cannot be dismissed with a 
 careless thought. 
 
 If I have brought these impressions for you to weigh, it 
 is with the knowledge that human suffering is not peculiar 
 to Europe, nor to any quarter of the globe; also I know by 
 earnest effort a light will arise to dispel from humanity these 
 shadows. 
 
 A passage from a letter written in October of the following 
 year deepens the impression of the serious and increasingly 
 religious trend of her mind. She says : 
 
 "I have returned, if I may say 'return,' although I do not 
 imply a retrogression, if the word carries with it that idea, to 
 a state of mind I at one time approached; but, with the ac- 
 cumulated wealth of experience and knowledge, this state is 
 not comparable with the old. The present condition is one 
 divested of all externality or desire to give expression by ex- 
 ternal forms, where before Church rites and rules were the 
 
94 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 outward manifestation. Not that the state is one absolutely 
 devoid of externality, inasmuch as my outward bearing and 
 actions may not be identical with those of the past. Where 
 more light shines the path is necessarily more distinct and the 
 lay of the land clearer. But I referred to ' externalities ' as 
 direct modes of expression. 
 
 "The state is a deep sense of religious being and oneness 
 with the spirit of Buddha, Christ, and the Prophets. It is 
 inspirational with all religions, one with all philosophies, 
 cults, or creeds. In brief: The unity of the world lies before 
 me, I am one with all knowledge and experience. This sud- 
 den opening of the spiritual founts has quenched all other 
 fires. My state is beyond will-power itself, which is identified 
 with humanized divinity, or God. I am afloat upon a limit- 
 less sea of refined spirituality; my soul bathes in these waters; 
 I am refreshed and strengthened; I ask for nothing more 
 than this complete absorption with what I understand by 
 God. It is the highest mode of love. 
 
 " In a degree you will now understand why I seek solitude. 
 I need silence to question this translation to more ethereal 
 spheres than I ever traversed. Logic and so-called reason 
 here avail not. I shall try to get back to work before long; 
 with this farther sight I ought to obtain clearer results than 
 ever. I speak of the sudden opening of the spiritual founts; 
 but of course the waters had been the result of accumula- 
 tions of stored-up rays of light from early years to the present. 
 There is nothing miraculous in this. 
 
 " The October balm caught in your letter was not gone when 
 your letter reached me. It pleased me to read that you felt in 
 that 'September Day,' the influence of freedom and security 
 and a more universal flow than you had noticed before in my 
 writings. I felt the lines and they meant a great deal to me, 
 much more than I could find language to express." 
 
 The poem to which she refers, entitled "One September 
 Day/' depicts a walk at "high noon along the turgid stream." 
 
 "Alone I went, but by my side were you, 
 Enclasped in thought intent and feeling too. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 95 
 
 From looming crags straight hemlocks skyward went; 
 Along their shafts upcarried the eye sent 
 Its glance to plains of constant deepest blue, 
 By bough enhanced and leaf of greenest hue. 
 
 "On hilltop tall above a flowery field 
 There sat aloft the sylvan spires to shield, 
 When rays of sun ashoot from median sky 
 In throbs of heat restrain the bird's shrill cry. 
 Woodlands rise on and on, and murmuring sounds 
 Of rush and splash rise out from dense tree-mounds, 
 And song of winds entranced around me play, 
 Whence life and forceful vigor crown the day. . . . 
 
 "Hush ! Night at last reigns over all supreme, 
 And sense and mind blend one in trance or dream. 
 The mood of noon with form of thine still clings, 
 Tho midnight's note gives voice that truly rings 
 Of greater depths of ardor than e'er first 
 When yearning youth paused but to quench its thirst. 
 Then folded for one brief respite by thee, 
 Earth's feeling, true with thine eternity ; 
 In thought like this what care for life or death, 
 What staying bond hath power this force to wrest?" 
 
 Not far from the same time she wrote, in a poem which was 
 probably a sort of metrical letter to a friend, these significant 
 lines, pointing to this vital change or deepening of her re- 
 ligious consciousness : 
 
 "I stand imbued 
 
 With light laid up from youth's first early store, 
 For hours of penitential act and psalm 
 May not from faith, but intent fervid come. 
 You smile that penance such as these trite ways 
 Could turn the spirit into wake of dawn? 
 Yes, smile you may, for very fact remains, 
 Not prayer, the guiding mind alert and free 
 From doctrines, litanies, and forms of Church, 
 But meanings born of stress and strain 
 Uplead the toilsome path of growth's full self, 
 Where Science, Art, and all of Beauty's wiles 
 
96 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 Their use do yield, but fail to grasp or thwart. 
 Let 's stop awhile and rest in memory's chain ! 
 And then came light of truth with swiftest dart, 
 So swift and sure it came that all grew bright, 
 As night by firefly's torch or floating star. 
 And love enwove with touch sublime and strong, 
 Where freedom's voice arose for wrongs of kind; 
 Such wrongs are felt, scarce sung in rhythmic line. 
 Then wide the world of human form expands, 
 And tribes and nations to one vast compound 
 Of common interest and impulse rise, 
 Not bound by ties of artificial end. 
 
 I 'd haste this news, with greeting, all chords tune, 
 And sound aloft 'mid haunts and marts of men ! 
 ' Comrade, there stand you, brave, with all man's poise 
 To breast the storm, to ride the gale of life, 
 To bring new hopes to minds of starving men, 
 To meet, though meeting may but parting prove, 
 In moments rare of sympathetic hours ; 
 To me has come this zest, to know again 
 Upon life's hurried track ere journey's end 
 That valiant hearts untouched by dross or coin, 
 With ardent beat of pulse and throbbing brain, 
 Live true, undaunted, yea, in spirit one 
 To spurn all false, to scorn all gain 
 Save Freedom's goal though to reach that were vain! " 
 
 In 1897 she spent some weeks at Chestnut Hill, at the resi- 
 dence of her sister, and toward the end of April she wrote the 
 following descriptive poem. 
 
 SUNSHINE ON THE DELAWARE. 
 
 A sun-flashed wave, 
 
 An oar's quick stroke, 
 
 A sail of whitest sheen; 
 
 A cloudless blue, 
 
 A freshening breeze, 
 
 And banks aglow with spring. 
 
 A shore astir with 'longshoremen 
 A-hauling-in the seine; 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 97 
 
 A loiterer from the city's whirl 
 Stands viewing scene and men. 
 A flowing tide with rushing flood 
 And lapping swish and swirl, 
 A swinging barge, a fisher's craft 
 Drives in with reef unfurled. 
 
 Afar, the busy smoke-born haze, 
 Outshoot from factory depths, 
 The ferry, town, and dusky wharfs 
 The terraced tower o'erlooks. 
 Afar, the haunts of toil-worn forms, 
 Afar, the shimmering sea, 
 Afar, speed thoughts from sun-lit crests 
 To thoughts illumed by thee. 
 
 Interesting also is " A Fragment, " which is found in her notes 
 in several variants; this is the second: 
 
 " I stood and looked into the night 
 A fir tree sombre rose to sight, 
 A full-limbed evergreen tree. 
 I stood and looked beyond the night 
 Upon a distant star, 
 Whose emerald light 
 Shone dim from heaven's vault afar. 
 What thoughts of earth or sky hold you, 
 Sole watchers of night's sleep 
 Are life problems veiled to you 
 As the night in leaden mist? 
 What know yon star and tree 
 Of passion, death, or bliss ? 
 What use were science' teachings 
 To answer dreams like this ! " 
 
 In a criticism occasioned by reading Thomas Davidson's 
 "Prolegomena to In Memoriam" she says: 
 
 "As I look backward I see the spark of faith or religious 
 feeling early developed perhaps at nine years. I can recall 
 hours spent in meditation and silent prayer at afternoon ser- 
 vice. This mood deepened until all the joys from a firm be- 
 lief in Catholic doctrine and practice were mine. At last came 
 
98 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 a time when knowledge brought doubts of the rights of Church 
 or of system to hold back the craving of the soul for devel- 
 opment; for soul-development, it seems to me, may in some 
 natures where the love for knowledge is strong, be retarded 
 by the withholding of facts or the control through Church 
 laws to the detriment of the free action of the individual. To 
 bind myself entirely to scientific thought and its teachings, 
 to the exclusion of Literature and Art, brought me to a solid 
 blank wall, to a full stop. This state of being was most un- 
 fruitful, as interest, through weak health, nagged in objec- 
 tive studies. The veil of night enveloped me. A severe illness 
 at the end of ten years of soul-suppression the last five, of 
 almost total repression came, and with it a clearing away 
 of the mist and low heavy clouds. A curious vision brought 
 to my soul's eye the realization of God, the Universe, and my 
 place in it. ... After this, clearer conception of objective 
 things came; and the voice, though indistinct at first, that I 
 must encourage the plan of declaring my individuality and 
 throw off the shackles of custom habit, through early educa- 
 tion or conventionality, holding me down became clearer." 
 
 In a letter to the late Dr. Bucke, one of the literary executors 
 of Walt Whitman, she seems to refer more explicitly to this 
 ' ' ecstatic vision. ' ' She says : 
 
 " A long period before last spring had been a season of what 
 might be called spiritual dryness. My spiritual nature was in 
 a condition of tension, from which once liberated it sprang 
 into space with a force likened to an arrow released from a 
 taut bowstring. 
 
 "I will mention here, subsequent minor experiences have 
 been initiated in a similar manner; the soul seemed for a time 
 before mute, as if preparing by a recoil to dart forward with 
 greater velocity. Returning to my experience I am unable 
 to picture, verbally, the exaltation accompanying this libera- 
 tion. My soul was moistened by a dew of bliss and content- 
 ment I had never before felt; a happiness pervaded my be- 
 ing. I seemed to have acquired a new strength. 
 
 "I stood alone in the Universe, powerful to comprehend 
 in its entirety the whole, I knew my place as a personality in 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 99 
 
 this great Universe. I felt I was one element in a huge mosaic 
 system. A mosaic, essential to the whole. For one brief second, 
 alas! too brief, I seemed to comprehend Divinity. Every- 
 where, around, above and below me, the Universe was bathed 
 in a soft, gray, pearly light ; symbolically the Universe appeared 
 as an immense gray shining sphere; smaller orbs represented 
 personality, distinct, yet a part of the grand whole. A com- 
 posite flower also illustrates the feeling. The centre of the 
 flower and its numerous divisions are all separate flowers; still 
 they grow, jointly contributing to the glory of one unity in 
 complexity. 
 
 "With the rapidity of a flash of light I felt the reality of the 
 eternal, undying, inner core of personality, and of the immor- 
 tal place in the Universe, of self. 
 
 " Briefly these are the facts as I have stated. The months 
 following revealed to me the results of the reconstruction of 
 my being dating from then. I have never lost the vivid vitality 
 of the experience. The impressions of those spring days are 
 easily recalled; to them I turn for support and consolation. 
 On that March day was forged the anchor of my soul; firmly 
 it grapples as it ever will the infinite currents of the absolute." 
 
 Apparently the same sense of religious rehabilitation is em- 
 bodied in the following mystic poem, which, in spite of Emer- 
 sonian license of rhyme and rhythm, has decided merit. It is 
 entitled "My Star." 
 
 "A star with flashing light and power, 
 My soul a-flaming woke, 
 A vivid flare midst luring loom, 
 A burning stream my senses smote. 
 
 " This star in radiancy sublime, 
 With speeding worlds was borne, 
 And shedding thence its varied light, 
 In waning left me wan and lorn. 
 
 " Oh, how I longed and waited 
 For my star to come again! 
 I scanned the azure heavens, 
 Scarce knowing if I watched in vain. 
 
ioo HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL ; 
 
 " Though other stars arose and set, 
 For me they flashed no light, 
 I waited for the emerald fire, 
 The beacon of my lonesome night. 
 
 " The years they passing came and went, 
 Fate weaving life and death, 
 With visions fair most sweet were spent 
 The hours, for which alone I 've wept. 
 
 " Then when all hope seemed ebbing fast, 
 My star arose again, 
 I saw it span the jeweled sky, 
 I knew that longing proved not pain. 
 
 "Ah! then I learned what light of star 
 To me must ever bring : 
 A mystic throb of Nature's heart, 
 The magic glow of Spring. 
 
 "My Star" seems a complete answer to one entitled "Sep- 
 aration," written the year previous, just after Christmas, 
 1896: 
 
 " What grief is this that o'er my senses comes? 
 All tears are stilled, 
 My heart's beat lulled. 
 Oh! separation from all that vivifies, 
 The soul's throb now silenced, 
 Music's note is mute. 
 
 " Is ne'er comprehension and full expression to be mine ? 
 Oh! soul, cease with cross-purpose and meanings bewildering, 
 With sentences fraught with half-weighted words. 
 Leave words, forward sense I 
 
 Seek in clasp of hand and eye-glance else denied thee 
 The shining forth of thy soul's true light, 
 And illumination extending to that other soul, . * 
 More loved than thine." 
 
 This spiritual awakening was accompanied by the gradual 
 blossoming of a new purpose in life. All these years her mind 
 had been broadening and becoming more universal in its in- 
 terests, and yet she felt that her early plan of becoming a phy- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 101 
 
 sician was the logical outcome of her career. She had felt 
 naturally dissatisfied with her incomplete excursion into the 
 fascinating field of medicine, interrupted as it had been by ill 
 health, family reasons, and the claim of chemical research. 
 She now began to hear the renewed call to go further into its 
 luring mysteries. 
 
 Many honorary distinctions had been conferred on Mrs. 
 Michael. In 1887 she was elected a member of the American 
 Philosophical Society, one of the eight women who, in more 
 than a century, had received that mark of high consideration. 
 In 1893 she became a corresponding member of the Phil- 
 adelphia College of Pharmacy. Eight years later she was 
 made an honorary member in recognition of her valuable 
 scientific work in connection with plant chemistry. She 
 was also a fellow of the American Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science, a member of the Academy of Natural 
 Sciences, of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and of 
 the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft of Berlin. 
 
 In spite of serious ill health, which had culminated in a 
 severe surgical operation, which she resolutely and philoso- 
 phically faced and bore, with no fear as to its outcome, she 
 entered the Medical School of Tufts College in the autumn 
 of 1900, and after passing all of her examinations with very 
 high marks, and winning the admiration of her instructors, 
 she was graduated with her title of Doctor on the seventeenth 
 of June, 1903. 
 
 Even before she had received her license to practice she 
 had transformed a private house into a beautifully arranged 
 free hospital, which bore an inscription dedicating it to the 
 memory of her Mother, and, in association with another woman 
 physician in regular standing, she spent a good part of her 
 spare time in caring for the poor patients who flocked to it for 
 advice and relief. With the same sincerity of purpose she had 
 spent the summer of 1902 in Europe, and visited the most 
 prominent hospitals and clinics in London. 
 
 Amid her maturing plans for an ever- widening activity she 
 was stricken with an attack of the grippe, superinduced by 
 too great assiduity in caring for her poor patients. She her- 
 
102 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 self realized that her case was very critical, and prepared for 
 the worst. After a long and trying illness which was vainly 
 ameliorated by a summer spent in Dublin, New Hampshire, 
 she passed away in Boston on the twenty-ninth of Novem- 
 ber, 1904. The funeral took place in Philadelphia on the 2d 
 of December, and she was laid to rest in Laurel Hill Ceme- 
 tery. At the funeral service, one who had been for some years 
 a friend of her family spoke a few heartfelt words which may 
 be echoed here : 
 
 " We cannot help recalling the universality of her personal- 
 ity and its many-formed expression, of her wide sympathies 
 and appreciations. We must realize that as, after all, humanity 
 is the essence of religion, she was deeply religious. We must 
 mention the many polished facets of her jewel-like mind, and 
 how she won distinction in music, languages, expression, 
 both prose and poetic, in scientific research, and finally, even 
 in the few months of her active practice, in medicine. We 
 are certain that medicine, being both subjective and objective, 
 and bringing her into ever closer touch with humanity and its 
 needs, spiritual and physical, washer final and most fitting 
 expression." 
 
 He remembered her loving kindness to all who came into 
 contact with her, in whatever capacity, and her respect for 
 their individuality. 
 
 A paraphrase of her own brief "memorial paper" to the 
 memory of Dr. Brinton, published in the " Conservator " of 
 September, 1899, might fittingly characterize Dr. Michael's 
 relations to others : 
 
 " Her influence in stimulating the younger minds of her ac- 
 quaintance to more active growth was one of her pronounced 
 characteristics. An hour spent in her presence enabled those 
 so favored to carry away the germs of many a fresh thought 
 and inspiration. To the few who possessed the key to unlock 
 the inner storehouse of Dr. Michael's mentality was revealed 
 a treasure-house of richness not to be forgotten." 
 
 These words will be appreciated by the circle of those who 
 used to gather at her house or elsewhere and discuss every 
 imaginable topic of religion, philosophy, poetry, art, science, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 103 
 
 politics in its wider sense. But in all discussions, though she 
 always took a foremost part, she was a courteous and gentle 
 opponent if ever she felt called upon to combat any theory 
 or challenge any fact. She demanded freedom of thought and 
 utterance for herself; she was ready to grant every one else 
 the same privilege. A fragment dated July 16, 1900, and con- 
 sisting of only three or four paragraphs, gives, in brief, ex- 
 pression to much of her philosophy of life. She here says : 
 
 "To live is only worth while in order to build character. 
 
 "In the East, character is called Karma. It is built from 
 blocks of truth. It is only that which lasts through eons. This 
 is the tower for each to build. 
 
 "Only the strong are tried and they alone can reach ever- 
 lasting life; for in strength rests peace, solidarity, unity, in- 
 finity." 
 
 Still another phase is found in the form of a bit of rhythmi- 
 cal prose : 
 
 "The epilogue of Love is death. 
 
 " For he who has truly loved only finds fulfillment in death. 
 
 "The quest of life is love, its finding the signal for death. 
 
 "Love knows neither consciousness nor volition. It is, 
 in its fullest expression, oblivion; in its fullest activity, qui- 
 escence." 
 
 But what perhaps strikes one most powerfully in studying 
 her life is her passionate desire for independence, for com- 
 plete liberty of thought and action. She was an individualist 
 of the most pronounced type. She so insistently felt the 
 need of unhampered fields of activity for women that she may 
 sometimes have shocked the ultra-conservative in her pleas. 
 She could never see the reason why men should have all the 
 prerogatives and women all the restrictions. Instructive in this 
 connection is her prose hymn to Liberty, which was printed 
 in emphatic italics in the " Conservator" for April, 1897: 
 
 "Freedom is the end which revolution and revolt through truth have in 
 view. It is a liberation from all the chains which are holding back the hu- 
 man being from greater expansions of mind and soul. By Freedom is meant a 
 state wherein all the shackles from preconceived ideas of the rights and wrongs 
 of a question are cast aside; where the being stands unhampered to view 
 
104 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 each question on its own merits, to let each concept to which the human 
 mind is open work out through a sequence to its logical conclusion; where 
 the individual's action need not necessarily be one with the full possibili- 
 ties of the conceptional outgrowth, but where the individual may partake of 
 equal actional with theoretical liberty if so he or she desires. In Free- 
 dom each being must stand alone and the conduct of another cannot be pre- 
 scribed by you or by me. Freedom is also a state wherein we are surely not 
 free to give ourselves up to unbridled passions, license, and vices. For once 
 we have resigned our leadership into their lawless hands, we can call our- 
 selves free no longer; we become enslaved men and women. Perhaps the 
 man and woman ruled by even the noblest themes lose in their devotion to 
 any one absorbing idea something of the essence of liberty." 
 
 Again, in a few paragraphs written to a young woman con- 
 siderably younger than herself, she gives interesting glimpses 
 of her individuality. They are extracted from several letters 
 but are so characteristic that they find an appropriate place 
 here. She says in a letter written in 1896 : 
 
 "I have been speaking on several occasions these past eight 
 days, for the time being I have seemed to run into these 
 public utterances. . . . Don't make any resolutions of what 
 you will or will not do during the coming winter. As you grow 
 older you will find your place in the great world of thought, 
 art, or action. Keep yourself free, until at least your thirtieth 
 year, from matrimony. You want these intervening years to 
 fill your being with knowledge which may later in your life 
 bring fruition. 
 
 " Above all accept some idea as your ideal. I have found 
 mine in the theme of 'freedom' and 'liberty.' You must find 
 yours in what most appeals to you. But remember that all 
 thoughts of temporizing, or reform or philanthropy good 
 enough as expedients are not good enough as an ideal ulti- 
 mate aim. . . . But look to literature as one of the best means 
 of expressing yourself. . . . The topics gold and silver are 
 interesting enough, but there is a vast power at work now in 
 the world at destruction of all old systems of economics and 
 other social ones. . . . You will listen to all these arguments 
 and form your own opinions. Opinions, I need not say, are 
 always alive and changing. . . . 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 105 
 
 "In reply to what you need, I can give you this from my 
 own experience, that life is only bearable when lived de- 
 pending upon one's own resources for passing the time, and 
 upon the few spiritually congenial persons with whom I 
 have formed lasting friendships. Your literary tastes above 
 all means cultivate; and write, and write, and write, no mat- 
 ter how poorly it reads. You will be improving your powers of 
 expression; also seek to employ new words to increase your 
 vocabulary. Literature is worth living for when made a means 
 to give expression to the development of the writer's char- 
 acter and soul. As mere ornamentation, or to pander to the 
 conventionalisms of the day, literature, as a life, is very un- 
 satisfactory when devoted to such false ends. 
 
 " You may rest assured that even if you do not find congenial 
 sympathy for your tastes and occupations, that is no reason 
 to feel discouraged over their pursuit. 
 
 * Loving ! what claim to love has work of mine ? . . . 
 I looked beyond the world for truth and beauty : 
 Sought, found, and did my duty.' 
 
 You know the poet? No need to say who said these words. 
 
 " I have found some beautiful passages in Walt Whitman's 
 prose volume to read you. ... I feel as if I had lost all 
 my thoughts and, until this indigestion stops, I feel I shall be 
 unable to think. I have not read lately; to pass the time I 
 mended some stockings for want of something else to do. I 
 read what George Sand said on this subject only a few days 
 ago: ' Sewing is the work of female captivity.' I had come 
 to the same conclusion before reading the passage when 
 my mind was too weak for anything else, I took to sew- 
 ing, and I think this the state of the great mass of female 
 minds." 
 
 In spite of her intense love of independence and her ad- 
 vanced thought Mrs. Michael was always essentially and 
 delightfully feminine. Her love for nature and all beautiful 
 things found expression in many of her essays in verse, nota- 
 bly in a little prose poem which describes a field bounded by 
 "stately groves of trees." It thus concludes: 
 
io6 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
 
 "A cedar for many a year had stood along this path which 
 tallied with the course of my vision across the enclosure. 
 
 "The moon shone clear through leafy fringes of chestnut 
 limbs. 
 
 "Hopefully, I waited for some whispered message from 
 Nature, to be transmitted to my ear. 
 
 "No sound, a blank echoed in my soul, 
 
 " Only when I turned and looked upon a face I loved, framed 
 as square in miniature as these trees, then a flood of gladness 
 suffused my soul. That image stood for more than tree, to 
 me it meant a sentient thing." 
 
 Still another, in the free form which she liked so much, has 
 a mystic pensiveness and pathos and a remarkable weirdness 
 of imagery. It is entitled " Full Moon." 
 
 The Moon shone bright and cold, 
 The Moon's bright course had run, 
 And o'er the rim of yon dark hill 
 Had spilt in flood ^of light 
 Her orb's excess. 
 
 Hot the earth; Nature pants for breath, 
 
 Looking upward to this bounteous guest 
 
 Who spills thus her treasure-cup's need, 
 
 Drinks feverishly, lapping with Summer's parched tongue 
 
 Of her cool rays, 
 
 Delusive draught, not life-giving, 
 
 Bringing no living repose or rest. 
 
 All leaf or tracery of limb and trunk was lost, 
 
 Was lost in the transforming flood. 
 
 The willows wept hot tears of living green; 
 
 For, under branch and bough sprung one grand arch, 
 
 And from it hung in showers of stone, 
 
 Not as before, streams of living leaves, 
 
 But heavy pendants unmoved by breeze; the very air was fixt. 
 
 My fancy's flight carried me to such a sight 
 
 I once had seen, far under earth's surface, 
 
 Where drop by drop water rich in saline substance 
 
 Had done for that place what moonlight did for this tree. 
 
 The moon shone bright and cold, 
 Cold, cold, its light did enter my soul, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 107 
 
 My soul did fold, 
 
 And froze each heart's drop to ice, 
 
 Drop by drop 
 
 That heart was changed to one great stalactite. 
 
 Thoughts for words too deep, 
 
 Eyes too dim to weep, 
 
 Heart too sad to break 
 
 Yet in breaking only will come rest! 
 
 It was, after all, the demand of her nature to give and to share 
 affection. This is shown in a brief sentence in one of her note- 
 books, where she says: "Especial kindness and sympathy on 
 the part of my family and friends. I have never known of 
 such evidences of affection." 
 
 She was deeply interested in Philosophy; her reading of 
 Lotze and Rosmini, of Ferrier and Maurice, of Spinoza and 
 Hegel was wide and thorough. She was always ready to dis- 
 cuss the deepest questions, and a sympathetic interlocutor 
 always caused her mind to work with lucid activity. She was 
 equally fond of poetry, especially of Browning and Whitman, 
 but also of Dante and Shelley such was her breadth of 
 range. 
 
 It seems one of the strange and inexplicable measures of 
 the Power that rules this world that such a woman, just on the 
 threshold of a most beneficent activity, where her work would 
 have been of inestimable value, should be snatched away. 
 One cannot call her life wasted, for what she had already 
 accomplished must forever be an inspiration to all who knew 
 her or knew what she had done and was doing. Her utterances 
 in behalf of freedom for woman, her union of many accom- 
 plishments with a strict scientific spirit, her pioneer work in 
 securing for her sex many advantages which, had it not been 
 for her, might have been much longer delayed, her sweetness 
 of disposition and charm of personality, make her life a power 
 that will never cease to be felt in the world. 
 
 NATHAN HASKELL DOLE. 
 
STUDIES IN PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. H. W. WILEY, CHIEF 
 
 OF THE BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY, UNITED STATES 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE work of Miss Helen C. De S. Abbott is prominent in 
 the annals of American chemistry. 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 work which she did is the more remarkable when it 
 is considered that it was mostly finished before the modern 
 science of physical chemistry was placed upon its present firm 
 foundation. In those days it was not acknowledged by all, 
 and was recognized by few, that chemistry was the basic sci- 
 ence of all forms of life. Investigators had not realized that 
 the so-called vital processes were nothing more nor less than 
 chemical reactions of greater or less complexity. With our 
 present understanding of the domain of physical chemistry, it 
 seems strange that the studies which Miss Abbott really inau- 
 gurated on this subject had not been begun at an earlier period. 
 This delay, however, detracts nothing from the credit due 
 her in being a pioneer in the work. 
 
 The most important result of her investigations pointed 
 out in a clear way the regular existence of certain classes of 
 chemical bodies in certain species of plants. The results of 
 her investigations were to point out the existence as a predom- 
 inant factor of some one substance, or of associated compounds, 
 in classes of plants related by certain evolutionary common 
 features. The fact that occasional bodies of the same kind 
 are found in the most widely separated species and genera 
 is no indication of the futility of such an investigation. 
 
 Miss Abbott studied particularly the occurrence and rela- 
 tion of glucosides in plants, and especially the remarkable 
 similarity in composition in certain plants related as above 
 mentioned. She established the fact l that the " Glucosides 
 
 1 See paper on " Comparative Chemistry of Higher and Lower Plants." 
 
ii2 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 are more especially the compounds of the middle plane of 
 plant development, and are found in the higher monocotyle- 
 dons of this stage, in the lower and some of the higher dicoty- 
 ledons, and less frequently in the highest of all plants." Her 
 work in tracing the process of development of glucosides was 
 of the highest possible character, as well as of scientific in- 
 terest. 
 
 She discovered, among other things, that saponin is a gluco- 
 side which serves to unite all of what are known as the " saponin 
 groups," and these facts were brought out most strikingly 
 in her paper on "The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms." 
 Even in the constituents of plants which are almost universal, 
 it is found that they grow in greater or less quantities accord- 
 ing to the evolutionary stage of the plant. For instance, she 
 pointed out, I believe, the first of all chemists, that although 
 alkaloids are very widely distributed, they are not found in 
 the very lowest nor the very highest forms of life. They do, 
 however, occur sometimes in fungi. 
 
 She again pointed out the fact that one class of bodies was 
 very apt to occur with another and to lead up in the develop- 
 ment of one species of plants to another. Thus, the tannins 
 and sugars are apt to be co-related, and coumarin, which is 
 the odorous principle of the tonka-bean, is found only in plants 
 containing oils. In her work in this direction Miss Abbott 
 bound together more intimately than ever before the corre- 
 lated sciences of chemistry and botany. In fact, as we view 
 her work, we are forced to the conclusion that botany, even 
 in its morphological aspects, is more nearly a chemical sci- 
 ence than has ever been supposed. For instance, if we con- 
 sider, as we must in such investigations, the physiology of plant 
 growth or what is known as economic botany, we find it im- 
 possible to separate the two sciences. No one can study plant 
 physiology except from the chemical standpoint, and econo- 
 mic botany involves the application of the principles of chem- 
 ical technology at almost every step. 
 
 The good of such investigations is apparent. It helps to 
 bring together branches of science which sometimes, with- 
 out such a bond, would tend to become antagonistic. 
 
INTRODUCTION 113 
 
 I recall one of the most striking illustrations of the data 
 collected in the chemical work which Miss Abbott accom- 
 plished in the arrangement of series of plants to illustrate the 
 development of certain particular compounds by genera and 
 species, and this arrangement of genera and species showed 
 in a most marked manner the development of the chemical 
 compounds forming important constituents of the plants ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 The study of the principles of evolution during the last 
 fifty years has shown the dominating influence of environment 
 on the development of animals and plants. The investiga- 
 tions conducted by Miss Abbott also show the dominating 
 influence of environment upon the particular composition 
 of the plant. Thus were laid the first stones of the foun- 
 dation on which the important study of securing variations 
 in plants which change their environment is based. In the 
 careful breeding of plants there are two important things 
 which are to be kept in view. First, the development of new 
 forms or kinds of plants; and second, the development of a 
 more abundant content of valuable constituents of plants and 
 the elimination of the undesirable constituents. All of these 
 ideas were outlined in Miss Abbott's work, and from the 
 starting-point of these investigations most of the more im- 
 portant contributions to plant chemistry in this country in 
 relation to environment have been made. 
 
 H. W. WILEY. 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., October ist, 1906. 
 
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE NUTRITIVE 
 VALUE OF CONDIMENTS 1 
 
 THE prevailing opinion respecting the substances known 
 as condiments is that they possess essentially stimulating 
 qualities, rendering them peculiarly fitted for inducing, by 
 reflex action, the secretion of the alimentary juices. Letheby 
 gives, as the functions of condiments, such as pepper, mus- 
 tard, spices, pot-herbs, etc., that besides their stimulating 
 properties, they give flavor to food; and by them indifferent 
 food is made palatable, and its digestion accelerated. He 
 enumerates as aids to digestion : proper selection of food, ac- 
 cording to taste of the individual; proper treatment of it as 
 regards cooking ; and proper variation of it, both as to its 
 nature and its treatment. 
 
 While it is difficult to give an entirely satisfactory defini- 
 tion as to what constitutes food, the following extracts from 
 standard works will serve as guides. L. Hermann in his 
 " Elements of Human Physiology/' translated by Gamgee, 
 published in 1883, says : "The compound must be fit for 
 absorption into the blood or chyle, either directly or after 
 preparation by the processes of digestion, i. e., it must be 
 digestible. It must replace directly some inorganic or organic 
 constituent of the body; or it must undergo conversion into 
 such a constituent while in the body; or it must serve as an 
 ingredient in the construction of such a constituent." He fur- 
 ther says that water, chlorides, and phosphates are the most 
 indispensable articles of diet. Watts 2 states that "whatever 
 is commonly absorbed in a state of health is, perhaps, the best, 
 or rather the truest, definition of food." 
 
 Chemical analysis shows that the most important and widely 
 applicable foods contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 
 
 1 Originally printed in The Polydinic, Philadelphia, 1883. 
 
 2 Dictionary of Chemistry, vol. iv, pp. 147, 148. 
 
NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CONDIMENTS 115 
 
 and mineral matter, the latter containing phosphates and 
 chlorides. Other things being equal, it may be considered 
 that the comparative nutrient value of two articles is in pro- 
 portion to the amounts of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphoric 
 acid they contain. 
 
 "The food of man also contains certain substances known 
 under the name of condiments. Since these bodies perform 
 their functions outside the real body, though within the ali- 
 mentary canal, they have no better reason to be considered 
 as food than has hunger, optimum condimentum" 1 Such is 
 the positively expressed opinion of Foster, the author of the 
 article on Nutrition, in Watts's "Dictionary of Chemistry." 
 With a view of determining how far the common condiments 
 deserve this summary dismissal, a number of analyses have 
 been made in the laboratory of the Philadelphia Polyclinic. 
 My examinations were especially directed to the mineral 
 matter, phosphoric acid and nitrogen. The following table 
 shows the result of the analyses : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 of Ash. 
 
 of P 2 5 . 
 
 of Ash. 
 
 of P 2 5 . 
 
 Fennel 9.00 
 
 .103 
 
 Allspice 5.54 
 
 .017 
 
 Marjoram 8.84 
 
 .050 
 
 Mustard 3.90 
 
 134 
 
 Peppermint 8.80 
 
 .016 
 
 Black Pepper 3.60 
 
 .on 
 
 Thyme 8.34 
 
 .122 
 
 Jamaica Ginger 3.16 
 
 .052 
 
 Poppy 7.74 
 
 .024 
 
 Cinnamon 3.02 
 
 .009 
 
 Sage 7.58 
 
 033 
 
 Mace 2.44 
 
 .230 
 
 Caraway 7.08 
 
 .118 
 
 Nutmeg 2.24 
 
 .092 
 
 Spearmint 7.06 
 
 .017 
 
 Celery 1.29 
 
 .082 
 
 Coriander 6.10 
 
 .097 
 
 White Pepper 1.16 
 
 .017 
 
 Cloves 5.84 
 
 .563 
 
 Aniseed 1.05 
 
 113 
 
 The articles were examined in the condition in which they 
 were obtained in the market, without any preliminary drying, 
 selecting, or preparation. The ash was obtained by burning 
 in a platinum crucible, at as low a temperature as possible, 
 dissolving in hydrochloric acid the phosphoric acid separated 
 
 1 Dictionary of Chemistry, vol. iv, p. 149. 
 
n6 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 as ammonium molybdo-phosphate, and determined in the 
 usual manner. 
 
 Qualitative tests made for nitrogen indicated its presence 
 in each one of the condiments examined. 
 
 It is of importance to observe that the majority of these 
 condiments are fruits, ripe, or nearly so. The seed appro- 
 priates to itself the nitrogen and the greatest nutritive proper- 
 ties for the development of the future plant. All nutritive 
 substances fall into two classes; the one serves for the repair 
 of the unoxidizable constituents of the body, the other is des- 
 tined to replace the oxidizable. Condiments fulfill both of 
 these requirements, as is shown by a study of their composi- 
 tion; the phosphoric acid and nitrogen are taken up by the 
 tissues, as from other substances used in diet. Some articles 
 affect the character of the excretions; this is often due to essen- 
 tial oils; the presence of these in the excretions cannot be said 
 to diminish the value of the substances in supplying to the 
 tissues the necessary elements. The same holds true for con- 
 diments; the essential oils conspicuous in them are accorded 
 only stimulating properties; however, it may be observed that 
 the essential oils in tea and coffee are accredited with a por- 
 tion of the dietetic value of these beverages. It appears that 
 when condiments are used in food, especially for the sick, 
 they may serve the double purpose of rendering the food more 
 appetizing and of adding to its nutritive value. The value 
 of food as a purely therapeutic agent is attracting some atten- 
 tion at present, and in its study we must not neglect those 
 substances which combine stimulant and nutritive qualities. 
 
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE BARK OF 
 FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 1 
 
 IN the published proceedings of the Mexican Boundary 
 Survey of 1859, conducted by General William H. Emory, 
 are found numerous references to Fouquieria splendens. No 
 region of equal extent presents more marked illustrations of 
 the relations of the vegetation of a country to its topography 
 and geology than that lying along the Mexican boundary line. 
 The traveler traversing the desert table-lands will not fail 
 to unite in his recollections of these tracts the dull foliage of 
 the creosote bush, the palm-like Yucca, and the long thorny 
 wands of the Fouquieria splendens. The vegetation of the 
 El Paso basin and the Upper Rio Grande valley is described 
 as strikingly different from that of the immediately adjoining 
 country : new and strange plants are seen on every side. Upon 
 the table-lands many plants grow not to be found in the more 
 fertile valleys; among these is Fouquieria, a tree locally known 
 by its Mexican name ocotilla. A full description of the appear- 
 ance of the plant is given in the Mexican Boundary Survey; 
 also one in an article by Edward Lee Green. 2 The latter author 
 describes Fouquieria splendens in these terms : 
 
 "It is a splendid oddity, and not more odd than beautiful, 
 flourishing in great abundance in many places. It grows to 
 the height of from eight to twelve feet, and in outline is quite 
 precisely fan-shaped. The proper trunk, usually ten to twelve 
 inches in diameter, is not more than a foot and a half high. 
 A few inches above the surface of the sands this trunk abruptly 
 separates into a dozen or more distinct and almost branch- 
 less stems. These simple stems, rising to the height of eight 
 
 1 Paper read before the Chemical Section of the American Association for 
 the Advancement of Science, at Philadelphia, 1884; also before the American 
 Philosophical Society, November 7, 1884. 
 
 2 "Botanizing on the Colorado Desert," American Naturalist, 1880. 
 
n8 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 or ten feet, gradually diverge from one another, giving to the 
 whole shrub the outline of a spread fan. Each separate stem 
 is clothed throughout with short gray thorns and small dark 
 green leaves, and terminates in a spike, a foot long, of bright 
 scarlet trumpet- shaped flowers. The stems are not so thickly 
 armed with thorns but that they can be handled if grasped 
 circumspectly, and being very hard and durable, as well as 
 of a convenient size, they are much employed for fencing pur- 
 poses about the stage stations and upon the ranches adjoining 
 the desert." The author states: "Give a skillful Mexican 
 ocotilla poles and plenty of rawhide thongs and he requires 
 neither nail nor hammer to construct a line of fence, which 
 for combined strength, neatness, and durability fairly rivals 
 the best work of that kind done in our land of saw mills and 
 nail factories." 
 
 The plant is botanically described under order Tamariscinea, 
 tribe III, Fouquierece, new genus and species. 1 For other 
 sources of information see "A Tour in New Mexico; " 2 and in 
 1 1 Plantae Wrightianae 3 Texano-Mexicanae." The writer has not 
 been able to find any notice of chemical studies made upon it. 
 
 The specimens of ocotilla, at the writer's request, were col- 
 lected and transmitted from Lake valley, Southwest New 
 Mexico, through the kindness of Professor E. D. Cope. The 
 portions of the stem, similar to those used in the analysis, vary 
 in diameter from an inch to an inch and a half. The bark 
 shows a thickness of over an eighth of an inch, and is of a ,sage 
 color generally. The exterior surface is made rough by an 
 interlacement of hard projecting material; some of the smaller 
 stems are encircled with the gray thorns described, arising 
 in regular series from the projecting portions of the bark. 
 Between the interlacements are oblong and diamond- shaped 
 intervals, which are filled with superimposed layers of a yel- 
 lowish color and looking as if coated with a wax. They ap- 
 pear to be cemented together by a glistening substance which, 
 
 1 Bentham and Hooker, Genera Plantarum. 
 
 2 By Dr. N. Wislizenus. 
 
 3 Gray, Smithsonian Contribittions to Knowledge, vol. iii, part i, p. 85, and 
 part ii, p. 63. 
 
BARK OF FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 119 
 
 on warming the bark, exudes and possesses a resinous or gum- 
 like consistency. 
 
 In the present investigation, the scheme proposed by Dra- 
 gendorff * has been followed out, with the exception of the 
 maceration at the ordinary temperature; an apparatus simi- 
 lar to the one last devised by Tollens 2 has been used for the 
 extraction. The air-dried material reduced to a very fine 
 powder was again dried at 100 C., giving 9.4 % moisture, since 
 the great importance of powdering the material for the various 
 estimations as insisted upon by Dragendorff, 3 was fully con- 
 firmed in these examinations. Quantitative determinations 
 with ocotilla bark reduced to fine pieces gave 2 % and 3.5 % 
 less than the percentage obtained from the estimations with 
 the powdered substance. Determination of total ash gave 
 10.26 %; a qualitative ash analysis showed the presence of 
 calcium, magnesium, aluminum, potassium, sodium, and a 
 trace of iron; sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides. 
 
 Ten grams of the air-dried powder treated with petroleum 
 spirit of boiling point 46 C. extracted a substance without 
 aromatic odor, communicating to the liquid a light color. 
 From 100 c. c. a measured portion was evaporated for de- 
 termination of total amount of substances brought into solu- 
 tion. The residue dried at 100 C. gave 9 % ; at 110 C. 8.87 % ; 
 at 120 C. 8.875 % an d a loss of .125 % showing scarcely ap- 
 preciable trace of volatile oil. The remainder of the petroleum 
 spirit extract, on evaporation at the ordinary temperature, 
 left a solid yellowish-green wax substance of specific gravity 
 .984, melting from 84 C. to 85 C., insoluble in water, slowly 
 soluble in boiling 95 % alcohol, readily in absolute alcohol, in 
 cold ether, chloroform, amyl alcohol, benzole, carbon disul- 
 phide, oil of turpentine, and linseed oil; slightly dissolved 
 in aqueous alkalies, but not saponifying with them. It is col- 
 ored yellow by nitric acid; acted upon by concentrated sul- 
 phuric acid, and not by hydrochloric acid or aqua regia. 
 
 1 Plant Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative, G. Dragendorff, Ph. D. 
 Translated from the German by H. G. Greenish. London, 1884. 
 
 2 Zeitschrift /. anal. Chemie, xiv, 82, 1875, and xvii, 320, 1878. 
 
 3 Loc. cit. 
 
120 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 By means of combining sulphuric acid and solvents, I was 
 able to obtain several color reactions that may prove upon 
 further investigation of value in identification of the different 
 vegetable waxes. With Japanese wax, the only specimen of 
 vegetable wax I could obtain, the color reactions differed in 
 each test from the substance under consideration. The fol- 
 lowing color reactions were obtained with the petroleum spirit 
 residue. When small fragments were stirred on a watch crystal 
 with two or three drops of concentrated sulphuric acid of 1.84 
 sp. gr., the substance at once changed color to a clear garnet 
 red and was slowly dissolved by the acid, the liquid remain- 
 ing colored; with different portions of the red acid liquid 
 stirred on a watch crystal with various solvents used in ex- 
 cess, it was noted as follows: with absolute alcohol the color 
 was instantly dissipated, leaving a white precipitate; petro- 
 leum spirit discolored the acid solution, leaving no precipi- 
 tate; ether discolored it with gray precipitate; chloroform 
 changed the red acid liquid to yellow, no precipitate; with 
 benzole the red color was changed to snuff-brown, gradu- 
 ally passing to red-brown; amyl alcohol gave a rose-pink, 
 slowly passing through varying tints to a fine purple. So-called 
 pure amyl alcohol was used, and when tested did not give a 
 color reaction alone with sulphuric acid. The petroleum spirit 
 residue on boiling with absolute alcohol and, when warm, 
 thrown into several times its volume of cold water, separated 
 out as a white cloud. 
 
 Under a method by which melissyl alcohol has been ob- 
 tained from carnaiiba wax, 1 the petroleum spirit residue was 
 submitted to a like treatment. It was boiled with alcoholic 
 potash and saponified, the alcohol distilled off and lead acetate 
 added; a heavy light yellow-colored precipitate formed, and 
 on boiling, yellow masses separated out. They were washed, 
 dried, and boiled with absolute ether. The filtered liquid 
 on cooling deposited a yellow crystalline substance, which, 
 on heating on platinum foil, turned black and disappeared. 
 Beyond ascertaining the fusing-point, solubilities, and color 
 reactions, the substance was not further examined. It was 
 
 1 Liebig, Annalen, 183, p. 344, teste Watts's Diet. Chem. 
 
BARK OF FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 121 
 
 found to fuse between 43 C. and 60 C., the greatest change 
 occurring between 57 C. and 60 C.; to be soluble in chloro- 
 form and ether; scarcely soluble in cold absolute alcohol; 
 very slightly soluble in boiling 95 % alcohol; not acted upon 
 by nitric acid or aqua regia. Sulphuric acid dissolved the 
 substance and gave an orange color reaction discolored on add- 
 ing alcohol, ether, chloroform, and ammonia to the acid liquid, 
 with no precipitate; with amyl alcohol a pale rose pink, quickly 
 fading, and with benzole a brown color were obtained. The 
 color tests differed from those obtained with the substance 
 before saponification and treating with boiling ether, indi- 
 cating that the petroleum spirit residue can be separated into 
 at least 1 two substances, and possibly more, which remain to 
 be determined by a future study. 
 
 The powder exhausted by petroleum spirit was dried and 
 similarly treated with absolute ether, as in the previous ex- 
 traction. The ethereal extract of a greenish color gave an acid 
 reaction with litmus, and on addition of alcohol the liquid 
 became turbid. Spectroscopic examination failed to detect 
 the characteristic chlorophyll bands. The ethereal residue 
 on evaporation presented differences in color and solidity 
 from the petroleum spirit residue. It was quite brittle, and 
 was not appreciably softened at 120 C. It gave, when dried 
 at 100 C. 4.52 % of solids extracted ; at noC. 4.44 %; and 
 at 120 C. 4.42 %. The residue when evaporated at ordinary 
 temperature was insoluble in petroleum spirit, slightly solu- 
 ble in 95 % alcohol and carbon di- sulphide, quite soluble in 
 cold absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, chloroform, benzole, and 
 oil of turpentine. Nitric acid gave no reaction. With sul- 
 phuric acid and small portions of the ethereal residue, I 
 obtained a dark mahogany color. This solution on adding 
 absolute alcohol was partially discolored, no precipitate. With 
 ether the sulphuric acid solution gave a greenish precipitate; 
 with amyl alcohol the acid solution was discolored, changing 
 to pale red, then green. These tests showing in each case a 
 wide difference in color reactions from those obtained with 
 the petroleum spirit residue. The amount of solids taken up 
 on treating the ethereal residue with water was .36 %. The 
 
122 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 aqueous liquid was neutral to litmus, portions tested for 
 alkaloids gave negative results; on warming and addition of 
 dilute sulphuric acid, Fehling's solution was reduced, indi- 
 cating possibly glucosides. 
 
 The portion insoluble in water was then treated with abso- 
 lute alcohol. The liquid gave an acid reaction with test paper. 
 A measured part of the liquid was evaporated and the weighed 
 residue showed 1.6 % of solids dissolved. The residue from 
 the evaporated alcoholic liquid was partially dissolved by 
 aqueous alkalies. It readily saponified with alcoholic soda, 
 forming a soft brown soap, which on boiling with lead ace- 
 tate yielded a yellow precipitate. This was collected on a filter 
 and washed. When the precipitate was boiled with absolute 
 ether and the filtrate allowed to evaporate slowly, a white 
 organic crystalline substance separated out. Under the micro- 
 scope, particles of coloring matter were found to be inter- 
 spersed among the crystalline structures. 
 
 The indications would show an acid resin to have been ex- 
 tracted by the ether. 
 
 The ten grams of powdered bark, after exhaustion with 
 petroleum spirit followed by absolute ether, were treated with 
 absolute alcohol. A measured quantity of the alcoholic ex- 
 tract was evaporated in a weighed platinum dish, dried, until 
 weight noted was constant. After incineration the amount 
 of ash was found to be .15 % of the original material. The 
 alcoholic extract, for determination of total amount of organic 
 solids dissolved, was evaporated in a current of carbonic acid, 
 when the residue dried gave 8.6 % and 7.98 % of solids re- 
 spectively. A cloudiness formed on the addition of water to 
 the residue, which cleared up on addition of alkalies. It was 
 restored by acid. The aqueous liquid gave precipitates with 
 calcium and lead salts. It reduced Fehling's solution on add- 
 ing dilute acid, and warming. Negative results followed tests 
 for alkaloids. Treating with two volumes of absolute alcohol, 
 according to DragendorfT, for detection of gum, vegetable 
 mucilage was separated. Tests failed to detect the presence 
 of tannin. 
 
 The residue of the powdered bark, after exhaustion with 
 
BARK OF FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 123 
 
 absolute alcohol, was treated with cold water. A deep-red 
 mucilaginous liquid, which became frothy on shaking, was 
 extracted. The amount of solids in this solution, on evapo- 
 rating the liquid and weighing the residue, was found to be 
 19.11 %. In absence of acid or boiling, glucose was identified 
 by Fehling's solution, also by Mulder's test. A gum, separated 
 by absolute alcohol and quantitatively estimated, showed 
 4.8 % of the amount of substances dissolved in water. The 
 powdered residue, after treatment with water, was macer- 
 ated with dilute acid, and gave negative tests for alkaloids. 
 The extraction with caustic soda for identification of albumi- 
 nous substances, followed by chlorine water for the estima- 
 tion of lignin and cellulose, have not as yet been determined. 
 The results of the proximate analysis as so far completed 
 may be stated as follows : 
 
 Moisture 9.4 per cent. 
 
 Petroleum spirit residue 9. 
 
 Ethereal residue 4.52 " 
 
 Alcholic residue 8.6 " 
 
 Water residue 19.11 
 
 Total ash 10.26 " 
 
 Alcholic extract ash 00.15 " 
 
 61.04 " 
 
 The difference of 38.96 % would include pectose, color- 
 ing matter, and cellulose or woody fibre. 
 
 A qualitative ash determination showed the presence of 
 calcium, magnesium, aluminum, potassium, sodium, a trace 
 of iron, sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides. 
 
 Petroleum spirit extracted a solid substance, yellowish- 
 green in color, of sp. gravity .984, melting from 84 C. to 85 
 C., insoluble in water, slightly soluble in boiling 95 % alcohol, 
 soluble in absolute alcohol, cold ether, chloroform, amyl alco- 
 hol, benzole, carbon di-sulphide, oil of turpentine, and linseed 
 oil. It was slightly acted upon by aqueous alkalies, but readily 
 saponified with alcoholic soda. Treating the soap with lead 
 acetate and boiling the precipitate with ether, a yellow crystal- 
 line substance was obtained, melting from 43 C. to 60 C. 
 
i2 4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Sulphuric acid combined with solvents gave characteristic 
 and distinct reactions with the yellowish-green petroleum spirit 
 residue, and with the crystalline substance separated from it. 
 
 A scheme has been proposed for the identification of vari- 
 ous waxes, based upon quantitative experiments. 1 The exam- 
 ination rendered division into two groups possible, according 
 to the solubilities of the waxes with chloroform. Again, their 
 action with ether, and acetate of lead solution added to the 
 alcoholic solutions, allows the several varieties of waxes to be 
 distinguished from one another. 
 
 The petroleum spirit residue was submitted to the tests 
 proposed in Hirschsohn's scheme. It was boiled with ten times 
 its volume of chloroform, and when cool the liquid became 
 cloudy. By this test, the petroleum spirit residue was placed 
 in the group with carnauba and Bahia w r ax. An ethereal 
 solution of the petroleum spirit residue, on adding an equal 
 volume of alcohol, remained clear. According to Hirsch- 
 sohn's scheme, 2 an ethereal solution of Bahia wax similarly 
 treated remains clear, and by this means the wax is distin- 
 guished from carnaiiba wax, which it is said to resemble in 
 most of its properties. The wax from Copernicia cerifera, the 
 carnaiiba tree of Brazil, and carnauba wax obtained from 
 the leaves of Corypha cerijera, are related very closely by their 
 chemical properties, and possibly are identical. 3 
 
 Carnauba wax is described as a clear yellow wax with a green- 
 ish tinge, and harder than beeswax. It contains a notable 
 percentage of free melissyl alcohol and other alcohols very 
 difficult to separate. Insoluble in water, it is dissolved with 
 difficulty by alcohol and ether, though readily soluble in car- 
 bon di-sulphide and oil of turpentine. It is not acted upon by 
 linseed oil; it is changed yellow by nitric acid; with sulphuric 
 acid no appreciable effect is produced. The melting-point 
 is variously stated from 82 to 85 C. The specific gravity 
 from .998 to .999. 
 
 1 "Contributions to the Chemistry of Several Varieties of Wax," by E. 
 Hirschsohn, Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, vol. x, March, 1880. 
 
 2 Loc. cit. 
 
 3 Gmelin, Handbook of Chemistry, vol. xviii. Translated by H. Watts, 
 London. 
 
BARK OF FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS 125 
 
 A table of the specific gravity of the different kinds of waxes, 
 prepared by Dietrich, 1 shows the density of animal wax to be 
 notably low, compared with vegetable waxes. Allen 2 states 
 that the presence of vegetable wax in adulterations of bees- 
 wax is positively established if the density of the sample ex- 
 ceed .970. 
 
 By the method followed out in this analysis, petroleum 
 spirit extracted from the powdered bark a substance of con- 
 stant melting-point, which is identified as a wax. It resem- 
 bles, in its ethereal solution not clouding on addition of alco- 
 hol, Bahia wax; in melting-point and specific gravity, car- 
 naiiba wax; also the latter wax by its insolubility in water 
 and action with nitric acid. It differs from carnaiiba wax in 
 its greater degree of solubility in absolute alcohol, ether, 
 and aqueous alkalies. Linseed oil is an active solvent for it, 
 but does not dissolve carnaiiba wax. The color reactions of 
 the petroleum spirit residue with sulphuric acid have been 
 described above. It is stated that sulphuric acid produces no 
 effect with carnaiiba wax. 3 
 
 The wax obtained from the bark of Fouquieria splendens 
 differs generally in its properties from known vegetable waxes, 
 and is evidently a new wax peculiar to this plant. I propose 
 that it be called ocotilla wax. 
 
 In the ether, absolute alcohol, and water extracts, the pre- 
 sence of an acid resin, a white crystalline substance, gum resin, 
 glucose, possibly glucosides, gum, and a red coloring matter 
 were indicated. 
 
 The investigations described in the preceding pages were 
 conducted in the chemical laboratory of the Philadelphia 
 College of Pharmacy, August and September, 1884. 
 
 1 E. Dietrich, "Specific Gravity of Wax." Journal of Chemical Society, 
 1882, vol. xlii, p. 1139. 
 
 2 A. H. Allen, Commercial Organic Analysis. (Also see in same work tables 
 of sp. gr., Waxes.) 
 
 8 A. B. Prescott, Outlines of Proximate Organic Analysis. 
 
A CHEMICAL STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 1 
 
 THIS plant is well known in the West as the "soapweed." 
 It grows very abundantly in most of the Western States and 
 territories. It has attracted the attention of botanists, and 
 is a plant of interest on account of the many uses to which it 
 has been put in the countries where it is found. 
 
 The results noted in this paper are based upon a first and 
 introductory chemical analysis of the Yucca. Previously, little 
 has been studied of its chemistry. It is briefly mentioned in 
 the work of a French writer, Dr. Georges Pennetier; 2 also, 
 in a paper on the study of manganese found in the ash of plants, 
 in which M. Maumene states that the ash of the Yucca con- 
 tains manganese. 3 He does not name what species of Yucca 
 was examined. The former writer gives the micro-chemical 
 characters of the action of iodine and sulphuric acid, dilute 
 chromic acid, and cuprammonia on the fibres of the Yucca 
 angustifolia. 
 
 The specimens of Yucca used in these analyses were of large 
 growth and in good condition. The entire plant was examined, 
 and a separate study made of the bark and wood of the root, 
 and of the green leaf and the yellow basal part. The roots 
 were air-dried, freed from adherent dust, reduced to a very 
 fine powder, and passed through a No. 80 sieve. The leaves 
 were less finely powdered. 
 
 DragendorfFs scheme for plant analysis 4 has been gener- 
 
 1 Read before the American Philosophical Society, December 18, 1885. 
 An abstract of this paper was read before the Chemical Section of the American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 
 28, 1885. 
 
 2 Lecons sur les Matter es Premieres Organiques, Paris, 1881, p. 446. 
 
 3 M. E. J. Maumene, Bui. de la Societi Chimique de Paris, tome xlii, 
 
 P- 35- 
 
 4 Plant Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative, by G. Dragendorff. Trans- 
 lated from the .German by Henry Greenish, London, 1884. 
 

 STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 127 
 
 ally followed. Ten grams of the air-dried powder were used 
 for the preliminary examination of soluble substances. For 
 every gram of the powder, ten c. c. of the solvents were em- 
 ployed. An additional quantity of the powder was prepared 
 for special purposes. Five grams of the air-dried powder were 
 dried, in a hot-air oven, at a temperature between 100 C. 
 and 110 C., until the weight remained constant, for the esti- 
 mation of moisture. This powder was incinerated in a cov- 
 ered porcelain crucible at a dull red heat until the carbon was 
 entirely consumed. The per cent, of total ash was determined 
 from it. 
 
 QUALITATIVE ASH ANALYSES 
 
 Calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, manganese, 
 chlorides, phosphates, and sulphates were found in every part 
 of the plant. 
 
 f i. MOISTURE ) 
 
 < > on the powder. 
 
 | II. TOTAL ASH j 
 
 Determination of 
 
 
 /. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 II. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Color of Ash. 
 
 i. The bark of the root 
 
 6 78 
 
 17 38 
 
 reddish 
 
 2. " wood " 
 
 11.67 
 
 3X7C 
 
 " gray 
 
 3. " green leaf 
 
 8.ii 
 
 c.7C 
 
 gray 
 
 4. " yellow base of leaf 
 
 27 OO 
 
 10 61 
 
 white 
 
 
 o/* v 
 
 
 
 PETROLEUM SPIRIT EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i) Bark of Root. 
 
 The maceration was conducted in an apparatus similar to 
 one described in DragendorfFs "Plant Analysis." 1 A light 
 petroleum spirit was used which boiled between 25 C. and 
 45 C. The extract was filtered from the powder-residue. It 
 was a clear pale yellow-colored liquid, and slightly acid in 
 reaction. A drop of the extract on evaporating left a uniform 
 
 1 Page 99, Tollen's apparatus. 
 
128 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 spot on blue paper. The extract was evaporated at the ordi- 
 nary temperature. The residue was a solid, and it had the odor 
 and characteristic crystalline structure of fatty acids, suggest- 
 ing the presence of a fixed oil. Its melting-point was taken. 
 The substance melted at 60 C., and on cooling solidified 
 amorphous. To determine the total amount of solids extracted, 
 a definite volume of the extract was evaporated, dried, and 
 weighed. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Petroleum spirit residue dried at 100 C 1.24 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " 110 C -.1.20 
 
 0.04 loss. 
 
 The residue was identified as a fixed oil. It was soluble 
 in petroleum spirit, ether, benzole, chloroform, amyl alcohol, 
 carbon di-sulphide, and cold aqueous alkalies; incompletely 
 soluble in cold or boiling 86 per cent, alcohol, 95 per cent, alco- 
 hol, absolute alcohol, acetic ether, and ammonium hydrate. 
 No change of color was observed on treating the fixed oil 
 with concentrated sulphuric acid, nor on the addition of 
 syrupy phosphoric acid, though it was partially soluble in 
 these acids. Phosphoric acid colored it yellow; it was col- 
 ered yellowish by concentrated hydrochloric acid and nitric 
 acid of 1.22 specific gravity. A mixture of concentrated sul- 
 phuric acid and nitric acid of 1.22 specific gravity changed 
 the color of the fixed oil to a reddish-brown; it was colored 
 pale green by sulphuric acid of 1.634 sp. gr. and of 1.53 sp. 
 gr. Calcium di-sulphide gave a bright green color reaction 
 with the fixed oil, but did not form an emulsion with it; 
 aqueous solutions of gold and platinum chlorides were re- 
 duced by it. The fixed oil was saponified with difficulty by 
 alcoholic soda; but readily by boiling aqueous soda; a white 
 fragile soap was separated and filtered from the liquid. The 
 soap was decomposed by hydrochloric acid and the fatty 
 acids separated. The nitrate from the soap was examined 
 for glycerin. By the method * used, an oily liquid was ob- 
 
 1 Plant Analysis, G. Dragendorff, p. 12. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 129 
 
 tained; it was heated with anhydrous borax on platinum foil, 
 and gave the usual green-colored flame test for glycerin. The 
 alcoholic solution of the petroleum spirit residue was fraction- 
 ally precipitated with an alcoholic solution of magnesium 
 acetate, and traces of an amorphous residue were recovered. 1 
 The petroleum spirit residue was digested with water con- 
 taining sulphuric acid, and examined for alkaloids which are 
 sometimes brought down with fixed oils. The usual reagents 
 failed to detect traces of alkaloids. 
 
 Extract (2), Wood o) the Root. 
 
 The maceration was carried out under the same conditions 
 as in extract (i). 
 
 The extract was a clear, colorless solution, neutral in reac- 
 tion. A drop of the liquid left no uniform spot on blue paper. 
 The extract was evaporated at the ordinary temperature. The 
 residue was light yellow- colored, of a semi-solid consistency 
 and melted at 36 C. A definite volume of the extract was 
 evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Petroleum spirit residue dried at 100 C 0.55 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " no C 0.35 " " " 
 
 o^T " " loss. 
 
 The residue was identified as a fixed oil, associated with 
 volatile fatty acids. The latter were indicated by the 0.2 per 
 cent, of loss, and the disagreeable odor of the residue which 
 was dissipated on heating at 110 C. 
 
 The petroleum spirit residue from the extract was evapo- 
 rated at the ordinary temperature, dissolved with difficulty 
 in cold 95 per cent, alcohol, and in boiling weaker alcohol; 
 absolute alcohol hardened and discolored it. Concentrated sul- 
 phuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid did not appre- 
 ciably act on the residue. It was not saponified, but slowly 
 dissolved by boiling aqueous and alcoholic soda. The alco- 
 
 1 Loc. cit., p. 1 6. 
 
130 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 holic solution of the petroleum spirit residue was submitted 
 to a fractional precipitation with an alcoholic solution of mag- 
 nesium acetate. The first precipitation obtained was puri- 
 fied by boiling alcohol; it was an opaque scaly crystalline 
 solid which melted at 85 C. The second precipitation yielded 
 traces of a white amorphous substance. The third precipi- 
 tation resulted from adding strong ammonia water to the 
 magnesium acetate solution, and the purified residue melted 
 at 60 C. 
 
 Negative tests for alkaloids followed an examination of 
 the aqueous treatment of the petroleum spirit residue. 
 
 Extract (3), Green Part oj the Leaf. 
 
 The method of extraction was the same as that used in the 
 previous extractions. The extract was clear, pale green in 
 color, and non- fluorescent. It was colored by a small quan- 
 tity of chlorophyll, which the petroleum spirit dissolved. The 
 liquid was acid in reaction. A drop of it left a permanent stain 
 on blue paper, when evaporating. The extract was evaporated 
 at the ordinary temperature, and the residue was a dark green- 
 ish-yellow semi-fluid substance. The solidifying point was 
 taken. It was found to be about 15 C. A definite volume of 
 the petroleum spirit extract was evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Petroleum spirit residue dried at 100 C 2.20 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " 110 C 2.01 " " " 
 
 ^7 9 " " loss. 
 
 The petroleum spirit residue was identified as a fixed oil 
 with a small amount of chlorophyll that had been brought 
 into solution by it. It was soluble in cold 83 per cent, alcohol, 
 95 per cent, alcohol, absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, ether, 
 acetic ether, chloroform, benzole, carbon di-sulphide and 
 glycerin. It was also soluble in oil of turpentine, almond oil, 
 ammonium hydrate, mercuric chloride, and slowly soluble 
 in acetic acid. Concentrated nitric acid, and hydrochloric 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 131 
 
 acid slowly dissolved the fixed oil; the former colored it dark 
 green, and on stirring the mixture the color was changed to 
 a brown. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolved and changed 
 it to a very dark brown color; on adding concentrated nitric 
 acid, the liquid was changed to a reddish-brown color. 
 
 The following reactions were noted: The fixed oil changed 
 to a hard greenish-yellow substance on heating it with anhy- 
 drous borax on platinum foil. When rubbed on a crucible 
 lid with powdered rosaniline, it was colored red, showing the 
 presence of free fatty acids. It did not emulsify with calcium 
 di-sulphide nor with syrupy antimony chloride, but it was 
 colored dark-green by the latter. It was imperfectly dissolved 
 by phosphoric acid, and slowly soluble in equal parts of 
 cane sugar and concentrated hydrochloric acid; more rap- 
 idly soluble in equal parts of cane sugar and nitric acid. An 
 aqueous solution of picric acid made alkaline by sodium car- 
 bonate colored the fixed oil a light reddish-brown color ; cane 
 sugar added to the solution facilitated dissolving it. It was 
 instantly dissolved by equal parts of picric acid and acid am- 
 monium phosphate, and on warming with stannous chloride, 
 leaving a turbid yellow-colored liquid. It was insoluble in 
 aqueous barium hydrate; soluble in alcoholic ammonia with 
 no coloration, and in sulphurous acid. It was colored brown 
 when mixed with sulphuric acid of 1.634 specific gravity, and 
 incompletely dissolved; it was also colored brown by ferric 
 chloride. On adding to the fixed oil sulphuric acid of 1.475 
 specific gravity, and a small quantity of zinc, hydrogen was 
 generated, and the solubility of the oil in the acid liquid was 
 accompanied by a rosy tint given to the solution. 
 
 Extract (4), Yellow Part of the Leaf. 
 
 The extract was obtained by a similar process to that used 
 for the other petroleum spirit extracts. The extract was a pale 
 yellow-colored liquid. The reaction was slightly acid. A uni- 
 form spot was left on blue paper as the drop evaporated. The 
 petroleum spirit was evaporated at the ordinary temperature, 
 and a vellow-colored residue recovered, of a semi-solid con- 
 
132 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 sistency and crystalline in structure. It solidified at 12 C. 
 From a definite volume of the petroleum spirit extract, the 
 amount of total solids was determined. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Petroleum spirit residue dried at 100 C i.i per cent, of solids. 
 
 110 C i.i " " " 
 
 ooo " " loss. 
 
 The residue was identified as a fixed oil. It was soluble 
 in warm absolute alcohol, incompletely soluble in weaker al- 
 cohol; soluble in cold acetic ether, chloroform, benzole, amyl 
 alcohol, ether, carbon di-sulphide, and glycerin. It was saponi- 
 fied with aqueous soda and a white soap separated. No re- 
 action was observed with picric acid and ammonium phos- 
 phate, nor with nitric acid of 1.32 specific gravity and 1.18 
 specific gravity. The fixed oil was soluble in potassio-mer- 
 curic iodide solution; and colored dark brown by alcoholic 
 ammonia. A mixture of ferric chloride solution and powdered 
 rosaniline gave a fine violet- colored reaction with the fixed 
 oil. 
 
 An examination of the aqueous treatment of the petroleum 
 spirit residues (3) and (4), for alkaloids, gave negative results. 
 A portion of the original powder, from each of the four parts 
 of the plant, was mixed with an aqueous solution of caustic 
 soda, and the distillate examined for volatile alkaloids with 
 negative results. 
 
 SUMMARY I. PETROLEUM SPIRIT EXTRACTS 
 
 
 Solids ex- 
 tracted. 
 
 Character 
 of residue. 
 
 Reaction 
 with 
 litmus. 
 
 Melting 
 point. 
 
 Solidifying 
 point. 
 
 i . Bark of the root 
 2. Wood of the root... 
 
 1.24 % 
 0-55 % 
 
 2 20 % 
 
 fixed oil 
 fixed oil 
 ( fixed oil \ 
 
 slightly acid 
 neutral 
 
 acid 
 
 60 C. 
 36 C. 
 (semi-fluid at) 
 
 (solid at ordinary 
 \ temperature 
 
 15 C. 
 
 4. Yellow base of leaf 
 
 1.10% 
 
 (chlorophyll) 
 fixed oil 
 
 faintly acid. 
 
 \ ordinary > 
 (temperature) 
 
 12 C. 
 
 The solids extracted by petroleum spirit from the four parts 
 of the plant are identified as fixed oils; l associated with a vola- 
 
 1 "Fixed Oils," Science, September n, 1885. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 133 
 
 tile principle (0.2 per cent.) in extract (2), and with traces of 
 chlorophyll in extract (3). 
 
 Fixed oil (i) was crystalline in structure. It was soluble 
 in ether, chloroform, benzole, carbon di-sulphide, and amyl 
 alcohol; incompletely soluble in cold or boiling alcohol, acetic 
 ether, and ammonium hydrate. It was colored pale green 
 by sulphuric acid of 1.634 specific gravity, and changed to 
 a bright-green color by calcium di-sulphide, but formed no 
 emulsion with it. Phosphoric acid colored it yellow. The 
 fixed oil was saponified, and a white soap separated. This 
 was decomposed, and the fatty acids recovered. Glycerin 
 was separated from the soap filtrate. 
 
 Fixed oil (2) was dissolved with difficulty in boiling 95 per 
 cent, alcohol, and hardened and discolored by absolute alcohol. 
 It was not saponified. Crystalline solids were separated by 
 precipitating the alcoholic solution with magnesium acetate. 
 They melted at 85 C. and at 60 C, respectively. 
 
 Fixed oil (3) was soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, 
 benzole, carbon di-sulphide, oil of turpentine, almond oil, 
 glycerin, and slowly soluble in acetic ether. The presence of 
 free fatty acids was demonstrated. The fixed oil was colored 
 dark-green by syrupy antimony chloride; on adding to it sul- 
 phuric acid of 1.475 specific gravity, and a small quantity of 
 zinc, hydrogen was generated, and the solubility of the oil in 
 the acid liquid was accompanied by a rosy tint given to the 
 solution. 
 
 Fixed oil (4) was crystalline in structure. It was soluble 
 in warm absolute alcohol, in cold acetic ether, chloroform, 
 benzole, amyl alcohol, ether, carbon di-sulphide, and glycerin. 
 It was saponified, and a white soap separated. The fixed oil 
 was colored dark-brown by alcoholic ammonia, and a mix- 
 ture of ferric chloride solution and powdered rosaniline gave 
 a violet-colored reaction with it. 
 
 These fixed oils differed in their physical characters and 
 chemical reactions. This difference may be due to the pre- 
 sence of free fatty acids and glycerides in varying proportions 
 in the four parts of the plant. It is of interest to note that in 
 the subterranean part of the Yucca, the oil extracted from 
 
134 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 the bark was solid at the ordinary temperature; from the 
 wood it was of a less solid consistency; while the yellow base 
 of the leaf contained an oil quite soft, and in the green leaf 
 the oil was almost fluid. 
 
 Extract (2) contained an oil of low melting-point. It melted 
 at 36 C. An alcoholic solution was fractionally precipitated 
 with magnesium acetate, and three members of the fatty acid 
 series were isolated. The quantities obtained were small, and 
 it was impossible to do more than to take the melting-point 
 of two of the purified crystalline residues. They melted at 
 85 C. and at 60 C., respectively. It is a well-known fact 
 that a mixture of fat acids in certain proportions has a lower 
 melting-point than those of its constituents. 
 
 Alkaloids and volatile-alkaloids were not detected in the 
 petroleum spirit extracts. 
 
 ETHER EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i), Bark of the Root. 
 
 The residual powder from the petroleum spirit extraction 
 was dried until thoroughly freed from petroleum spirit. It 
 was then macerated with Squibb' s stronger ether in the appa- 
 ratus already described. The ethereal extract was filtered from 
 the powder. It was a clear crimson-colored liquid, tinted by 
 some red coloring matter dissolved ; and acid in reaction. The 
 extract was slowly evaporated at the ordinary temperature; 
 white needle-shaped crystals were seen as the liquid concen- 
 trated. The ethereal residue was of a resinous character. It 
 was ruby-colored, transparent, and of a softer consistency 
 than ordinary resin. Microscopically, the residue was iden- 
 tified as a resin by its color reaction with Hanstein's aniline 
 violet solution. 1 The ethereal residue was treated with petro- 
 leum spirit to remove any traces of fat that may have been 
 extracted with it. It was heated in a small tube ; at 50 C. it 
 experienced a slight change, and melted at 70 C. For a de- 
 termination of the total solids, a definite volume of the ethereal 
 extract was evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 
 1 Botanical Micro-Chemistry, Poulsen-Trelease, Boston, 1884, p. 59. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 135 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Ethereal residue dried at 100 C ................. 3.16 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " no C ................. 3.16 " " " 
 
 ~ " " loss. 
 
 The resin was incompletely soluble in 95 per cent, alcohol, 
 absolute alcohol, and amyl alcohol; readily soluble in ether, 
 not appreciably soluble in chloroform, benzole, and carbon di- 
 sulphide. It was dissolved by sulphuric acid to a colorless solu- 
 tion, which, on warming, turned to a yellow color, and gradu- 
 ally darkened to a dull brown color, fading to a pale yellow. 
 
 An attempt was made to separate the white needle-shaped 
 crystals mentioned above. The ethereal residue was agitated 
 with acetic ether. The liquid was filtered from the insoluble 
 matter and evaporated. Traces of a resinous substance were 
 separated. The insoluble matter was treated with boiling 
 ether, filtered hot, and the filtrate concentrated. On cooling, 
 the white needle-shaped crystals reappeared. They were in- 
 soluble in water and in acetic ether. 
 
 A separate portion of the ethereal extract was evaporated, 
 and treated with warm distilled water. The aqueous extract 
 was made up to a definite volume, and a known quantity 
 evaporated, dried, and weighed. The amount of total solids 
 was almost inappreciable by weight. The aqueous extract 
 was not colored by iron salts, and it did not form a precipitate 
 with alum and gelatine solution, lead acetate, potassio-mer- 
 curic iodide, nor gold chloride solutions; showing absence of 
 tannin, gallic acid, and alkaloids. The ethereal extract was 
 directly tested for these compounds, and with negative results. 
 A portion of the aqueous extract was evaporated to dryness, 
 and treated with potassa solution, and the residue dissolved with 
 no coloration. Another portion of the aqueous extract was 
 agitated with acetic ether, and the liquids were separated; on 
 evaporating the acetic ether solution, traces of a residue were 
 obtained which sulphuric acid acted upon. A resinous sub- 
 stance separated from the greenish-colored acid liquid; the 
 former was partially disintegrated by cold water. 
 
 The specific gravity of the resin was 1.091. 
 
136 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Extract (2), the Wood o) the Root. 
 
 The residual powder from the petroleum spirit extraction 
 was macerated in stronger ether. The ethereal extract was of 
 a reddish-yellow color, slightly acid in reaction. It was slowly 
 evaporated at the ordinary temperature, and as the liquid 
 concentrated, white needle-shaped crystals appeared, and pre- 
 sented the same physical structure as the crystals found in 
 the ether extract (i). 
 
 The ethereal residue was identified as a resin. It was a trans- 
 parent, ruby-colored substance, and acid in reaction. It was 
 heated to 50 C., at that temperature its color deepened, and 
 at 70 C. it melted. The specific gravity of the resin was 1.091. 
 A definite volume of the ether extract was evaporated, dried, 
 and weighed to determine the amount of total solids. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Ethereal residue dried at 100 C 1.70 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " 110 C 1.45 " " " 
 
 c^5 " loss. 
 
 The resin was examined by Hirschsohn's scheme 1 with a 
 view to classify it with known resins. It was imperfectly solu- 
 ble in 95 per cent, alcohol and chloroform, soluble in ether. 
 The alcoholic solution gave a turbidity with lead acetate, not 
 cleared upon boiling, and with ferric chloride formed a clear 
 mixture. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolved the resin, 
 leaving a dark yellow-brown liquid which faded to a dull yellow 
 color. The sulphuric acid solution, when mixed with alcohol, 
 changed to a pale gray color. On addition of water to the acid 
 solution, there was no coloration nor separation of the resin. 
 Alcohol containing hydrochloric acid gave no color reaction 
 with the resin. Bromine solution added to the chloroform- 
 resin extract, and iodine solution to the ether-petroleum-resin 
 extract, gave no reactions. Sodium carbonate at the ordinary 
 temperature had no effect on the resin, but, on boiling, the 
 liquid was colored yellow. 
 
 1 E. Hirschsohn, Watts's Chem. Diet., vol. viii, pt. ii, p. 1743. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 137 
 
 By the above examination, this resin was thrown out of the 
 numerous classes of described resins. It is proposed to name 
 it yuccal. 1 
 
 Yuccal was soluble in boiling absolute alcohol and acetic 
 ether; incompletely soluble in benzole, carbon di-sulphide, 
 alcoholic ammonia, and cold acetic ether. The red color of 
 the resin was removed by cold acetic ether, a transparent sub- 
 stance remaining, soluble in hot acetic ether. 2 Yuccal was 
 dissolved by potassio-mercuric iodide. It reduced aqueous 
 solutions of gold and platinum chlorides. A blood-red color 
 reaction was obtained by warming a small quantity of the 
 resin on a crucible lid with a crystal of ammonium molyb- 
 date and a few drops of nitric acid. On adding to the resin 
 mixture a few drops of strong sulphuric acid, and again warm- 
 ing, it was dissolved. Warm dilute nitric acid dissolved the 
 resin, colorless; cold nitric acid gave a brownish-green color 
 reaction. 3 Yuccal was heated on platinum foil, and as it de- 
 composed the fumes that were given off were pleasant and 
 aromatic. Tests failed to show the presence of benzoic or 
 cinnamic acids. 
 
 1 I suggest that in future all resins be distinguished by the terminal syllable 
 al, for uniformity of resin nomenclature. "Yuccal," Science, September n, 
 1885, p. 210. 
 
 2 I have examined the action of acetic ether as a solvent for resins. Cold acetic 
 ether dissolved ordinary resin, turpentine, styrax, tolu-balsam, mastic, elemi, 
 Canada-balsam, Peru-balsam, copaiba-balsam, Venice-turpentine, and, incom- 
 pletely, spruce-gum and yuccal. In hot acetic ether, spruce-gum and yuccal 
 were soluble. The following resins were insoluble in hot or cold acetic ether : 
 guiacum, sandarac, shellac, benzoin, olibanum, ammoniac, myrrh, galbanum, 
 and asafcetida. 
 
 3 A reddish-yellow decomposition product resulted from the action of nitric 
 acid on many resins which followed generally quite soon after adding the 
 acid to a small quantity of the resin (o. i gram of the resin and 5 c. c. of nitric 
 acid, i.4sp. gr.). But the reaction which took place varied according to the 
 conditions, i. e., strength of acid used, the application of heat to the resin 
 acid mixture, or the addition of solvents to the mixture. The more concen- 
 trated the acid the more rapid was the reaction. The application of heat also 
 hastened the change, especially if a more dilute acid was used in the mix- 
 ture. Some solvents acted like heat by increasing the energy of the reactions. 
 Alcohol and ether were active solvents, and the reaction was attended by the 
 escape of nitrous fumes from the combination of alcohol or ether and nitric 
 acid. Chloroform and benzole were indifferent. Amyl alcohol acted feebly. 
 
138 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The ethereal residue was treated with warm water, and on 
 cooling, the liquid was agitated with acetic ether, which was 
 separated, and when evaporated yielded a small quantity of 
 resinous substance. The ethereal residue insoluble in water 
 was treated with boiling ether, and as the liquid concentrated, 
 the white needle-shaped crystals were seen floating in it, but 
 on further concentration they could not be seen, and a yellow 
 greasy-looking mass settled in the bottom of the beaker. On 
 driving off the ether, a transparent and ruby-colored resinous 
 substance remained. The aqueous extract obtained in the 
 way described above gave no coloration with iron salts, and 
 no precipitate with gelatine and alum solution, potassio-mer- 
 curic iodide, or gold chloride solutions. Fehling's solution 
 was not reduced by boiling, though the aqueous extract was 
 boiled with acid, then rendered alkaline before adding the 
 copper test. The preceding tests gave negative results for 
 gallic acid, tannin, alkaloids, and glucosides. A portion of 
 the aqueous extract was acidified and agitated successively 
 with different solvents, for glucosides, bitter principles, and 
 alkaloids which may be removed from solution by this means. 
 The acid liquid was then rendered alkaline with ammonia, 
 and agitated successively with the same order of solvents that 
 were used with the acidified liquid. No solids were separated 
 by these methods. The ethereal residue insoluble in water was 
 treated with alcohol, and yielded traces of a resinous sub- 
 stance. The residue, insoluble in water and alcohol, was not 
 dissolved by ether, acids, or alkalies. 
 
 Yuccal, or the ethereal residue soluble in ether and alcohol, 
 was saponified, and the soap boiled with lead acetate. The 
 yellow masses were collected on a filter and treated with boil- 
 ing ether, and the filtrate was slowly evaporated. The residue 
 was a granular solid. This substance was imperfectly puri- 
 fied by repeated boiling with ether, and a solid of crystalline 
 structure obtained. It gave an acid reaction with litmus, and 
 a red color with concentrated sulphuric acid. The acid dis- 
 solved a substance enclosing the crystals, leaving the struc- 
 ture of the latter uninjured and colored. Strong nitric acid 
 dissolved the crystals with no coloration. They were soluble 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 139 
 
 in absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, benzole, chloroform, gly- 
 cerin, and a solution of alcoholic soda; soluble in potassium 
 iodide, potassium chromate, mercurous nitrate, cobalt nitrate, 
 potassium ferro- and ferri- cyanide solutions; insoluble in am- 
 monia and aqueous alkalies. 
 
 Yuccal was treated with spirit of different strengths, as a 
 means of separating resin acids if any were present. It was 
 treated with 85 per cent, spirit; an opaque brown substance 
 was left undissolved, which was soluble in absolute alcohol; 
 insoluble in ether, and colored brown by concentrated sul- 
 phuric acid. The color was not discharged by alcohol or ether. 
 The 85 per cent, spirit solution was evaporated, and the residue 
 treated with 50 per cent, spirit, and a small quantity of a brown 
 residue was insoluble. The 50 per cent, spirit solution, on 
 evaporating, left a non-crystalline, transparent, reddish-colored 
 solid, acid to litmus. It was colored cherry-red by concen- 
 trated sulphuric acid, and slowly dissolved to a yellowish-red 
 liquid. 
 
 Extract (3), the Green Part of the Leaf. 
 
 The residual powder from the petroleum spirit maceration 
 was thoroughly dried, and again placed in the percolator. It 
 was treated with Squibb 's stronger ether. The extract was a 
 deep green-colored liquid and fluorescent. The reaction was 
 slightly acid. Alcohol, benzole, and petroleum spirit added 
 to the ethereal extract did not cause a precipitation. An amor- 
 phous and green-colored residue was obtained on evaporating 
 the extract. The amount of total solids was estimated from 
 a definite volume of the extract, which was evaporated, dried, 
 and weighed. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Ethereal residue dried at 100 C 1.25 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " 110 C 1.14 " " " 
 
 o.n " loss. 
 
 The ethereal residue was brought into a state of fine divi- 
 sion and treated with water. The amount of total solids 
 soluble in ether and water was 0.34 per cent. The aqueous 
 
140 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 extract was neutral in reaction. It was faintly colored and 
 slightly bitter to the taste. It was not colored by ijpn salts or 
 precipitated with alum and gelatine solution, showing absence 
 of gallic acid or tannin. Copper solutions were not reduced, 
 indicating absence of glucosides, though the precaution was 
 observed of boiling the aqueous extract with acid, and rendering 
 alkaline before adding the copper solution. The aqueous ex- 
 tract was agitated with acetic ether and a distinctly crystalline 
 residue separated. Under the miscroscope these crystals were 
 white, needle-shaped, and arranged in bundles. They did not 
 respond to tests for gallic acid. Potash solution formed a 
 yellow mixture with the crystals. The color was discharged 
 by a drop of hydrochloric acid. Chloroform did not dissolve 
 any substance from the ethereal residue. The ethereal residue 
 was treated with acidulated water and tested negatively for 
 alkaloids. 
 
 The ethereal residue insoluble in water was treated with 
 alcohol. The an^unt of substances insoluble in water, and 
 soluble in ether and alcohol, was 0.15 per cent. The alcoholic 
 solution was evaporated, and the residue was crystalline in 
 structure. Concentrated sulphuric acid imperfectly dissolved 
 it, and gave a reddish-yellow color reaction; acetic ether dis- 
 colored the solution. The alcoholic residue was insoluble in 
 acetic ether, cold and boiling aqueous alkalies; soluble in 
 chloroform. It saponified with alcoholic soda. 
 
 The amount of the ethereal residue insoluble in water and 
 alcohol was 0.65 per cent. It was not soluble in alcoholic or 
 aqueous soda. This would indicate a resin anhydride. Con- 
 centrated sulphuric acid gave no color reaction with it; and 
 a mixture of sulphuric acid and cane sugar dissolved the 
 residue. 
 
 The ethereal residue, on treating with cold ether, was not 
 entirely soluble in it. It was soluble in chloroform, benzole, 
 and carbon di-sulphide; incompletely soluble in cold alcohol, 
 and insoluble in amyl alcohol. The ethereal residue was treated 
 with 95 per cent, alcohol, in which it was slightly soluble. A 
 turbidity formed in the alcoholic solution on adding lead ace- 
 tate, ferric chloride, ammonium hydrate, and sulphuric acid; 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 141 
 
 it did not clear up on warming. Hydrochloric acid made a 
 muddy mixture with the alcoholic solution. The ethereal resi- 
 due was not entirely soluble in acetic ether; the latter sepa- 
 rated coloring matter from it. The ethereal residue insoluble 
 in acetic ether and freed from coloring matter (chlorophyll) 
 was a resinous substance. It melted at 80 C. The resin was 
 boiled with absolute alcohol, and on throwing the alcoholic 
 solution into cold water it was precipitated as a white cloud. 
 It was not saponified. 
 
 Extract (4), Yellow Base of Leaf. 
 
 The residual powder from the petroleum spirit macera- 
 tion was dried and extracted with stronger ether. The ether 
 extract was a turbid yellow liquid, slightly acid in reaction. 
 On evaporating the ethereal extract at the ordinary tempera- 
 ture a reddish-yellow granular solid remained. It melted at 
 79 C. For the determination of total solids extracted, a defi- 
 nite volume of the extract was evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 
 I. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Ethereal residue dried at 100 C 1.7 per cent, of solids. 
 
 " 110 C 1.7 " " " 
 
 oo " " loss. 
 
 The ethereal residue was treated successively with distilled 
 water, alcohol, and ether. 
 
 II. 
 
 Substances soluble in ether and water 0.8 per cent. 
 
 " " ether and alcohol 0.4 
 
 " " water and alcohol 0.5 
 
 Total solids 1.7 " 
 
 The aqueous extract gave a neutral reaction with litmus. 
 Negative results followed examination for tannin, gallic acid, 
 glucosides, alkaloids, and any compounds containing nitrogen. 
 
142 
 
 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The ethereal residue (the residue insoluble in water) was an 
 opaque, reddish-yellow colored substance, and was identified 
 as a resin. It melted at 79 C. It was insoluble in ether, ben- 
 zole, chloroform, and acetic ether; incompletely soluble in cold 
 absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, carbon di- sulphide, and oil of 
 turpentine. It was soluble in aqueous and alcoholic soda. On 
 boiling with them, it was saponified. Concentrated sulphuric 
 acid dissolved the resin and colored it a yellowish brown. 
 Chloroform formed a turbid mixture with the acid solution. 
 The action of strong nitric acid on the resin was slow. The 
 resin was incompletely soluble in 95 per cent, alcohol. Lead 
 acetate gave a cloudliness with the alcoholic solution which 
 increased on boiling. Ferric chloride thickened the alcoholic 
 solution, and on boiling it gave a yellow precipitate which 
 was insoluble in acids, alkalies, absolute alcohol, and acetic 
 ether. The chloroform extract gave no coloration with bro- 
 mine solution. 
 
 SUMMARY II. ETHEREAL EXTRACTS 
 
 
 Solids 
 extracted. 
 
 Character 
 of residue. 
 
 1* 
 
 in 
 
 &<gs 
 
 l.i 
 
 n 
 
 Specific 
 gravity. 
 
 Substances 
 soluble in 
 ether and 
 water. 
 
 Substances 
 soluble in 
 alcohol and 
 water. 
 
 Substances 
 soluble only 
 in ether. 
 
 i. Bark of the 
 root .... 
 
 3 16% 
 
 
 acid 
 
 70 C. 
 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 2. Wood of 
 
 r 70% 
 
 
 
 70 C 
 
 
 
 
 
 3. Green leaf 
 4. Yellow 
 base of leaf 
 
 1.25% 
 
 1.70% 
 
 1 resin ) 
 chloro- [ 
 phyll ) 
 resin 
 
 slightly acid 
 slightly acid 
 
 80 C. 
 79 C. 
 
 
 
 o-34% 
 0.80% 
 
 0.15% 
 0.40% 
 
 0.65% 
 0.50% 
 
 The residues from the ether extracts (i) and (2) of the bark 
 and of the wood of the root contained resins which were 
 identified as the same compound. They correspond in color, 
 melting-point, specific gravity, solubilities, and reactions. The 
 resin is a transparent, ruby-colored substance, crystalline in 
 structure, and of a softer consistency than ordinary resin. 
 It was examined by Hirschsohn's scheme. 1 It differed from 
 all described resins in its reactions with the reagents used to 
 identify them. It is proposed to name it yuccal. 2 
 
 1 Loc. tit. * See foot-note, ether extract (2). 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 143 
 
 Yuccal is imperfectly soluble in 95 per cent, alcohol; solu- 
 ble in boiling absolute alcohol, in cold ether, and amyl alco- 
 hol; not appreciably soluble in chloroform, benzole, carbon 
 di-sulphide, or alcoholic ammonia. Cold acetic ether dissolved 
 the coloring matter from the resin, leaving a colorless solid. 
 Hot acetic ether dissolved it perfectly. Yuccal when heated 
 on platinum foil gave off as it burned a pleasant and aromatic 
 odor. Tests failed to show the presence of benzoic or cin- 
 namic acids. A blood-red color reaction was obtained by warm- 
 ing yuccal with a crystal of ammonium molybdate and a few 
 drops of strong nitric acid. Warm dilute nitric acid dissolved 
 the resin, colorless; cold nitric acid gave a brownish-green 
 color reaction. Yuccal was mixed with concentrated nitric 
 acid and heated. After some time had passed, an energetic 
 reaction occurred and nitrous fumes were given off. A yel- 
 lowish-brown residue was one of the products of the reaction. 
 This residue was almost insoluble in water or acids. It was 
 soluble in alcohol and potassium hydrate. 1 
 
 As the ether extracts (i) and (2) were concentrated, white 
 needle-shaped crystals appeared floating in the liquids, whose 
 physical structure, and insolubility in water and acetic ether, 
 suggested identical substances. The crystals separated from 
 yuccal by the lead acetate method, already described, have 
 not been sufficiently studied to identify them with the white 
 needle-shaped crystals in the ether extracts nor with any 
 class of chemical compounds. However, the absence of gallic 
 acid, glucosides, and alkaloids in the aqueous extracts from 
 ethereal residues, would show that the crystals separated from 
 yuccal are a constituent part of the resin. 
 
 The experiments with spirit of different strengths are only 
 of value, as far as they were carried out, in showing the possi- 
 bility of separating the resin into distinct parts. 2 
 
 Tannin was not present in these ethereal extracts. 
 
 Ethereal extract (3) was green-colored and fluorescent from 
 
 1 See foot-note 3, ether extract (2). 
 
 2 The amount of material on which these experiments, as well as others 
 described in this paper, were tried, was too small in quantity for me to, obtain 
 more conclusive results. The facts which have been ascertained will serve 
 as a guide in future investigations. 
 
i 4 4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 the chlorophyll of the leaves. On evaporating, the ethereal 
 residue was amorphous and of a green color. The aqueous 
 extract obtained from treating this ethereal residue was neutral 
 in reaction and bitter to the taste. It contained no gallic 
 acid, tannin, or glucosides. It was agitated with acetic ether, 
 and the solvent removed a solid, which under the microscope 
 proved to be white-needled shape crystals arranged in bundles. 
 Potash solution formed a yellow-colored mixture with the 
 crystals ; hydrochloric acid discharged the color. The subject 
 has been too little studied to state definitely if these crystals 
 are or are not identical with the crystals found in the ethereal 
 extracts (i) and (2). But it should be noted, that unless the 
 crystals from ethereal extract (3) are brought into aqueous 
 solution mechanically by some compound not present in ethereal 
 extracts (i) and (2), the indications are in favor of the crys- 
 tals from (3) not being identical with them; for the crystals 
 from (i) and (2) were insoluble in water and not removed by 
 acetic ether. 
 
 The ethereal residue was treated with acidulated water and 
 tested negatively for alkaloids. 
 
 The ethereal residue insoluble in water was a mixture of 
 two resins (i) and (2). The one (i) was dissolved by abso- 
 lute alcohol, the other (2) was mostly soluble in ether. The 
 alcoholic residue was crystalline. It was insoluble in acetic 
 ether, but was saponified with alcoholic soda. The ether resi- 
 due was a resin anhydride; it was insoluble in alcohol, and 
 in alcoholic or aqueous alkalies. 
 
 The amorphous and green-colored ethereal residue was not 
 entirely redissolved by cold ether. It was soluble in chloro- 
 form, benzole, and carbon di-sulphide; incompletely soluble 
 in cold alcohol, and insoluble in amyl alcohol. It was slightly 
 soluble in 95 per cent, alcohol and in acetic ether. The latter 
 separated the green coloring matter from it. The resinous 
 mass insoluble in acetic ether melted at 80 C. It was not 
 saponified. This resinous mass insoluble in acetic ether is a 
 mixture of the two resins just described (i) and (2). It was 
 noticeable that the resinous mass was not saponified. Resin 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTlFOLIA 145 
 
 (1) was saponified. Resin (2) did not saponify, and as this 
 resin exceeded in amount by 0.5 per cent, resin (i), it would 
 show that a certain percentage of resin anhydride in a mix- 
 ture of two resins forbids the saponification of the mixture. 
 
 It was not determined if the crystals dissolved by water 
 and separated by acetic ether were a part of resin (i) or resin 
 
 (2) or an independent compound. 
 
 Ethereal extract (4) was a turbid yellow liquid. On evapo- 
 rating, a reddish-yellow granular solid remained. The extract 
 from the aqueous treatment was tested with negative results 
 for tannin, gallic acid, glucosides, and alkaloids. The ethe- 
 real residue insoluble in water was identified as a resin. It 
 was soluble in ether, benzole, chloroform, and acetic ether; 
 incompletely soluble in cold absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, 
 carbon di-sulphide, and oil of turpentine. It was saponified. 
 A resin was extracted by boiling absolute alcohol from the 
 residual powder of the leaves (the yellow base) which was 
 identified as the same resin, and the name of pyrophaeal 1 was 
 proposed for it. 
 
 I. Resins (i) and (2) are identical substances (yuccal). 
 
 II. Ethereal residue (3) is a mixture of two resins, and a 
 crystalline principle soluble in water. 
 
 III. Resin (4), pyrophaeal, is identical with a resin found 
 in alcoholic extract (4). 
 
 ALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i), Bark of the Root. 
 
 The residual powder from the ether extraction was dried, 
 and replaced in the percolator. The maceration was con- 
 ducted at the boiling temperature of alcohol. Squibb's stronger 
 alcohol was used. A dark red-colored liquid was extracted. 
 It was neutral in reaction with litmus. The alcoholic extract 
 was evaporated in a current of carbonic acid. The residue 
 was non-crystalline and of a red color. A definite volume of 
 the alcoholic extract was evaporated, dried until the weight 
 
 1 "Pyrophaeal," Science, September n, 1885. 
 
146 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 remained constant, and the residue incinerated in a weighed 
 platinum dish and the ash estimated. 
 
 I. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Alcoholic residue dried at 100 C 9.25 per cent. 
 
 " noC 9.25 " 
 
 " ash 0.2 
 
 The alcoholic residue was treated with distilled water, and 
 a definite volume of the extract was evaporated, dried, and 
 weighed. The alcoholic residue insoluble in water was treated 
 with water containing ammonia (one part in fifty). This 
 ammoniacal extract was evaporated with excess of acetic acid, 
 and the residue rinsed with a little water on a filter, dried, 
 and weighed. The dried aqueous extract insoluble in ammonia 
 was then estimated. 
 
 II. 
 
 Distilled water residue 3.22 per cent. 
 
 Ammonia " " 5.43 " 
 
 Insoluble " " ..0.60 " 
 
 Total solids 9.25 
 
 The aqueous extract from alcoholic residue was studied as 
 follows: It was not colored by a ferroso-ferric salt nor pre- 
 cipitated by gelatine and alum solutions, showing absence of 
 gallic acid and tannin. A portion of the aqueous extract was 
 acidified with sulphuric acid and agitated successively with 
 petroleum spirit, benzole, chloroform, and amyl alcohol. The 
 acidified liquid was rendered alkaline by ammonia and agitated 
 with the solvents in the same order. Petroleum spirit removed 
 from the acidified solution traces of an amorphous residue, 
 soluble in sulphuric acid and caustic soda. Benzole and chloro- 
 form separated no substances from the solution. As the amyl 
 alcohol solution was evaporating, white needle-shaped crys- 
 tals were seen floating in the liquid. On drying the residue 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 147 
 
 they were decomposed and melted, leaving a dark-colored 
 liquid. Several attempts were made to dry these crystals, with- 
 out success. A few of the crystals were recovered from the 
 solution, and tested for alkaloids; no reactions were obtained 
 with the usual reagents for them. 
 
 Glucose was estimated from the aqueous extract. The liquid 
 was heated over a water bath with Fehling's solution, and the pre- 
 cipitated red cuprous oxide was thrown upon a weighed filter, 
 dried, and incinerated. The glucose was estimated gravimetri- 
 cally by calculating the amount of cupric oxide. It yielded 
 0.619 P er cent - A portion of the aqueous extract was boiled 
 with acid, neutralized, and heated over a water bath with Feh- 
 ling's solution to calculate, by difference, saccharose or other 
 reducible compounds, and by this method 0.18 per cent, was 
 obtained. 
 
 The alcoholic extract was described as being deeply colored. 
 This coloring principle * was completely precipitated by sub- 
 acetate of lead. The lead precipitate was collected on a 
 filter, suspended in water, and decomposed by sulphuretted 
 hydrogen, filtered, and the filtrate freed from all odor. It was 
 allowed to evaporate slowly over sulphuric acid. The residue 
 was a brownish-gray mass, interspersed with fine crystals 
 which radiated from a nucleus. The mass was weighed and 
 gave 3.27 per cent, of solids. Another portion of the alcoholic 
 extract was agitated with water and acetic ether. The color- 
 ing matter was taken up by the acetic ether, and on evapo- 
 rating a red-colored substance was recovered. It was dried 
 and weighed, yielding 2.2 per cent. This red-colored residue 
 was perfectly soluble in cold water. This solution was tested 
 with the following reagents: It gave with potassium bichro- 
 mate a creamy-colored precipitate; ferric chloride, a yellow- 
 ish-green precipitate; ferrous sulphate, a reddish-brown pre- 
 cipitate; stannous chloride, no precipitate, a yellow cloudy 
 liquid; alum, a cloudy solution; neutral acetate of lead, a 
 slight precipitate. The red color of the coloring matter was 
 brought out on addition of alkalies. It was destroyed by 
 acids. 
 
 1 "A Red Crystalline Coloring Matter," Science, September n, 1885. 
 
148 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Extract (2), Wood 0} the Root. 
 
 The residual powder from the ether treatment was dried 
 and macerated with Squibb's stronger alcohol. The alcoholic 
 extract was neutral in reaction; when warm it was a clear 
 reddish-golden colored liquid. On cooling, a creamy-white 
 solid settled at the bottom of the flask. This substance was 
 soluble in water, and was identified as saponin by the usual 
 tests for it. A definite volume of the alcoholic extract was 
 evaporated in a current of carbonic acid, dried, and weighed. 
 The residue was incinerated in a weighed platinum crucible 
 for the ash determination. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Alcoholic residue dried at 100 C 14.3 per cent. 
 
 " no C 14-3 " 
 
 ash oo.i " 
 
 The alcoholic residue was treated with cold water in which 
 it was soluble. A cloudy solution was formed, and on shak- 
 ing, it became frothy, and presented the appearance of an 
 emulsion. It was allowed to stand for several days to see if 
 the resinous matter separated, but the emulsion was perma- 
 nent, as no separation had taken place. The emulsified liquid 
 was agitated with acetic ether, and this solvent readily sepa- 
 rated most of the resin from the aqueous portion. The water 
 extract was then evaporated to dryness and redissolved in 
 water. Gelatine and alum solution did not precipitate the ex- 
 tract, showing absence of tannin; no coloration with iron 
 salts, absence of gallic acid; negative results followed tests for 
 alkaloids; the aqueous extract was boiled with potash and 
 no ammonia fumes were formed; adding gold chloride and 
 potassio-mercuric iodide solutions to the extract gave no pre- 
 cipitate. A measured portion of the aqueous extract was 
 acidified with sulphuric acid, and agitated successively with 
 petroleum spirit, benzole, and chloroform. The solvents were 
 evaporated; petroleum spirit removed o.oi per cent, of a resin- 
 ous substance, imperfectly soluble in cold and boiling aqueous 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 149 
 
 alkalies, dissolved by sulphuric acid with a red coloration; 
 chloroform left a brownish residue which, on weighing, yielded 
 0.4 per cent. This residue was moistened with a few drops 
 of concentrated sulphuric acid, and changed to a red-violet 
 color characteristic of saponin. 
 
 A certain portion of the aqueous extract was rendered alka- 
 line, and heated over a water bath with Fehling's solution. 
 The precipitated copper was collected on a weighed filter, 
 dried, and incinerated, and the glucose estimated gravimetri- 
 cally from it. It yielded 1.592 per cent. Another portion of 
 the aqueous extract was acidified, boiled, and potash added 
 until the solution was alkaline to litmus paper; then the liquid 
 was mixed with Fehling's solution and heated over a water 
 bath. The percentage of saccharose or other substances which 
 reduced the copper was calculated by difference. It amounted 
 to 0.929 per cent. 
 
 The resin separated by acetic ether was an opaque sub- 
 stance, greenish-yellow in color,, and insoluble in ether. The 
 resin was dissolved in water and frothed on shaking. The 
 emulsion in this case was not quite so permanent, as a slight 
 resinous sediment settled after a time, possibly due to changes 
 in the resin through oxidation. 
 
 Extract (3), the Green part of the Leaf. 
 
 The dried residual powder was macerated by the aid of 
 heat with Squibb' s stronger alcohol. When warm the alco- 
 holic extract was clear, but on cooling the solution became 
 cloudy, and a creamy-white fine precipitate settled. The alco- 
 holic extract was neutral in reaction. It was evaporated in a 
 current of carbonic acid, dried, and weighed. A certain part 
 of the residue was incinerated and the ash determined. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Alcoholic residue dried at 100 C 3.80 per cent. 
 
 " 110 C 3.80 
 
 " ash 0.15 " 
 
 The alcoholic residue was treated with cold distilled water. 
 
i5o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 It had a slightly acid reaction with litmus. An emulsion was 
 formed on the addition of water to the alcoholic residue. A 
 measured quantity of it was evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 It amounted to 3.4 per cent., 0.4 per cent, of the alcoholic 
 residue was insoluble in water. Tannin, gallic acid, and alka- 
 loids were tested for and with negative results. 
 
 The liquid from the aqueous treatment of the alcoholic resi- 
 due was rendered alkaline, and boiled with Fehling's solu- 
 tion, and there was no reduction. Boettger's bismuth test was 
 also tried and with negative results. The aqueous portion 
 was boiled with acid and examined in the usual way for glu- 
 cosides; the results were negative. 
 
 One volume of the aqueous solution was mixed with three 
 volumes of stronger alcohol. It was placed on ice, and after 
 some time a white precipitate formed. The precipitate was 
 collected and dissolved in water. It frothed on shaking. On 
 addition of a concentrated solution of caustic baryta, a creamy- 
 white precipitate of saponin-baryta was obtained. Sulphuric 
 acid gave the usual red- violet color reaction with the precipi- 
 tate from the alcoholic aqueous solution. 
 
 The method of successive agitation of an aqueous extract 
 with solvents already described was followed. Petroleum 
 spirit on evaporating left a resinous substance. The residue 
 separated by chloroform from an acidified solution was a 
 brownish-colored substance. It was soluble in water, and 
 frothed on shaking. It was colored red- violet by sulphuric acid, 
 and the aqueous solution was precipitated by barium hydrate. 
 Chloroform separated a brownish solid from an alkaline aque- 
 ous solution. It was precipitated by barium, colored red- 
 violet by sulphuric acid, and its aqueous solution frothed on 
 shaking. This brownish residue was identified as saponin. 
 
 Extract (4), the Yellow Base of the Leaf. 
 
 The residual powder, dried from all traces of ether, was 
 macerated with hot alcohol. The alcoholic extract was a cur- 
 rant-colored liquid, and slightly acid in reaction. The liquid 
 became clear on standing, and a creamy-white solid, identi- 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 151 
 
 fied as saponin, separated from it. The alcoholic extract was 
 evaporated, dried and weighed, and the ash of the residue 
 was estimated. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Alcoholic residue dried at 100 C 4.30 per cent. 
 
 " no C 4-30 
 
 " ash 0.05 
 
 The alcoholic residue was treated with cold distilled water. 
 The solution was slightly colored, and faintly acid in reac- 
 tion. The absence of gallic acid, tannin, and alkaloids was 
 determined by negative results with iron salts, gelatine, and 
 alum solution, gold chloride, and potassio-mercuric solutions. 
 Acetate of lead caused no precipitation. Fehling's solution 
 detected a trace of glucose. V ** 
 
 An imperfect emulsion formed on aSySpg- water to the alco- 
 holic residue. Upon standing, the rej^n /settled; the liquid 
 was filtered several times, and the greater part of the resin 
 collected. It was an opaque reddish-yellow-colored substance. 
 It had the same melting-point (79 C.), solubilities, and phys- 
 ical appearance as the resin of ether extract (4). The resin 
 was examined by Hirschsohn's scheme. It differed in charac- 
 ter from the many resins described by that author, and it 
 is proposed to name it pyrophaeal. 1 
 
 Pyrophaeal was slightly soluble in ether, and 95 per cent, 
 alcohol; soluble in benzole, chloroform, and acetic ether; in- 
 completely soluble in cold absolute alcohol, amyl alcohol, 
 carbon di-sulphide, and oil of turpentine. It was saponified 
 with aqueous and alcoholic soda. The ethereal resin solution 
 was cloudy. The alcoholic resin solution gave a precipitate 
 with lead acetate which did not disappear on boiling; ferric 
 chloride and aqueous ammonia formed turbid mixtures with 
 it. The chloroform resin solution was not affected by bromine 
 solution. The petroleum- ether-resin solution turned to a tur- 
 bid mixture on adding iodine solution. Alcohol containing 
 hydrochloric acid was not colored by the resin. Sulphuric 
 acid and alcohol gave a turbid brown mixture with it, and 
 
 * "Pyrophaeal," Science, September n, 1885. 
 
iS2 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 sodium carbonate solution was colored pale brown when cold 
 or on warming. 
 
 SUMMARY III. ALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Quantitative 
 
 
 
 
 
 Quantita- 
 
 estimation 
 
 
 Solids extracted. 
 
 Character 
 of residue. 
 
 Reaction 
 with lit- 
 
 tive esti- 
 mation of 
 
 of saccharose 
 or other re- 
 
 
 
 
 mus* 
 
 glucose. 
 
 ducible com- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pounds. 
 
 
 
 (red coloring) 
 
 
 
 
 i. Bark of the root. .. 
 
 9.25 % 0.20% ash 
 
 \ matter 
 
 neutral 
 
 0.619% 
 
 0.180% 
 
 
 
 (crystalline ) 
 
 
 
 
 2. Wood of the root.. 
 3. Green leaf 
 
 14.30 % o.io % " 
 3.80 % 0.15 % " 
 
 resm, saponin 
 resins, " 
 
 neutral 
 neutral 
 
 1.592% 
 none 
 
 0.929% 
 none 
 
 
 
 
 slightly 
 
 
 
 4. Yellow base of leaf 
 
 4.30 % 0.05 % " 
 
 resin, " 
 
 t 
 
 acid 
 
 traces 
 
 traces 
 
 Extracts (i). 
 
 My attention was not directed to the presence of saponin 
 in extract (i), for the characteristic properties which it im- 
 parted to extracts (2), (3), and (4) were absent; but it was 
 evident that saponin was present in the bark, for on boiling 
 the latter in distilled water, the presence of the compound was 
 indicated. The solution frothed on shaking, and by adding 
 a concentrated solution of caustic baryta, saponin-baryta was 
 precipitated. 1 
 
 A coloring matter 2 contained in the bark was extracted, 
 and imparted to the alcoholic extract a brilliant red color. It 
 was precipitated by sub- acetate of lead, and the lead precipi- 
 tate suspended in water and decomposed by sulphuretted 
 hydrogen. The lead sulphide nitrate was evaporated over a 
 water bath until the odor of sulphuretted hydrogen was ex- 
 pelled, and the concentrated liquid was placed over sulphuric 
 acid to evaporate slowly. A crystalline residue was obtained. 
 On addition of alkalies to the colorless lead sulphide nitrate 
 the red color of the original solution was developed. Acid dis- 
 discharged the color. Acetic ether took up the red colored 
 substance. The acetic ether residue was a red uniform solid, 
 
 1 "Saponin in the Bark of Yucca Angustifolia" Science, September u, 
 1885. 
 
 2 "A Red Crystalline Coloring Matter," Science, September n, 1885. 
 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 153 
 
 and soluble in water. It was precipitated from the aqueous 
 solution by sub-acetate of lead, potassium bichromate, ferric 
 chloride, ferrous sulphate, and it was clouded by alum, and 
 stannous chloride solutions. 
 
 Tannin, gallic acid, and alkaloids were absent. 
 
 Amyl alcohol separated from the acidified aqueous extract 
 white needle-shaped crystals. It was not determined if these 
 crystals were the same as those of the coloring matter. 
 
 Extracts (2), (3), and (4). 
 
 Extracts (2) and (3) when warm were clear, and on cool- 
 ing a creamy- white solid separated. Extract (4), if warmed, 
 was turbid, and as the liquid cooled, a creamy- white substance 
 remained at the bottom of the flask, and the supernatant fluid 
 became clear. This creamy-white substance was identified 
 in each of the extracts as saponin. 1 
 
 The results following an aqueous treatment of alcoholic 
 residues (2) and (3), were noticeable. The residues were dis- 
 solved, and by shaking the mixtures, emulsified. This emul- 
 sion was permanent, as no resinous matter separated on stand- 
 ing several days. The emulsion was agitated with acetic ether, 
 and by this means most of the resin and saponin were sepa- 
 rated from the aqueous portion. The saponin was removed 
 mechanically with the resin, as it is almost insoluble in acetic 
 ether. The resin-saponin mass was insoluble in ether, solu- 
 ble in water. The solution frothed on shaking and emulsi- 
 fied, but the emulsion was not so permanent as in the first case, 
 for a resinous sediment settled after a time. Chloroform sepa- 
 rated saponin from an acidified aqueous solution, and also 
 from an alkaline aqueous solution of the residues ; and the 
 red-violet saponin reaction with concentrated sulphuric acid 
 was obtained. 
 
 The solubility in water of the alcoholic residues (2), (3), and 
 (4), and the resulting emulsion were unusual, and explicable 
 
 1 "Saponin in the Wood of the Root and Leaves," Science, September n, 
 1885. 
 
154 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 by the facts collected from a series of experiments with resins 
 and saponin, since I had successfully emulsified resins with 
 aqueous and alcoholic saponin solutions. 1 
 
 By hot alcoholic treatment the yucca yielded a residue of 
 saponin and resin which became emulsified on the addition 
 of water, giving results identical with those of the resins above 
 described. 2 
 
 Extract (4) contained a resin. It was an opaque reddish- 
 yellow colored substance, and it differed, by its reactions, 
 from the many resin classes given in Hirschsohn's scheme. 
 It is proposed to name it pyrophaeal. 3 A resin having the same 
 melting-point, solubilities, physical appearance, and chemical 
 reactions was discovered in the ethereal extract (4). It was 
 identified as the same compound for which the name pyro- 
 phaeal is proposed. 
 
 Tannin, gallic acid, and alkaloids were not detected in ex- 
 tracts (2), (3), and (4). In extract (3) glucose was not found. 
 
 The Solids of the Alcoholic Extracts. 
 
 I. A red coloring matter (crystalline). 
 II. A new resin (yuccal). 4 
 
 III. A second new resin (pyrophaeal). 4 
 
 IV. A mixture of a crystalline resin and a resin anhydride. 
 V. Saponin. 4 
 
 VI. Glucose, and saccharose or other reducible compounds. 
 VII. Ash. 
 
 1 The same kinds of resins were used in these experiments as in those with 
 which I determined the solubility of resins in acetic ether. See foot-note 2, 
 ethereal extract (2). 
 
 2 It was not until a later date following the time of these experiments that 
 I found a reference to saponin-resin emulsion in L'Officine ou Repertoire Gene- 
 ral de Pharmacie Pratique, par Dorvault, huitieme Edition, Paris, 1872, p. 
 81 6. Also refer to examination of the Yucca angustifolia, by H. C. De S. Abbott, 
 published in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, Philadelphia, September 12, 
 1885, p. 301. 
 
 3 "Pyrophaeal," loc. cit. 
 
 4 Science, September n, 1885, p. 210, extract of a paper on " The Chemical 
 Study of Yucca Angustifolia," by H. C. De S. Abbott. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 155 
 
 AQUEOUS EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i), Bark of the Root. 
 
 The residual powder was thoroughly dried from alcohol. 
 It was returned to the percolator, and cold distilled water 
 added until a definite amount had been used. The aqueous 
 extract was dark colored, and of a faintly acid reaction. A cer- 
 tain quantity of the extract was evaporated, dried, and weighed. 
 From a known weight of the aqueous residue, the ash was 
 calculated. The incineration was conducted in a covered por- 
 celain crucible of known weight. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Aqueous residue dried between 100 C and 110 C 4.00 per cent. 
 
 ash 2.65 " 
 
 Gum. 
 
 One volume of the aqueous extract was mixed with two vol- 
 umes of Squibb' s stronger alcohol. The mixture was kept in 
 a cool place for twenty-four hours, and the precipitate which 
 had formed was collected on a weighed filter, washed with 
 66 per cent, alcohol, dried, and weighed. The precipitate and 
 filter were incinerated in a weighed porcelain crucible, and 
 the weight of the filter being deducted, the percentage of ash 
 was determined. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by stronger alcohol yielded 2.0 per cent. 
 
 ash yielded 0.2 " 
 
 Another portion of the aqueous extract was precipitated by 
 stronger alcohol, and the precipitate consisted of gum and 
 albuminous substances. It was incompletely soluble in water. 
 The soluble matter was gum ; it was recovered from solution 
 by evaporating the liquid to dryness. The gummy residue 
 was almost completely soluble in cold water. It was precipi- 
 tated from a concentrated aqueous solution by stronger alco- 
 hol; basic acetate of lead precipitated it as a flocculent preci- 
 pitate. Borax did not thicken the gum solution, and ferric 
 
156 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 chloride and sodium chloride solutions did not precipitate 
 it. The gum was boiled with dilute acid, and heated over a' 
 water bath with Fehling's solution, which it reduced. A few 
 drops of hydrochloric acid and stronger alcohol were mixed 
 with the concentrated gum solution for the separation of ara- 
 bin. It was not separated. 
 
 Carbhydrates. 
 
 The nitrate and wash alcohol from the gum precipitate 
 were mixed, and evaporated to a syrupy consistency at a tem- 
 perature of 70 to 80 C. The concentrated solution was treated 
 with four volumes of stronger alcohol, and the resulting pre- 
 cipitate of carbhydrates rapidly filtered off. It was soluble in 
 water. It was not precipitated from aqueous solution by basic 
 acetate of lead, and by this means it was distinguished from 
 vegetable mucilage. The carbhydrates were boiled with dilute 
 acid, and the solution was rendered alkaline, and heated over 
 a water bath with Fehling's solution. The latter was reduced. 
 The percentage of carbhydrates as estimated, amounted to 
 0.2 per cent. An aqueous carbhydrate solution was mixed with 
 a solution of barium in 40 per cent, alcohol. It yielded no pre- 
 cipitate. 
 
 Carbhydrate Filtrate. 
 
 The carbhydrate filtrate was concentrated at a low tempera- 
 ture in a current of carbonic acid until the alcohol was dis- 
 sipated. The residue was examined for glucose, organic acids, 
 saponin, and tannin. Traces of glucose were detected quali- 
 tatively by Fehling's test; the amount of cuprous oxide pre- 
 sent was too small to estimate gravimetrically. A part of the 
 carbhydrate filtrate residue was boiled with 83 per cent, alco- 
 hol, and filtered while hot. On cooling, a precipitate formed. 
 This precipitate was identified as saponin. It was almost in- 
 soluble in stronger alcohol. Baryta- water precipitated it from 
 aqueous solution. Its aqueous solutions frothed on shaking. 
 When agitated with chloroform and on evaporating the chloro- 
 form solution, a light-colored residue was obtained. A few 
 drops of concentrated sulphuric acid mixed with it gave a red- 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 157 
 
 dish-violet-color reaction. Another portion of the carbhydrate 
 filtrate residue was precipitated with neutral acetate of lead 
 and filtered. The precipitate was suspended in water, de- 
 composed by sulphuretted hydrogen, and the lead sulphide 
 filtrate evaporated over a water-bath to expel all odor of sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen. The liquid was cooled and lime-water 
 added until the reaction was alkaline to litmus. A turbidity 
 formed when the lime-water was added to the filtrate, and 
 was not entirely cleared on the addition of dilute acetic acid. 
 A neutralized portion of the lead sulphide filtrate gave a 
 yellow precipitate with a ferrous salt. Oxalic acid by these 
 tests was indicated, and possibly other vegetable acids were 
 present in the filtrate. The carbhydrate filtrate residue was 
 examined for tannin, and with a negative result. Calcium 
 oxalate was separated. 
 
 Extract (2), the Wood of the Root. 
 
 The powder used in the alcoholic maceration was thoroughly 
 dried, and replaced in the percolator. A measured quantity 
 of cold distilled water was allowed to percolate slowly through 
 the powder. The extract was colored, and slightly acid in re- 
 action. A definite volume of the extract was evaporated, dried, 
 and weighed. A known weight of the residue was incinerated 
 in a weighed covered porcelain crucible, and the ash deter- 
 mined. The ash was white and incompletely soluble in water. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Aqueous residue dried between 100 C. and 110 C 12.10 per cent. 
 
 " ash 1.74 " 
 
 Gum. 
 
 A certain quantity of the aqueous extract was mixed with 
 two volumes of stronger alcohol (Squibb's). The mixture was 
 allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, and the precipitate 
 which formed was collected on a weighed filter. It was dried, 
 and weighed. The precipitate and filter were incinerated in 
 
158 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 a weighed porcelain-covered crucible, and the percentage of 
 ash calculated. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by stronger alcohol yielded 1.70 per cent. 
 
 " " ash yielded 0.34 " 
 
 Carbhydrates. 
 
 The nitrate and wash-alcohol from the gum precipitate were 
 concentrated at a low temperature, and the residue was mixed 
 with four volumes of stronger alcohol. The precipitate was 
 rapidly filtered off, and the percentage of carbhydrates calcu- 
 lated gravimetrically in the usual way, from the amount of 
 cupric oxide reduced from Fehling's solution. It yielded 2.75 
 per cent. 
 
 Carbhydrate Filtrate. 
 
 A portion, representing a certain volume of the aqueous 
 extract, of the carbhydrate filtrate was evaporated, dried, and 
 weighed. It yielded 7.65 per cent, of the total solids of the 
 aqueous extract residue. A known weight of the carbhydrate 
 filtrate residue was dissolved in water and heated over a water 
 bath with Fehling's solution, and the amount of glucose pre- 
 sent estimated gravimetrically from the weight of the cupric 
 oxide. It was estimated as 4.47 per cent. Another portion of 
 the carbhydrate filtrate residue was boiled with 83 per cent, alco- 
 hol. A precipitate formed on cooling, which was collected on 
 a weighed filter, dried, and weighed. It yielded 1.98 per cent. 
 The 83 per cent, alcohol precipitate was identified as saponin 
 by the usual tests. The carbhydrate filtrate residue was preci- 
 pitated by acetate of lead and the precipitate examined qual- 
 itatively for organic acids. The lead precipitate was decom- 
 posed by sulphuretted hydrogen and filtered, and the filtrate 
 concentrated over a water bath, and mixed with lime-water 
 until turbid. The turbidity did not clear on adding dilute acetic 
 acid. 
 
 The aqueous extract was examined for tannin, and with 
 negative results. Calcium oxalate was present. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 159 
 
 Extract (3), the Green Part of the Leaf. 
 
 The residual powder was dried from all traces of alcohol, 
 and cold distilled water was allowed to slowly percolate through 
 the powder. The extract was colored, and slightly acid in re- 
 action. A definite volume of the extract was evaporated, dried, 
 and weighed, and the ash calculated from incinerating a known 
 weight of the residue. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Aqueous residue dried between 100 C. and 110 C 4.35 per cent. 
 
 " ash 0.40 " 
 
 Gum. 
 
 One volume of the aqueous extract was mixed with two 
 volumes of stronger alcohol. The precipitate was collected 
 after twenty-four hours, washed with 66 per cent, alcohol, 
 dried, and weighed. The precipitate and filter were incin- 
 erated, and the ash estimated. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by stronger alcohol yielded -775 per cent. 
 
 ash yielded 0.125 " 
 
 Carbhydrates. 
 
 The gum filtrate and wash alcohol were concentrated at a 
 low temperature, and the residual liquid mixed with four vol- 
 umes of stronger alcohol. The resulting precipitate was rapidly 
 filtered and collected. The percentage of carbhydrates was 
 estimated gravimetrically from a copper solution in the usual 
 way. It amounted to 0.525 per cent. 
 
 Carbhydrate Filtrate. 
 
 The filtrate was evaporated to dryness. A part of the resi- 
 due was boiled with 83 per cent, alcohol. On cooling, a pre- 
 cipitate formed. It was identified by the usual tests as saponin. 
 Another portion of the residue was precipitated with basic 
 acetate of lead. The lead precipitate was decomposed by sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen, the solution filtered, and the filtrate evap- 
 
160 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 orated over a water-bath until all odor of sulphuretted hy- 
 drogen was dissipated. A part of the lead sulphide nitrate was 
 mixed with lime-water, and a precipitate formed not com- 
 pletely dissolved by acetic acid. The remainder of the lead 
 sulphide nitrate was allowed to evaporate over sulphuric acid. 
 The residue consisted of a mass of fine crystals radiating from 
 a centre. 1 
 
 The crystals gave a very acid reaction when placed on moist- 
 ened blue litmus paper. They turned black and left a residue 
 when heated on platinum foil, and the residue was slowly 
 dissolved by nitric or hydrochloric acid. The quantity of resi- 
 due was very small, and no effervescence was observed. The 
 melting-point of the crystals was taken. A small quantity was 
 placed in a tube with thin walls, and gradually heated; at 
 150 C. the substance sublimed, leaving a white, cloudy stain 
 on the inner surface of the tube; at 190 C., this cloudy stain 
 changed to a pale green spot, and with increasing tempera- 
 ture to 210 C., no further change was noted. Dry sodium 
 carbonate was added to an aqueous solution of the crystals, 
 and a slight effervescence was observed. Some iron was sepa- 
 rated which possibly was in combination with the crystalline 
 principle. Negative results followed tests for formates, ace- 
 tates, malates, tartrates, citrates, phosphates, oxalates, alka- 
 loids, and glucosides. 
 
 The amount of glucos^e present in the aqueous extract was 
 too small to determine quantitatively. Negative results for 
 tannin. 
 
 Extract (4), the Yellow Base of the Leaf. 
 
 The residual powder from the alcoholic maceration was 
 dried and replaced in the percolator. Cold distilled water was 
 allowed to percolate slowly through the powder. The aque- 
 ous extract was slightly acid in reaction. A known measure 
 
 1 The material used in this analysis of the green part of the leaf was quite 
 dry and powdered readily. A previous examination of the fresh leaves gave 
 more satisfactory quantitative results. A gum was extracted which promises 
 to be of interest for a future study, and the crystals separated from the lead 
 sulphide filtrate are to be further investigated. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 161 
 
 of it was evaporated, dried, and weighed. The ash was de- 
 termined from a part of the aqueous extract residue. 
 
 TOTAL SOLIDS. 
 
 Aqueous residue dried between 100 C. and 110 C 11.35 per cent. 
 
 " ash 3.10 " 
 
 Gum. 
 
 One volume of the aqueous extract was mixed with two 
 volumes of stronger alcohol. The precipitate was collected, 
 washed with 66 per cent, alcohol, dried, and weighed. The 
 ash was calculated from incinerating the precipitate, and de- 
 ducting the filter. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by stronger alcohol yielded 3-850 per cent. 
 
 ashyielded 0.676 " 
 
 Carbhydrates. 
 
 The filtrate and wash alcohol from the gum precipitate were 
 concentrated at a low temperature. The residual liquid was 
 mixed with four volumes of stronger alcohol, when a precipi- 
 tate formed, and was rapidly filtered off. The carbhydrates 
 were dissolved in water boiled with dilute acid, and the liquid 
 rendered alkaline and heated over a water-bath with Feh- 
 ling's solution. The amount of carbhydrates was estimated 
 gravimetrically in the usual way. It gave 2.95 per cent. 
 
 Carbhydrate Filtrate. 
 
 The filtrate residue was examined for glucose, and traces 
 of it were present. The -filtrate residue was precipitated with 
 acetate of lead, and the lead precipitate was dissolved in water 
 and decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen. The lead sul- 
 phide filtrate was tested quantitatively for organic acids, and 
 a turbidity formed on adding to the filtrate lime-water. It 
 was not completely cleared by acetic acid. 
 
 Negative results followed tests with alcoholic methyl-violet 
 
162 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 solution for mineral acids. The aqueous extract contained no 
 tannin. Calcium oxalate was determined in it. 
 
 AQUEOUS MACERATION AT A TEMPERATURE OF 50 C. TO 60 C. 
 
 The Bark of the Root (i), the Wood of the Root (2). 
 
 The powder (i) used in the cold water extraction was 
 macerated with distilled water heated between 50 and 60 C. 
 The warm aqueous extract (i) was cooled and mixed with three 
 volumes of stronger alcohol. A precipitate formed; it was dried, 
 weighed, and the percentage estimated. It yielded 0.03 per 
 cent. 1 The precipitate was dissolved in warm water. On evap- 
 orating the nitrate a white residue was obtained. It was 
 stained yellow by iodine. 
 
 The powder (2) from the cold-water treatment was macer- 
 ated in the warm water. The warm aqueous extract (2) was 
 a dark-colored liquid, indicating a coloring- matter. A cer- 
 tain measure of the extract was evaporated, and the solids 
 estimated. It amounted to 4 per cent. The percentage of solids 
 precipitated from the extract by stronger alcohol was 0.25 
 per cent. 
 
 QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION OF SAPONIN 2 
 
 The two methods of Christophsohn and Otten for the quanti- 
 tative estimation of saponin were adopted. The wood of the 
 root was examined. 
 
 A. Ten grams of the original powder were boiled with dis- 
 tilled water. The saponin was precipitated by baryta-water. 
 After weighing, it was ignited, and the baryta estimated as 
 carbonate, calculated into oxide and deducted from the weight 
 of the saponin-baryta, the difference being the weight of sa- 
 ponin. 
 
 B. The saponin-baryta was decomposed by acid and the 
 weight of the sapogenin was ascertained and calculated to 
 saponin. 
 
 1 Examination for Inulin, page 87, "Plant Analysis," G. Dragendorff. 
 English translation. 
 
 2 Loc. cit., p. 68. 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 163 
 
 Several estimations were made on two specimens of the 
 Yucca, collected at different times of the year. 
 
 Mean percentage, A 8.95 per cent. 
 
 " " B iQ.40 1 " 
 
 SUMMARY IV. AQUEOUS EXTRACTS 
 
 
 Solids ex- 
 tracted. 
 
 Ash. 
 
 Gum. 
 
 Ash. 
 
 Glucose. 
 
 Saponin. 
 
 i. Bark of the root.... 
 2. Wood of the root. . . 
 
 4.00 % 
 
 12.10% 
 
 4-35% 
 "35% 
 
 2.65% 
 i-74% 
 0.40% 
 
 3-io% 
 
 2.00% 
 1.70% 
 O-77% 
 
 3-85% 
 
 0.20% 
 
 0.34% 
 
 0.12% 
 
 0.67% 
 
 traces 
 4-47% 
 traces 
 
 traces 
 
 A. 
 8-95% 
 
 B. 
 10.40% 
 
 4. Yellow base of the 
 leaf. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The aqueous extracts contained gum, albuminous substances, 
 carbhydrates, glucose, saponin, organic acids, calcium ox- 
 alate, and no tannin, mineral acids, nor alkaloids. Arabin 
 was not separated from gum (i). Calcium oxalate was brought 
 into aqueous solution possibly by means of the organic acids 
 or saponin. Needle-shaped crystals were found in extract (3). 
 They did not respond to tests for formates, acetates, ma- 
 lates, citrates, tartrates, phosphates, oxalates, glucosides, and 
 alkaloids. 
 
 Aqueous extracts of 50 C. to 60 C. from the bark and wood 
 of the root contained Inulin. 
 
 DILUTE CAUSTIC SODA EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i), the Bark of the Root. 
 
 The residual powder insoluble in water was suspended 
 whilst moist in a dilute soda solution (o.i to 0.2 per cent). 
 After twenty-four hours the mixture was filtered. One volume 
 of the filtrate was acidified with acetic acid and mixed with 
 three volumes of 90 per cent, alcohol, and allowed to stand 
 in the cool. The precipitate was collected, washed with 75 per 
 
 " Examination of the Yucca angustijolia," by H. C. De S. Abbott, The 
 Medical and Surgical Reporter, September 12, 1885, p. 301. 
 
164 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 cent, alcohol, dried, and weighed, deducting ash. It con- 
 sisted of mucilaginous substances and albuminoids. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by 90 per cent, alcohol yielded 0.85 per cent. 
 
 ash yielded 0.25 " 
 
 Lassaigne's test showed the presence of albuminous sub- 
 stances. 
 
 The filtrate and wash alcohol from the 90 per cent, alcohol 
 precipitate was evaporated to dryness, and weighed, deducting 
 the amount of soda acetate. It gave 0.24 per cent. The resi- 
 due soluble in water was mixed with acetate of copper solu- 
 tion. A very small quantity of albuminous substances was 
 precipitated by the reagent. 
 
 The albuminoids of the bark were estimated from the total 
 nitrogen in one gram of the original powder. It yielded 4.75 
 per cent, of albuminoids. 
 
 The powder insoluble in dilute soda solution was washed 
 with distilled water. The liquid was deeply colored. It was 
 evaporated, and the amount of solids estimated. It gave 1.3 
 per cent. 
 
 Extract (2), the Wood of the Root. 
 
 The powder insoluble in water was treated in the same way 
 as in extract (i). The filtered solution was mixed with 90 per 
 cent, alcohol in the manner described. The precipitate was 
 estimated, deducting ash. 
 
 Weight of precipitate by 90 per cent, alcohol yielded 2.170 per cent. 
 
 ash yielded 0.256 " 
 
 The filtrate from the 90 per cent, alcohol precipitate was 
 treated with water, and the soluble matter precipitated by 
 copper acetate. The precipitate was collected, dried, weighed, 
 and ignited, the resulting oxide of copper being deducted. It 
 yielded 0.104 P er cent, of albuminoids. A current of washed 
 carbonic acid was passed through the dilute soda extract to 
 determine the presence of globulin (vitellin, myosin), and 
 with negative results. The albuminoids were determined from 
 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 165 
 
 the total nitrogen in the powdered wood. It amounted to 4.75 
 per cent. The total albuminoids in the leaves gave 9.62 per 
 cent. 
 
 DILUTE HYDROCHLORIC ACID EXTRACTS 
 
 Extract (i), the Bark of the Root 
 
 The powder insoluble in dilute soda was washed with water 
 and suspended in water containing i per cent, of hydro- 
 chloric acid. The absence of the blue color which the starch 
 granules assume when treated with iodine solution was de- 
 termined by examining the bark under the microscope; and 
 consequently it was not looked for in the extract. A quali- 
 tative test showed the presence of calcium phosphate and 
 calcium oxalate. A measured quantity of the filtrate was neu- 
 tralized with ammonia and mixed with three volumes of 90 
 per cent, alcohol. The precipitate was collected on a weighed 
 filter, washed with 60 per cent, alcohol, dried, and weighed. 
 It was incinerated, and the ash deducted from the precipitate. 
 
 The precipitate yielded 5.20 per cent. 
 
 " ofash ' 0.98 " 
 
 Organic substance 4.22 " 
 
 The filtrate from the 90 per cent, alcohol precipitate was 
 evaporated. The residue was composed of ammonium chloride 
 from the reagents employed, and an organic substance having 
 an odor like gum benzoin. It was agitated with ether, and 
 on evaporating the solvent a white residue with an odor like 
 benzoin was obtained. Sulphuric acid gave a red color with it. 
 The amount of this substance was calculated. It gave 0.45 per 
 cent. 
 
 Extract (2), the Wood of the Root. 
 
 The insoluble powder from the dilute soda maceration was 
 washed with distilled water, and suspended in water contain- 
 ing i per cent, of hydrochloric acid. The same means were 
 used as in extract (i) to determine the absence of starch in 
 the wood of the root. Parabin was also absent. Calcium oxa- 
 
166 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 late was detected by qualitative tests. A similar method, 
 employed for its estimation in extract (i), was used to de- 
 termine it quantitatively. 
 
 The precipitate yielded 0.305 per cent. 
 
 " ofash 0.155 " 
 
 Organic substance 0.150 " 
 
 Extract (3), the Green Part oj Leaf. 
 
 The powder used in the dilute soda maceration was washed 
 with distilled water and suspended in water containing i per 
 cent, of hydrochloric acid. Iron and calcium phosphate were 
 detected in the extract. The leaves were examined under the 
 microscope, and a blue color was developed by an aqueous 
 solution of iodine, indicative of starch granules. Starch was 
 also present in the yellow base of the leaves. 
 
 TOTAL QUANTITATIVE RESULTS. 
 
 
 (i) The 
 bark of 
 the root. 
 
 (2) The 
 wood of 
 the root. 
 
 (3) Green 
 part of 
 leaf. 
 
 (4) Yellow 
 base of 
 leaf. 
 
 i . Moisture ....... . . 
 
 Per cent. 
 678 
 
 Per cent. 
 11.67 
 
 Per cent. 
 8 II 
 
 Per cent. 
 37 oo 
 
 2 Total ash 
 
 17 ^8 
 
 TC 7< 
 
 cr 7^ 
 
 O/' v -" 
 
 10 63 
 
 3. Petroleum spirit extract 
 4. Ethereal extract 
 
 1.24 
 3l6 
 
 55 
 i 70 
 
 2.20 
 I.2< 
 
 1. 10 
 
 I 7O 
 
 5 Alcoholic extract 
 
 Q 2 1 ? 
 
 14 3O 
 
 1 80 
 
 4 3O 
 
 6. Aqueous extract 
 
 4.O3 
 
 ^O^ 
 
 16.10 
 
 4.7C 
 
 ^o w 
 
 H.21? 
 
 7. Dilute soda extract 
 
 I.OQ 
 
 2.41 
 
 
 
 8. Wash residue 
 
 I.3O 
 
 
 
 
 9. Dilute acid extract 
 
 5.6<; 
 
 .9Q 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total percentage 
 
 40 88 
 
 62 78 
 
 2^.46 
 
 66.08 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total albuminoids estimated on 
 powder. . . 
 
 4.7< 
 
 4.74 
 
 Q 62 
 
 
 Quantitative saponin determi- ^| 
 
 
 A 8.95 
 
 
 
 nation on powder by A / 
 and B } 
 
 * 
 
 
 B 10.40 
 
 
 
STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 167 
 
 In my paper on " The Chemical Study of Yucca angusti- 
 folia" read at Ann Arbor, Mich., I stated what methods I had 
 employed to separate saponin, and the properties of the com- 
 pound as observed in that plant. Since that time a further 
 study of it has induced me to withhold the notes used at Ann 
 Arbor, from this, and to offer them, with those collected later, 
 in a separate and more complete publication. 
 
 I am indebted to Dr. F. M. Endlich for his courteous con- 
 sideration and kindness in selecting and forwarding the fine 
 specimens of Yucca which were used in these analyses, and 
 which were grown in the neighborhood of Lake Valley, New 
 Mexico. Within a few weeks I have received, in addition, sev- 
 eral hundred pounds of the plant from Dr. Endlich. 
 
 The investigations described in the preceding pages were 
 conducted in the chemical laboratory of the Philadelphia 
 College of Pharmacy, from February to August, 1885. 
 
CERTAIN CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS 
 CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THEIR MOR- 
 PHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION. 1 
 
 THE writer has been engaged for some time upon the study 
 of plants by means of proximate qualitative and quantitative 
 chemical analysis, in which the latest methods advanced by 
 Dragendorff were followed. The facts obtained from these 
 studies tend to show a chemical progression in plants, and 
 a mutual dependence between chemical constituents and 
 change of vegetable form. 
 
 All plants that were known to contain saponin were exam- 
 ined to determine the correlation between this constituent and 
 the accompanying morphological forms. It was found that these 
 saponin plants occupied the great middle plane of M. Edouard 
 Heckel's scheme of plant evolution. 2 M. Heckel arranges all 
 plants within three divisions: i, Simplicity of floral elements, 
 2, Multiplicity of floral elements, 3, Condensation of floral 
 elements; and in addition he bases his theories upon three 
 characters: filiation, adaptation, and progression. These 
 laws, as well as the three divisions of development, are not 
 only elements of test for the great divisions, but are to be found 
 in orders, sub-orders, and classes. It is a significant fact that 
 all the saponin groups belong to this middle division, or mul- 
 tiplicity of floral elements. Saponin is thus a constructive 
 element in developing the plant from the multiplicity of floral 
 elements to the cephalization of those organs. It is an indis- 
 pensable principle in the progression of certain lines of plants 
 
 1 Abstract, by the author, of a paper read before the Chemical Section of the 
 A. A. A. S., at Buffalo, 1886: "Evolution used in the Sense of Progression." 
 Published in the Botanical Gazette, vol. xi, October, 1886. 
 
 2 "Les Plantes et la Theorie de 1'Evolution," Revue Scientifique, 13 Mars, 
 1886. 
 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS 169 
 
 passing from their lower to their higher stages. Saponin is 
 invariably absent where the floral elements are simple; it is 
 invariably absent where the floral elements are condensed to 
 their greatest extent. Its position is plainly that of a factor 
 in the great middle realm of plant life when the elements of 
 the individual are striving to condense and thus increase their 
 physiological action and the economy of parts. All the great 
 groups that contain saponin are closely allied and possess 
 other properties in common, as fibrous or bulbous roots, root- 
 stocks, tubular character of some part of the flower, and a 
 climbing tendency in Smilacece and some of the Sapotacecz. 
 
 Numerous analogous examples of a correspondence between 
 morphology and chemical constituents were advanced, and 
 the following conclusions reached: 
 
 1. A similarity of one or more chemical constituents is to 
 be found in all plants that are equally developed, and on the 
 same evolutionary plane. 
 
 2. The evolution of chemical constituents in which they 
 follow parallel lines with the evolutionary course of plant forms, 
 the one being intimately connected with the other, and con- 
 sequently that chemical constituents are indicative of the 
 height of the scale of progression, and are essentially appro- 
 priate for a basis of botanical classification. In other words, 
 that the theory of evolution in plant life is best illustrated 
 by the chemical constituents of vegetable form. 
 
 The reasons offered in favor of a chemical basis of classi- 
 fication are: 
 
 1. The disagreement among botanists themselves, depend- 
 ing upon the insufficiency of the present methods of classifica- 
 tion. 
 
 2. Chemical constituents, or the constructive elements of 
 form are intimately associated with the origin and progres- 
 sion of plant life, and are consequently better adapted for 
 classification than organs and tissues, because, as component 
 parts, less complex. 
 
 3. By the invariable composition and structure of given de- 
 terminate chemical constituents. 
 
 4. The percentage of any given compound in a plant would 
 
1 70 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 gauge the progression or retrogression of a plant, species, or 
 genus, and would accentuate the characters of progression, 
 adaptation, and filiation. 
 
 5. Variations in chemical constituents would be detected by 
 analysis earlier than consequent variations of organs or tissues. 
 
 6. It is a law of internal influences controlling function and 
 modifying forms rather than of external forces, hence a study 
 of the elements of the innermost structure of plant life is a 
 study of that law and of life itself. 
 
 No/t all chemical constituents will answer as means of clas- 
 sification for the same great evolutionary plane, though any 
 compound might be found to furnish a basis for the division 
 of plants into classes, orders, sub-orders, genera, and species. 
 
 Albuminous compounds and chlorophyll are less likely to 
 be serviceable as compounds of classification. They are inti- 
 mately associated with the manifestation and continuance of the 
 conditions of life, though they are not regarded as the essen- 
 tial factors in development. 
 
 The chemical study of plants is meant to include micro- 
 chemistry in its application to histology and physiology, in de- 
 termining the position in the cell of any chemical compound, 
 and qualitative and quantitative analysis to be practiced in 
 accordance with the schemes of Dragendorff and others. I 
 should suggest that analysis be made of each part of the plant, 
 as of the root, stem, bark, wood, leaf, flower, and seeds; also 
 of the separate organs of plants, i.e., in the flower, of the sta- 
 mens, pistils, petals, calyxes, and of various plants under 
 various conditions of age, climate, soil, and seasons. Under 
 these conditions a comparison of chemical constituents with 
 plant structure would lead to a comprehension of the corre- 
 lation between morphology and chemistry. 
 
ON H^MATOXYLIN IN THE BARK OF SARACA 
 
 INDICA. 1 
 
 Miss HELEN C. DE S. ABBOTT stated that De CanMle 2 
 and Linnaeus describe Saraca Indica as a member of the family 
 Leguminosae. According to De Candolle it belongs to the 
 genus Jonesia, Saraca Linn., and is separated by five genera 
 from the genus Hcematoxylon, or the logwood. 
 
 In an article on certain drugs indigenous to India, Dr. 
 Waring 3 gives an account of the medicinal uses of the bark 
 of Saraca Indica. The attention of Messrs. Parke, Davis & 
 Co., Detroit, Michigan, was called to this drug, and through 
 their correspondents in India they secured a supply, samples 
 of which have been submitted to the speaker for a chemical 
 analysis. The full results of this analysis will appear elsewhere, 
 but it is now desired to announce a discovery of practical and 
 scientific interest in this connection. 
 
 A coloring principle, identical with logwood dye, has been 
 isolated by her from the bark of Saraca Indica, where it existed 
 in two conditions, as haematoxylin and an oxidized product. 
 The former was separated as yellow crystals, analogous in 
 form to haematoxylin crystals from the true logwood, Hcema- 
 toxylon campechianum. The alcoholic extract of the bark 
 contained about 18 per cent, of a red-colored substance, 
 which agreed in color and dye tests with a like constituent 
 found in logwood. Mordanted cotton fabric was dyed with 
 haematoxylin, extracted by ether from the Saraca bark, and 
 presented the characteristic logwood dye colors. 
 
 1 From the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, 
 November 30, 1886. 
 
 2 Pro. Sys. Nat. Reg. Vegetabilis, vol. ii, p. 487. 
 
 3 British Med. Jour., June 6, 1885, p. 1145. 
 
172 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The following is a table of dyewood colors with reagents, 
 yielded by Brazil wood and logwood: * 
 
 Reagents. 
 
 Brasilin. 
 
 H tKmatoxylin. 
 
 Alkalies 
 
 Claret-red sol. . 
 
 Reddish purple sol 
 
 Acids (dilute) 
 
 Orange pot 
 
 Pink sol 
 
 Acids (strong) 
 
 Yellow ppt 
 
 Pink sol 
 
 Alum sol 
 
 Crimson-red ppt 
 
 Yellow then violet sol 
 
 Lime-water 
 
 Crimson-red ppt. 
 
 Bluish purple ppt 
 
 Ferrous salts . . . ... 
 
 Purplish-bPk ppt 
 
 Bluish black ppt 
 
 Ferric salts 
 
 Brownish-red ppt 
 
 Black ppt 
 
 Copper salts 
 
 Brownish-red ppt. 
 
 Purple sol. 
 
 Lead salts .. 
 
 Crimson-red ppt 
 
 Violet sol 
 
 Mercuric salts 
 
 Yellow ppt 
 
 Yellow sol 
 
 Silver salts 
 
 Yellow ppt 
 
 Grav ppt. 
 
 Tartar emetic 
 
 Rose-colored ppt 
 
 Purple sol. 
 
 Stannous chloride 
 
 Red ppt 
 
 Purple ppt 
 
 Sodium aluminate 
 
 Claret-red ppt 
 
 Purple ppt. 
 
 
 
 
 The extracts of Saraca Indica bark, containing the coloring 
 principle, were tested with these reagents, and it was observed 
 that the reactions agreed with the haematoxylin colors, and in 
 no case with those of brasilin. However, the colors produced 
 by different alkalies varied in tints as she had found in both the 
 logwood and Saraca extracts, but the general term "reddish- 
 purple solution" is comprehensive. A rose- violet precipitate 
 was yielded by stannous chloride solution with the neutralized 
 acidified extracts of the barks. 
 
 The bark of the logwood-tree is not used for making the 
 commercial logwood extracts, the wood of the tree being em- 
 ployed for this purpose. The presence of a small quantity of 
 hsematoxylin was determined in the specimens of logwood- 
 bark which she examined, and with the bark extracts the same 
 reactions with reagents were obtained as with the logwood 
 extracts, but owing to the smaller percentage of dye in the 
 bark the colors were less intense. In the case of the Saraca 
 Indica bark the colors were very brilliant and indicated the 
 
 1 S. P. Sadtler and Wm. L. Rowland, Am. Jour, oj Phar., February, 1881. 
 
BARK OF SARACA INDICA 
 
 173 
 
 presenpe of a larger proportion of the coloring-matter than 
 in the logwood bark. These results should encourage inves- 
 tigators to secure specimens of the wood of the Saraca, in 
 order to determine if it contains the coloring principle, and 
 should this be ascertained affirmatively, whether it exists in 
 sufficiently large quantities to warrant its introduction as a 
 new source of this commercial product. 
 
 To exhibit the colors produced by alkalies upon the dye 
 from logwood bark and Saraca Indica bark, the powdered 
 material was macerated over the water-bath with distilled or 
 filtered river water acidulated with dilute sulphuric acid (i 
 part to 50), the extract was filtered and the process repeated 
 until no more color was removed. This extract was treated 
 directly with the reagents. Excess of reagents produced darker 
 tints, and after a time the solutions were decolorized. 
 
 Reagents. 
 
 Sodium Carbonate 
 Sodium Hydrate 
 Potassium Hydrate 
 Ammonia 
 
 Saraca Indica. 
 
 Hcematoxylon Campechianum. 
 Acidified Extract. 
 
 Bark. 
 
 Pale purple to reddish violet solution 
 Blue violet ppt. and solution 
 Red-colored solution 
 Pinkish-purple solution 
 
 Among other constituents contained in the Saraca bark, 
 catechin and saponin were determined. Their presence along 
 with haematoxylin is significant as showing the chemical 
 position of Saraca in relation to the genera Acacia and Hcema- 
 toxylon, catechin and saponin being found, as is well known, 
 in Acacia. The evolutionary position of the order Legumi- 
 nosae, to which these genera belong, was pointed out in a 
 fdrmer paper, 1 and it was stated that all orders containing 
 saponin came under the middle division of M. HeckePs bo- 
 tanical scheme, 2 or multiplicity of floral elements. The facts 
 
 1 " Certain Chemical Constituents of Plants considered in Relation to their 
 Morphology and Evolution," by H. C. De S. Abbott. Botanical Gazette, vol. 
 xi, 1886, p. 270. 
 
 2 "Les Planteset laTheorie de PE volution," Revue Scientifique, 13 Mars, 
 1886. 
 
174 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 accumulated from recent researches, since the publication of 
 her article in the "Botanical Gazette," and the discovery of 
 saponin in many plants of widely different genera and family, 
 seem to justify and confirm what was stated in the article 
 referred to above, "saponin is invariably absent where the 
 floral elements are simple; it is invariably absent where the 
 floral elements are condensed to their greatest extent. Its 
 position is plainly that of a factor in the great middle realm 
 of plant life when the elements of the individual are striving 
 to condense, and thus increase their physiological action and 
 the economy of parts." 1 
 
 1 Loc. cit., Botanical Gazette. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 1 
 
 ScHLEiDEN, 2 in his "Principles of Botany," states: "Botany 
 is an indispensable branch of knowledge for the chemist and 
 physiologist." I think he might have said, with equal truth, 
 chemistry and physiology are indispensable branches of know- 
 ledge to the botanist. An acquaintance with these three 
 branches of knowledge is indispensable to the plant chem- 
 ist. If we consider that our food, fabrics, dyestuffs, perfumes, 
 drugs, and beverages are all derived from plants, we can 
 scarcely fail to inquire into the functions and intimate struc- 
 ture of vegetable life. The application of chemical knowledge 
 to the study of plant life under all conditions is the first step 
 toward a practical solution of the problems of agriculture, 
 materia medica, and the industries derived from plant sources. 
 
 As long ago as 1795, 3 a learned Scotch nobleman said, "In- 
 deed there is no operation or process in agriculture, not merely 
 mechanical, that does not depend on chemistry." Fifteen years 
 later than Earl Dundonald's treatise, the first vegetable sub- 
 stance was accurately analyzed. Another period passed before 
 the analyses of Liebig. Since that day investigators have been 
 busily engaged in plant analysis. 
 
 Plant analysis to-day rests on a sure foundation as a dis- 
 tinct subdivision of general chemistry. Chemistry teaches us 
 what vegetation needs for its growth, and points out the sources 
 whence the materials for crops can be derived. Intense cul- 
 tivation of the plant is the agricultural motto. The contrary 
 is true for pharmacy. Plants which are to be used for medicinal 
 
 1 Delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, January 17, 1887. 
 Printed in the Journal of the Franklin Institute; also in pamphlet form, 
 1887. 
 
 2 Principles of Scientific Botany, by Dr. J. M. Schleiden. London, 1849. 
 8 How Crops Grow, by S. W. Johnson. London, 1869, p. 4. 
 
 
176 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 purposes should grow under natural conditions. Cultivation 
 of plants tends to diminish in quantity or to eradicate their 
 noxious or medicinal principles. According to Professor Vogel, 
 hemlock does not yield coniin in Scotland; cinchona plants 
 are nearly free from quinine when grown in hothouses; and 
 tannin is also found in the greatest quantity in trees which 
 have a direct supply of sunlight. Wild belladonna plants 1 
 contain more alkaloids than the cultivated. 
 
 Until within a comparatively very recent date, there were 
 no schemes for vegetable analyses equivalent to Fresenius's 
 " Manual for Inorganic Substances." The irregularities of the 
 methods of individual investigators in plant chemistry made 
 it extremely difficult for students to follow this kind of analy- 
 sis. The deficiency has been filled by the admirable book on 
 " Plant Analysis," by Professor Dragendorff, of Dorpat, Russia. 
 This book has appeared in a French translation, 2 and the 
 first edition of an English translation 3 was published a year 
 before. Professor Dragendorff does not claim to have written a 
 perfect book. He offers a scheme, which, if followed, supple- 
 mented by well-known or original methods in the study of 
 special or new compounds, will give the student a knowledge 
 of the chemical constituents of a plant which he could not well 
 obtain by a non- systematic scheme. 
 
 Dragendorff 's scheme has been criticised as encouraging a 
 mechanical method of work on the part of the analyst, but I 
 think any student, on working for the first time on a new drug, 
 by this method will find that he will be thrown very much on 
 his own resources, and that the scheme serves him merely as 
 a chain and anchor in a sea of novelty and uncertainty. It 
 is indeed the most complete scheme for plant analysis which 
 we have. 
 
 The scope of plant analysis is well outlined by Dragendorff 
 in his introduction, and if my time permitted me I could not 
 
 1 "The Alkaloidal Value of Cultivated and Wild Belladonna," by Girrard. 
 Pharm. Jour, and Trans., vol. xv, p. 153. 
 
 2 Encyclopedic Chimique, tome X, "Analyse chimique des Vegetaux." 
 Traduit de 1'allemand et annote, par F. Schlagdenhauffen. Paris, 1885. 
 
 8 Plant Analysis, by G. Dragendorff. Translated from the German by 
 H. G. Greenish. London, 1884. 
 

 PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 177 
 
 do better than read it. The attention of the reader is directed 
 to the great number of species of plants which occur in na- 
 ture, to the great abundance and variety of their chemical 
 constituents, and to the circumstance that almost every skill- 
 ful analysis of a plant that has not been examined yields new 
 hitherto unknown products. The difficulties of plant analysis 
 are pointed out, but it should be the effort of future investi- 
 gators to endeavor to overcome these difficulties, when the 
 importance of plant chemistry is considered in relation to 
 scientific botany and chemistry, medicine, pharmacy, dietetics, 
 agriculture, etc. The author says that the analysis of plants 
 in one respect possesses an advantage over the analysis of min- 
 erals, 1 and in that respect can often be made more complete 
 than that of a mineral. 
 
 It would not be possible within the space of an hour to give 
 an accurate description of how to analyze a plant, and the many 
 methods which may be followed. I can give an idea of how to 
 follow the scheme of which I have spoken as being the most 
 complete, and the practical application of some facts derived 
 ylrom plant analysis. 
 
 / The specimens which are presented for analysis should be in 
 good condition and well selected as typical of the genus or 
 species. In case of comparative studies the time of year of the 
 gathering should be noted. All foreign substances and dust 
 should be removed, and care taken not to displace parts of 
 the specimens. 
 
 All plants are chemically composed of two classes of sub- 
 stances, and on incineration one class is decomposed into gases 
 and the other class forms the ash constituents. These two 
 divisions of the plant's constituents are known as the volatile 
 and fixed parts. The manner of proceeding with an analysis of 
 a plant is somewhat different in the case of fresh plants and those 
 which are air-dried. Fruits and succulent plants and fleshy roots 
 may sometimes be examined with advantage in the fresh con- 
 dition, especially if they contain much saccharine material 
 or volatile products. Generally the parts of plants to be used 
 for analysis are dried at a temperature under 30 C., or air- 
 
 1 Plant Analysis, English translation, p. 2. 
 
178 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 dried until in a state of powder ; for all vegetable substances 
 must be brought into fine subdivision before extraction, in 
 order that the solvents may penetrate the cells. 
 
 The fine powdering of the material is of the utmost impor- 
 tance; a drug mill is usually used for this purpose. An agate 
 or iron mortar may be used sometimes to advantage, or the 
 material may be grated upon a fine grater, and then sub- 
 mitted to the same process of powdering and sifting, until it 
 can be passed through a No. 80 sieve. 
 
 The Mexican ocotilla bark 1 is resinous and contains a wax, 
 and it is very difficult to powder, From this fine powder the 
 analysis yielded, by cold maceration, thirteen per cent, of waxy 
 substance. Hot maceration gave nine per cent. An analysis 
 from portions less finely powdered gave three per cent, less 
 of wax. To estimate the amount of moisture retained in the 
 air-dried plant, a small quantity of the powder, from two to 
 five grams, may be weighed and dried until constant weight 
 at a temperature from 100 C. to 105 C. By means of this 
 determination the results of all other estimations of the analy- 
 sis can be calculated to the dry substance. Even in the case 
 of fresh plants, it will be necessary for a quantitative exami- 
 nation of the entire plant, at least to dry the portions which 
 are to be treated with petroleum-ether, ether, and alcohol. 
 
 The powder which has served for the moisture determination 
 is carefully burned at a dull red heat, and the ash residue 
 weighed. This gives the total ash constituents of the plant. 
 In many cases it is desirable to estimate the amount of soluble 
 and insoluble ash, and to determine, quantitatively, one or more 
 of the ash constituents, especially sulphuric and phosphoric 
 acids and potash. In the ash may be found phosphorus, sul- 
 phur, silicon, chlorine, potassium, sodium, calcium, magne- 
 sium, iron, and manganese, as well as oxygen, carbon, and 
 nitrogen; rarely lithium, rubidium, iodine, bromine, fluorine, 
 barium, copper, zinc, and titanium. The carbon, hydrogen, 
 nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus are derived more especially 
 from the organized parts of the plant, as the protoplasm and 
 
 1 "Preliminary Analysis of the Bark of Fouquieria Splendens," by Helen 
 C. De S. Abbott. See p. 117. 
 

 PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 179 
 
 cell wall, and from carbonaceous substances, such as sugar, 
 fats, and acids. It was stated that the volatile part of plants 
 on incineration is gaseous, consisting principally of carbon 
 dioxide, watery vapor, and nitrogen, the inference being 
 that the combustible portion of the plant contains the elements 
 carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. 
 
 The fact that various mineral constituents are essential to 
 the growth and development of plants is of practical value in 
 agriculture. The soil must contain the various constituents 
 in such quantity and form as to be available to the plant. 
 The ash analysis of any plant indicates in a great measure 
 the character of its surrounding soil, though the chemical 
 composition in which the ash is contained in the plant is not 
 necessarily the same as in the soil. 
 
 In investigating a new plant for the first time, all rational 
 means for discovering its component parts should be resorted 
 to. Before beginning the systematic analytical scheme, a micro- 
 chemical investigation of thin sections of the plant, and even 
 of the powdered plant, may be followed. I have found it an 
 excellent aid in the work, after knowing what constituents 
 were present from chemical analysis, to determine in what 
 tissues and cells these various substances are found. A drop 
 of the extracts evaporated on a glass slide frequently indicates 
 the character of the substances contained in them. 
 
 It is of importance to determine if volatile oils or acids, 
 alkaloids, and other substances are present, which can be 
 separated by distillation, and for this purpose a sufficient 
 quantity of the powdered plant may be mixed in a convenient 
 vessel with water, acidulated water, or milk of lime, and the 
 mixture heated, preferably by steam. The distillate is con- 
 densed and may be examined as to its reaction, odor, and 
 physical appearance. If the aqueous distillate is agitated with 
 a light pretroleum- ether, 1 volatile products may be readily 
 obtained. 
 
 Many volatile oils diffuse in moist air and pass off with the 
 petroleum- ether, if precautions are not taken to prevent it; 
 
 1 Manufactured by Dr. H. W. Jayne, Frankford, Pa. 
 
i8o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 but a system by Osse 1 has been devised to evaporate the pe- 
 troleum-ether and save the volatile oil. 
 
 Distillation of volatile principles may be sometimes sub- 
 stituted by other methods, such as "infusion" and "enfleur- 
 age," of which I shall speak later. 
 
 The following is the general plan I usually follow, based 
 upon Dragendorff's scheme, in order to determine the con- 
 stituents of any plant. Twenty, fifty, or a hundred grams of 
 the dried powdered plant are weighed and macerated with suc- 
 cessive solvents. The solvent is added in the proportion of 
 ten c. c. to one gram of powder. This is allowed to stand, 
 with frequent shaking, for eight days, when the liquid is re- 
 moved with a pipette or filtered from the powder. The residual 
 powder is then rinsed with more of the solvent, which, added 
 to the extract first obtained, is made to a known volume. 
 The powder is dried at the ordinary temperature, and is then 
 ready for maceration with a second solvent, and so on, until 
 the sequence of solvents has removed all soluble matter from 
 the powder. The residual insoluble portions are cellulose, 
 lignin, and other allied substances, which form the firm frame- 
 work of the plant. 
 
 The solvents used must be chemically pure. The order 
 of solvents recommended by Dragendorff, and the classes 
 of compounds which may be extracted by them are given in 
 the table. 
 
 PETROLEUM-ETHER EXTRACT 
 
 Ethereal oils; volatile fat acids; glycerides; waxes; cam- 
 phors; cholesterin or allied substances; chlorophyll and 
 alkaloids with fixed oils; aldehydes; ethereal salts; alcohols; 
 aromatic acids; resins. 
 
 ETHER EXTRACT 
 
 Resins; waxes; fats; chlorophyll; coloring- matters; organic 
 acids; glucosides; alkaloids (caoutchouc, chloroform, or bisul- 
 phide extracts). 
 
 \ 
 
 1 Archiv. d. Pharm. (3), vii, 104 (1875). (Year-Book Pharm., 1876, 362.) 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 181 
 
 ALCOHOL EXTRACT 
 
 Tannic acids; bitter principles; organic acids; alkaloids; 
 glucosides; glucose; saccharose; coloring- matters; resins. 
 
 WATER EXTRACT 
 
 Mucilaginous and albuminous substances; dextrin and 
 other carbohydrates ; saponin and allied compounds; glucoses; 
 saccharoses; organic and mineral acids. 
 
 DILUTE SODA EXTRACT 
 
 Metarabic acid; albuminous substances; phlobaphenes, 
 etc. 
 
 DILUTE HYDROCHLORIC ACID EXTRACT 
 
 Parabin; oxalate of calcium, etc.; starch. 
 
 DETERMINATION OF LIGNIN AND ALLIED SUBSTANCES AND 
 OF CELLULOSE 
 
 Benzole, chloroform, amyl alcohol, and acetic ether are 
 frequently valuable solvents for certain extractions, although 
 they are not included in the general scheme. 
 
 Dragendorff recommends the maceration to be conducted 
 at the ordinary temperature, but a fixed oil, if present, may 
 be extracted more readily by exhaustion at an elevated tem- 
 perature. Such substances as caoutchouc may be readily 
 extracted by boiling chloroform or bisulphide of carbon. If 
 a known volume of the extract is evaporated, the residue will 
 yield an approximate result of the amount of definite sub- 
 stances obtained in the plant. 
 
 In my own work, I have usually found it convenient to take 
 about twenty grams of the powdered plant and exhaust them 
 in a displacement apparatus. There are some advantages for 
 this method, in a preliminary study of the plant. The time 
 necessary for the exhaustion is very much lessened; from 
 ten to twelve hours at the most is ample time to allow the 
 apparatus to run with each solvent, if the solvents are kept at 
 
182 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 a boiling heat during this period. It is a rapid way to deter- 
 mine qualitatively what constituents are to be found in any 
 plant, and this may be followed by a careful quantitative study 
 on larger amounts. The general insight which can be ob- 
 tained of the chemistry of a plant from this small quantity 
 of material serves as a valuable guide for the future study on 
 a larger scale. 
 
 The extracts obtained by heat show more proneness to 
 oxidation than those from cold maceration, and there are some 
 slight differences in the character of the extracts. The ten- 
 dency of the higher temperature is to increase the number 
 of constituents in the first extracts; i. e., hot petroleum- ether 
 will remove a considerable quantity of chorophyll; hot ether 
 will extract tannin, and hot alcohol extracts contain sugar, 
 saponin, etc. After the hot alcoholic maceration, the water, 
 dilute soda, and acid extractions are conducted at the ordi- 
 nary temperature. 
 
 It will depend somewhat upon the object in view on the 
 part of the analyst what course to follow in the study of a 
 plant. If only one compound is to be isolated and examined, 
 disregarding the other constituents, suitable methods of study 
 will be employed for this end. Even when DragendorfFs sys- 
 tematic scheme is followed, a fresh portion of powder should 
 be extracted with water for an accurate estimation of soluble 
 albuminoids, amides, and other classes of nitrogenous com- 
 pounds. These subjects are very clearly stated in the volume 
 of "Plant Analysis," to which I have referred. 
 
 I wish to bring forward some well-known statements, which 
 may serve to illustrate the practical application of facts dis- 
 covered by plant analysis. One of the more recent applica- 
 tions of new processes to industrial chemistry is the manu- 
 facture of hop-resin extract * on a large scale. The use which 
 is made of this extract is in the manufacture of beers, and 
 it is being used to a large extent in Philadelphia and New 
 York, fully supplying the place of the ordinary hop. The 
 process is somewhat as follows: The hops are loosely placed 
 
 1 "Hop Extract," by W. B. Bissell, Am. Jour. Pharm., April, 1885, p. 
 1 66. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS 'AN APPLIED SCIENCE 183 
 
 in large wire cages, and then are run into an immense boiler 
 or "extractor." A heavy door is shut securely, and about 
 300 barrels of light petroleum are pumped in by an engine, 
 and heat is applied by means of a steam coil, until a pressure 
 of 100 pounds to the square inch has been obtained. 
 
 The object of this high pressure is to break or crush the 
 glands, which contain the valuable principle called lupulin, 
 this being taken up by the hot petroleum. The process is so 
 managed that there is very little waste of menstruum, and 
 the hop extract is readily separated; the petroleum-ether 
 being used over and over again. One pound of this extract 
 represents about twelve pounds of choice hops, and it has 
 a great advantage over the hop itself, as it will keep for an 
 indefinite time; whereas at the end of two years the hop is 
 useless. 
 
 Hop- resin, 1 or bitter, was discovered from the chemical 
 analysis of a plant, and it illustrates to what practical ends a 
 fact derived from this source may be applied. The solubility 
 of hop-resin in petroleum-ether is availed of also in the ex- 
 amination of beer. 2 
 
 Vegetable wax is found on the surfaces of leaves, on the 
 stem, and the berries of plants, and is obtained from many 
 sources. The commercial supply comes from certain species 
 of the palm-tree family in considerable quantities. Carnaiiba 
 wax is from a large Brazilian palm. Myrica, or myrtle wax, 
 comes from the berries of an American and Mexican plant, 
 Myrica recifera of the Myricacece family, and Japan wax is 
 obtained from Rhus succedaneum. 
 
 Vegetable wax 3 is principally used in the manufacture of 
 candles, but on account of its greater dryness, it breaks much 
 more readily than animal wax; hence, if animal wax is mixed 
 in small proportions with vegetable wax, it answers very well. 
 
 1 Lermer, Vierteljahresschr. f. prakt. Pharm., xii, 504, 1863; Bissell, Amer. 
 Jour. Pharm., xlix, 582, 1877; Griessmayer, Ber. d. d. Chem. Ges., xi, 292, 
 1878; Isleib, Archiv. d. Pharm. (3), xvi, 345, 1880; Cech, Zeitschr. /. Anal. 
 
 Chem., xx, 180, 1881. 
 
 2 Griessmayer. 
 
 3 Matures Premieres Organiques. Par Pennetier, p. 771. 
 
184 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 It is also used in adulteration of beeswax. Cerosin, 1 a wax 
 from sugar-cane, is said to melt at 82 C. It has been pro- 
 posed, on account of its high melting-point, to use it in the 
 manufacture of candles. Five hundred plants can furnish, 
 it is claimed, one kilogram of wax. 
 
 The bark of Fouquieria splendens^ or the ocotilla tree of 
 Mexico, also yields a wax. The native Indians use this stem 
 for illuminating purposes; it burns with a red, smoky flame, 
 and is called the candle tree. 
 
 The vegetable waxes are mixtures of resinous substances 
 and the higher fatty acids, and differ from the fixed oils in 
 containing, in place of glycerin, cetyl and myricyl alcohols; 
 properly they contain ethers of higher alcohols of the ethylic 
 series and free acids. The wax obtained from the Graminea, 
 or grasses, to which class sugar-cane belongs, has been studied 
 by Konig. 3 He found that it contained no glycerine but chlo- 
 resterin, cerotic, palmitic, and oleic acids. 
 
 The importation of vegetable and mineral wax 4 for 1884 was 
 617,992 pounds ($69,026); 1885, 1,056,438 pounds ($123,976). 
 
 The oils of vegetable origin used in commerce 5 are usually 
 derived from grains; a few only are extracted from the fleshy 
 parts of fruits. The oil is found in the form of minute drops 
 in the rinds of fruits ; the orange contains four different oils, 
 and in many seeds the place of starch is supplied by oil, and 
 serves the future seedling for nutrition. The oil is usually ob- 
 tained on a large scale by pressure ; however, oils are soluble in 
 petroleum-ether, and may be extracted by it. In France, 6 the 
 cultivation of oil-yielding plants occupied 445,000 hectares, the 
 product of which represented a value of 105,000,000 francs. 
 Olive oil 7 is obtained from several species of the olive tree. 
 
 1 Matieres Premieres Organiques. Par Pennetier, p. 771. Annales de 
 Chimie et de Physique, Ixxv, 218. Annal d. Chem. und Pharm., xxxvii, 170, 
 1841. Ibid., (new series), xiii, 451. 
 
 2 Proc. A. A. A. S., vol. xxxiii. Amer. Jour. Phar., February, 1885. The 
 analysis of this plant is among the first published accounts of plants treated 
 by Dragendorffs scheme in this country. 
 
 3 Landw. Versuchsstat, xiii, 241. 
 
 4 Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, 1885. 
 
 5 LOG. cit., Pennetier, p. 706. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 709. 7 Ibid., p. 709. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 185 
 
 It serves for many purposes, and enters into the food of some 
 nations. In Spain, a kind of soup, made of oil, garlic, and 
 bread soaked in water, is eaten by the poorer classes. 
 
 The nuts 1 of Corylus avellana give an excellent table oil; 
 it is also used in perfumery. The residue from the extract is 
 used for almond confection, and is preferable to that made 
 of ordinary almonds. A commerce is made in China of " Chou- 
 lah" 2 obtained from one of the Euphorbiacece. This tallow 
 is made into candles, which burn with a brilliant and white 
 flame. There is an enormous demand for them. Many other 
 plants of the same family. furnish this oil. The genus Bassia, 
 of the Sapotacece family, yields several important fats, among 
 which is one known as Galam butter. This vegetable butter 
 can replace animal fats, and is largely used in soap- making. 
 The annual report of the manufacturers of linseed oil alone 
 for one year was figured at high rates, but the manufacture 
 and uses of this oil are too well known to need more than a 
 mention. 
 
 Olive oil in the American Pharmacopoeia is replaced by 
 cotton-seed oil. 3 
 
 The supply of cotton seed Gossypium is obtained 
 from several countries, and may be said to be inexhaustible. 
 The Southern States of North America contribute the largest 
 quantity by millions of tons. A large proportion is not worth 
 the expense of transit, and is burned for fuel and given to 
 stock for litter. A considerable quantity is used in the manu- 
 facture of decorticated cotton cake and oil. Egypt is said to 
 grow a superior quality of seed, and England derives her 
 principal supply from there. Improvements in the method 
 of irrigation are said to have increased the annual quantity, 
 but the average of past years has been about 250,000 tons. 
 
 The seeds yield some twelve to twenty per cent, of oil. The 
 oil in appearance, taste, and smell resembles fresh olive oil. 
 
 The fixed oils are chemically glycerides and are principally 
 composed of glycerin, in combination with oleic, palmitic, 
 
 1 Pennetier, p. 750. 2 Ibid., p. 752. 
 
 3 "Notes on Cotton-Seed Oil," by W. Gilmour. Am. Jour. Pharm., No- 
 vember, 1885, p. 565. 
 
i86 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 and stearic acids. They are frequently solid at ordinary tem- 
 perature, and their consistency depends upon the proportion 
 of oleic acid present. 
 
 Commercial oils 1 frequently contain free acids; thus in palm 
 oil the free acid calculated as palmitic acid usually varies 
 from twelve to eighty per cent. The presence of free acid in 
 an oil is doubtless the principal if not the only cause of its 
 tendency to act on metals, and therefore seriously affects the 
 suitability of an oil for use as a lubricant. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of vegetable oils, I wish to call 
 attention to the essential-oil industry in Grasse. 2 The world- 
 wide fame of this locality depends upon the essential oils of 
 plants which grow wild or are cultivated in the neighborhood. 
 The oil of lavender, rosemary, the garden thyme, of the 
 Labiatce family afford an important export industry of Grasse. 
 
 The following quantities of oil are produced in Grasse every 
 year: From the lavender, 80,000 to 100,000 kilograms; from 
 thyme 40,000, and from rosemary, 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms. 
 The quantity sent out from Grasse probably meets the require- 
 ments of the whole world. Dalmatia only furnishes the oil of 
 rosemary and sends about 20,000 kilos of this essential oil into 
 the market; Grasse also sends forth each year oil from the 
 citrus species, especially oil of neroli, which is much esteemed. 
 Orris butter is distinguished above many other perfumes by 
 an agreeable softness and great permanence. One of the houses 
 in Grasse prepares four to ten kilograms yearly. Its value in 
 Grasse is 1,500 to 1,800 francs the kilo. Besides the wholesale 
 distillation of orange flowers and roses, some other aromatic 
 plants are occasionally worked up when needed, though not 
 to any great extent. 
 
 The processes used for extracting these perfumes by the 
 methods of "infusion" and "enfleurage" are extremely in- 
 teresting and may deserve a passing notice. The fat used as 
 the basis of the "pommade" is selected from the best pig's 
 lard or beef suet. The melting, its mechanical purification, 
 
 1 Commercial Organic Analysis, by A. H.Allen, Philadelphia, 1887, vol. i, 
 p. 28. 
 
 2 F. A. Fluckiger, Amer. Jour. Phar., March, 1885, p. 131. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 187 
 
 and washing are conducted with great care. The stability 
 of the fat is increased by its digestion with benzoin. The 
 "infusion" is effected in large jacketed boilers, in which 
 the fat is warmed by steam heat and the flowers are added. 
 In the month of May over 10,000 kilos of rose or bigarade 
 flowers pass daily for many successive days into the boilers of 
 the factory of one house alone. The fat is diligently stirred by 
 female workers; the expression by means of hydraulic presses 
 is done by men. After the clearing of the fat, the finished 
 "pommade" is at once weighed and stored in tin boxes. 
 
 In the case of the more delicate perfumes, the above method 
 of "infusion a chaud" is replaced by "enfleurage." For this 
 purpose light square wooden frames, about eighteen inches 
 each way, in which a plate of glass can be placed, are used. 
 Upon each glass is spread a quantity of fat in a thin layer, 
 and this is strewn thickly with flowers. Sometimes contact 
 with the fat is avoided, and the layer of fat is confined to the 
 other glass wall of each compartment. When a perfumed oil 
 is desired, cloths saturated with oil for the "enfleurage" may 
 be used. The flowers are shut up in these glass compartments 
 for a longer or shorter time, and are repeatedly renewed and 
 replaced by fresh ones. The perfumed fat is mixed with 
 alcohol by means of powerful stirrers. The alcohol takes up 
 scarcely any of the fat, but the greater part of the odorous 
 substances. 
 
 From several trials, I think these processes of extraction 
 may be applied to extract the delicate odors of barks and other 
 substances which would be destroyed by distillation, and have 
 escaped detection up to this time. 
 
 Among the chemical substances recently introduced into 
 the field of chemical industry l may be mentioned cholesterin, 
 or lanolin, CzeH^O + H 2 O. Commercially, this substance 
 is obtained from animal sources; but its wide distribution 
 through the vegetable kingdom warrants its mention in this 
 place. The singular property of this substance and its prom- 
 
 1 "Notes on Chemical Substances Recently introduced into the Field of 
 Chemical Industry," by J. Levinstein. Jour. Soc. Chem. Industry, Nov. 29, 
 1886. 
 
i88 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 ising commercial future deserve more than a passing notice. 
 Liebrich observed that cholesterin fat possesses the peculiar 
 property of being able to absorb more than 100 per cent, of 
 water, and this singular property was denominated by the 
 great pharmacologist, lanosation, while the cholesterin, mixed 
 with water, was termed by him, lanolin. He also first called 
 attention to the great therapeutical value of lanolin, and 
 shortly afterwards the industrial production of pure lanolin 
 was commenced by a Berlin firm, 1 and its manufacture has 
 been of late steadily increasing. 
 
 Lanolin is already taking the place of vaseline, parafnne, 
 and lard. Its efficacy has already been established beyond 
 doubt, and its superiority is due to the extraordinary readiness 
 with which it is absorbed by the skin. This property is not 
 known to belong in a similar degree to any other fatty sub- 
 stance. Besides the medicinal use, it has also been already 
 introduced into various branches of industry, such as per- 
 fumery, soaps, and pomades, also for greasing leather belting 
 and for improving the pliability of leather. 
 
 The history of the wholesale drug trade for the year 1886 
 is one of the most remarkable on record, since 1879-80. In 
 a late number of the "Druggist's Circular," 2 a summary is 
 given of the year, from which I have taken some statements, 
 from the table of prices, as follows: 
 
 January i. December 15. July i. 
 
 Alcohol $2.10 $2.17 $2.09 
 
 Camphor 23 22.25 - 2 3 
 
 Gum arable 70 .95 .82^ 
 
 Morphine 2.25 2.10 1.90 
 
 Vanilla bean 10.00 18.00 12.00 
 
 Copaiba balsam 34 .36 .34 
 
 Cubebs 90 1.35 .95 
 
 Tragacanth 45 -42 -37$ 
 
 Senna leaves 15 .27^ .30 
 
 Golden-seal 14 .18 .13 
 
 Pink-root 35 .47! - 6o 
 
 1 Messrs. Jaffe* & Darmstadter. 
 
 2 The Druggist's Circular and Chemical Gazette, January, 1887. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 189 
 
 The advance in alcohol is said to be the result of a com- 
 bination amongst the distillers. Balsam copaiba has for a 
 long time been very scarce; but the arrival of new stocks will 
 make it freer. "Cubebs, vanilla beans, gum arabic, tragacanth, 
 senna, golden-seal, serpentaria, and pink-root have been and 
 are still very scarce and are likely to be higher." . . . "The 
 largest movement in cocoa leaves ever known, took place early 
 in the month." . . . " A short crop of senna coming at a time 
 when all markets were poorly supplied, and during an unusually 
 active period, is responsible for the upward movement of the 
 drug." . . . "The position of quinine just now is an inter- 
 esting one, and the future of the market depends upon the 
 source of barks, and that at present is expected to be upward, 
 owing to reduced visible and prospective supplies." 
 
 The commercial value of these drugs depends upon certain 
 chemical compounds which they contain. The scarcity of 
 some of these drugs in itself is a sufficient inducement to push 
 forward investigation in plant chemistry, and to endeavor to 
 discover the same valuable constituents or their equivalents 
 in new plants. 
 
 The preparation of fine prescriptions has been advanced 
 by the perfection in chemical methods of isolating plant con- 
 stituents. The medicinal value of many drugs is due to one or 
 more principles, and to be able to administer these principles, 
 apart from the accompanying compounds of the plant, is a 
 triumph of analytical skill. 
 
 A new and convenient form to prescribe the more impor- 
 tant alkaloids, glucosides, and other active plant principles, 
 is offered by Frederick Stearns & Co., Detroit, Mich. This 
 firm manufactures alkametric granules and alkadermic pellets. 
 These granules contain carefully prepared medicines repre- 
 senting the pure alkaloid or active principle. 
 
 The enormous quantity of drugs used to furnish alkaloids 
 or other medicinal principles may be seen from the import * 
 of cinchona bark or other barks used in the manufacture of 
 quinine. 
 
 1 Bureau of Statistics, Treas. Dept. 
 
1 90 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 2,588,307 $718,035 
 
 1885 3,559,691 913,189 
 
 Of sulphate of quinia : Ounces. Value. 
 
 1884 1,263,732 $1,610,163 
 
 1885 1,390,126 1,292,794 
 
 Other salts of quinia : Ounces. Value. 
 
 1884 712 $1,038 
 
 1885 5,435 1,868 
 
 Cinchonidia : Ounces. Value. 
 
 1884 381,885 $206,405 
 
 1885 478,747 220,846 
 
 A New York firm 1 has recently introduced upon the mar- 
 ket quintessential oils; the odorous principle of these oils is 
 due to the stearoptens or camphors, which readily separate 
 from the more volatile portions. 
 
 It has been suggested, owing to the scarcity of gum arabic, 
 to introduce upon the market a gum 2 from a Mexican tree, 
 called the mesquite. This gum exudes from the stem and 
 branches during the summer months. The analysis of this 
 gum offers several interesting features: amongst others its 
 solutions can be combined with basic lead acetate and ferric 
 salts, without being precipitated, and, it is suggested, for this 
 reason, as more applicable in medicine than gum arabic. It 
 is probable that, in time, gum mesquite will become a com- 
 mercial article of importance. 
 
 We are indebted to plants for our tea, coffee, and chocolate 
 supply, and these articles may be reckoned among our foods; 
 for one or all are used by every people. 
 
 In Spain, chocolate is looked upon as a necessity. The 
 Spaniard may be seen making his early breakfast with a slice 
 of bread spread with a thick paste of chocolate. The smiling- 
 faced "cocinero" told me how he prepared it, by carefully 
 
 1 Fritzsche Brothers. 
 
 2 "Products of the Mesquite," by H. J. Schuchard. Amer. Jour. Pharm., 
 November, 1885, p. 542. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 191 
 
 melting the solid chocolate cake to the desired consistency. A 
 cup of steaming hot goat's milk is offered to the traveler to 
 mix with this chocolate, if he is unable to take it straight. 
 
 "When Cortez and the Spaniards entered the vast empire 
 of Montezuma, they found the use of cocoa or chocolate, as a 
 beverage, common. The emperor alone drank it flavored with 
 vanilla from a golden cup." 1 The Spaniards very jealously 
 guarded as a secret the mode of chocolate manufacture, and 
 were able to retain the monopoly of the trade for many years. 
 
 Theobromine, caffeine, and theine are the alkaloids which 
 give cocoa, coffee, and tea their exhilarating properties. They 
 owe their aroma to certain volatile oils, which in the case of 
 cocoa is probably developed by roasting. 
 
 Tea 2 is of the utmost importance as an article of consump- 
 tion, and far exceeds in demand cocoa or coffee. Tea can be 
 grown in a wide range of climate; in Pekin, with winters of 
 Russian severity, to Canton and Macao. Any country having 
 a long and hot summer and a cold winter can grow tea. The 
 proportion per head of consumption for Great Britain and 
 Ireland during 1875 was 4.44 pounds. 
 
 The very best workers in gathering the tea leaves rarely earn 
 as much as sixpence a day, and until other nations can raise 
 tea for six cents a pound, they cannot compete with China 
 in its production. 
 
 Guarana, a product allied to cocoa, and mate*, or Paraguay 
 tea, are also used. The same or allied alkaloids prevail in all 
 the principal substances employed for these beverages in dif- 
 ferent parts of the world. After tea, there is scarcely any other 
 staple of commerce used for dietetic beverages more gener- 
 ally acceptable with all classes than coffee. 
 
 The statistics of cocoa, tea, and coffee: 8 
 
 IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Tea : Pounds. Value. 
 
 l88 4 65,774,234 $13,504,798.56 
 
 l88 5 69,820,172 i3,725,3 8 -75 
 
 1 Tropical Agriculture, by P. L. Simmonds, London, 1877, p. 2. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 79. 
 
 8 Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department. 
 
192 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Coffee : Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 532,514,850 $49,685,689.30 
 
 1885 572,222,841 46,723,290.16 
 
 Leaves and shells of crude cocoa : Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 12,263,948 $1,673,088.00 
 
 1885 10,300,078 1,332,375.00 
 
 The above facts, including the tables of statistics, show 
 the extent of our dependence on the presence of chemical 
 compounds in the various plant sources from which we derive 
 many of our supplies. 
 
 The consideration of the cereal products of the United 
 States and our domestic sugar supply in relation to this subject, 
 seems of sufficient importance to detain us for a few minutes. 
 
 "The total production 1 of the six principal cereal grains of 
 the United States for the census year amounts to 2,697,962,456 
 bushels, an average of 58.8 bushels per head for the whole 
 population. The total breadth of cultivation and the amount 
 of product of each of the grains is as follows : 
 
 Grain. Acres. Production, Bushels. 
 
 Corn 62,368,869 1,754,861,535 
 
 Wheat 35,430,052 459,479,505 
 
 Oats 16,144,593 407,858,999 
 
 Barley 1,997,7*7 44,"3495 
 
 Rye 1,842,303 19,831,595 
 
 Buckwheat 848,389 11,817,327 
 
 Total 118,631,923 2,697,962,456 
 
 "Whether considered in respect to breadth of cultivation, 
 total product, or average production per head of the whole 
 population, these figures place the United States at the head 
 of the grain-producing countries of the world." . . . "The 
 tables of cereal production, taken in connection with the 
 tables of other production, and these compared with the 
 returns of previous census years, show that agriculture con- 
 
 1 Report on the Cereal Production of the United States, Dept. of the Interior, 
 Census Office, 1884, p. 381. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 193 
 
 tinues to be the leading productive industry of the country, 
 and cereal production the most prominent feature of this in- 
 dustry. . . . 
 
 "The increase in grain production, since the previous cen- 
 sus enumeration, is in part due to the cultivation of new lands 
 in the West and in the Northwest, but more largely due to 
 gain in farming regions already occupied in 1870. The popu- 
 lar belief that the chief increase in production and the rapid 
 growth of the grain exports is due to the cropping of new and 
 cheap lands, is not sustained by the census enumeration. 
 The tables of production show that the most of the grain is 
 in regions some time in cultivation, and on lands ranging in 
 value from $30 per acre upwards. . . . 
 
 "The actual production of 58.8 bushels per head of total 
 population shows that the United States must be a grain- 
 exporting country, notwithstanding the enormously large 
 consumption by its population. The grain and flour exports l 
 for the five years ending June 30, 1880, amount as follows: 
 
 Wheat and corn 833,692,207 bushels 
 
 Flour and corn meal 24,850,316 " 
 
 Total value $892,788,117 
 
 "The profitable cultivation 2 of cereals on a large scale is 
 more dependent upon climate than upon soil. Rocks of va- 
 rious geological ages underlie the different portions of the 
 chief grain-producing regions. The immediate influence of 
 the underlying rocks is, however, greater in the southern and 
 western portions of the United States than in the northern 
 and eastern." The production and distribution of grain in 
 the United States is influenced largely by the physical charac- 
 ter of the soil. "The portions producing the bulk of the grain 
 have soils of reasonable fertility, but are also those which 
 are easily tilled, and upon which the best machinery and labor- 
 saving appliances can be most readily used." 
 
 "The acreage and crop 3 of wheat, in 1879, amounted to 
 35,430,052 acres, 459,579,505 bushels; the acreage being 29.7 
 
 1 Cereal Report, p. 383. 2 Ibid., p. 396. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 440-442. 
 
i 9 4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 per cent, of all the land and cereals, and the product about 
 9.2 bushels per head of total population. . . . 
 
 "There is but little wheat land east of the Hudson River, 
 and although New York and Pennsylvania produce consider- 
 able wheat, the great bulk of the wheat country lies west of 
 those states, beyond the seventy-seventh meridian and the 
 Appalachian chain of mountains, and north of the Ohio 
 River. . . . 
 
 "The successful cultivation of wheat, in a commercial sense, 
 is determined by a complicated set of conditions." In an agri- 
 cultural sense, "the yield and quality of the crop practically 
 depend upon but five conditions, the climate, the soil, 
 the variety cultivated, the mode of cultivation, and the lia- 
 bility to destruction by insects." Chemistry has to do, how- 
 ever, with only the soil and the variety of grain related. The 
 chemical composition of the grain and its value as a bread 
 plant not only vary greatly in the different varieties, but also 
 in the same variety, from year to year, and on different soils. 
 
 Indian corn x stands first in amount of the cereal productions 
 of the country. This cereal is more generally distributed 
 over the country than any other; the place of its greatest pro- 
 duction is on the fertile prairies and river bottoms of the West, 
 and north of the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude. A compara- 
 tively few states 2 produce the bulk of the crop, the four states 
 of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana producing upward of 
 fifty-two per cent. 
 
 "The chemical composition 3 of Indian corn varies more 
 than wheat, as might be expected from the vast number and 
 great difference of its varieties. As a whole, it is not quite so 
 rich in albuminoids." It varies also much more in the amount 
 of fibre. The average proportion of starch is less than in wheat, 
 but the most noticeable difference is in the amount of oil. 
 Indian corn when in the "milk" is a most nutritious and 
 excellent food. "The chemical analysis of green corn shows 
 respectively fourteen to fifteen per cent, albuminoids, ... an 
 amount equal to that in the very best wheat flour." 4 
 
 1 Cereal Report, p. 470. 2 Ibid., p. 471. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 482. * Ibid., p. 484. 
 

 PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 195 
 
 Oats * stand the third cereal of importance in the United 
 States. Maine, Vermont, New York, and Wyoming raise 
 more oats than any other cereal. The muscle-producing value 
 of oats depends upon, the amount of their albuminoids. The 
 average composition of some American oats on analysis 
 showed a higher percentage of albuminoids than the richest 
 wheat flours. The amount of fat in oats ranges from four 
 to nearly six per cent. 
 
 Barley 2 is successfully cultivated in a wider range of cli- 
 mate than any other cereal. It is the most hardy of all the 
 cereals, and it grows in the north nearly to the point where 
 all cultivation ceases. On the other hand, barley flourishes 
 well in semi-tropical countries, and in this country the region 
 of its greatest production is California. In Arizona and Ne- 
 vada, more of barley than any other cereal was grown in the 
 census year. 
 
 Rye 3 has become of very minor importance in the United 
 States, in comparison with other cereals. It can be grown upon 
 very poor soils. In Europe, for many ages, it was the prin- 
 cipal bread-stuff of the people, for it could be cultivated on 
 soils too poor to grow wheat. Pennsylvania has, at each cen- 
 sus return, been the leading state in total production; it is 
 now followed by New York. 
 
 From analyses, rye in the kernel is less nutritious than wheat, 
 and the deficiencies in their respective flours is still greater. 
 Wheat flours average about eleven per cent, of albuminoids, 
 while rye flours average at about six per cent. On the other 
 hand, rye bran is richer in albuminoids than wheat bran. 
 
 The popular belief that buckwheat 4 is less strengthening 
 and more fattening than wheat, is founded on a chemical rea- 
 son; for the percentage of albuminoids is low, ranging from 
 four to eight per cent. The starch is in larger amount than 
 in wheat, the percentage of oil being about the same. The 
 peculiar aroma of buckwheat cakes is probably derived from 
 the presence of an essential oil decomposed by heat. 
 
 Chemistry plays an important part in the cereal production 
 
 1 Cereal Report, p. 491. 2 Ibid., p. 497. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 502. 4 Ibid., p. 508. 
 
1 96 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of our country. The United States Agricultural Department 
 furnishes several reports on this subject. 1 The analyses have 
 been conducted to show the effect of environment on the grain. 
 The albuminoids, fat, and ash composition of American 
 grain are given and compared with foreign crops, and the 
 average composition of flour from different sections of the 
 country has been studied. 
 
 The importance of chemical analyses in this connection 
 is evident, for the relative chemical composition of a cereal 
 decides its nutritive value, and this information is essential 
 to the farmer in the selection of the kinds of grain for sowing. 
 The percentage of chemical composition of grains varies in 
 crops grown in different sections of the country, and furnishes 
 a scientific basis for careful selection of climate and soil. 
 
 Agricultural chemical analysis is usually conducted to show 
 the aggregate percentages of groups of substances. All the 
 nitrogenous compounds are determined together and classed 
 as the albuminoids; starch, gum, sugar, and similar sub- 
 stances, as carbohydrates. Oils, waxes, and allied com- 
 pounds are classed as fats. Special compounds existing in 
 minute quantities, but belonging to one of these classes, would 
 fail to be detected in such a general plan of analysis; such 
 compounds might have great economic interest. Careful 
 and detailed plant analysis can be the only means to discover 
 and isolate these principles. 
 
 The sources of sugar supply to the world are from a few 
 plants; the beet, maple, sugar-cane, and sorghum. In our 
 country, during 1883-84, beet- sugar was all made at Alvarado, 2 
 California. Sugar manufactured from the beet on the Pacific 
 Coast is an assured success. The climate and soil of northern 
 California, Oregon, and Washington Territory are especially 
 suitable to this plant. A vast range of territory in our Northern 
 States would be adapted for the cultivation of the sugar beet. 
 The causes of past failures to establish a beet-sugar industry 
 
 1 Buls. No. I, No. 4, No. 9, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., by Clifford Richard- 
 son. 
 
 2 "Our Sugar Supply," by H. W. Wiley. From Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. 
 of Washington, January, 1887. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 197 
 
 may be remedied, depending upon more scientific methods 
 of agriculture and chemical methods. Maple sugar is costly; 
 the trees yielding this product are of slow growth, and their 
 territory of cultivation limited. An adequate supply cannot 
 be expected from this source, nor from the sugar-cane of the 
 South during the present stage of this industry. 
 
 If it is admitted that the prosperity of a country is shown 
 by its advance in agriculture, then the onward march should 
 be encouraged by every means in our power. We should look 
 to our own acres for our sugar supply, since this can become 
 practicable, and not abroad. The encouragement of a sugar 
 industry in this country is of importance, when it is considered 
 that over $100,000,000 is sent out of the country for raw sugar, 
 annually. 
 
 The problem of how to reduce our revenue does not apply 
 to this industry; in a recent letter on a plan of tariff re- 
 vision, Mr. E. H. Ammidown says: " Legislation to reduce 
 the duty on sugar should be deferred until the conditions 
 and prospects of the whole sugar industry have been more 
 carefully investigated and are better understood. An indus- 
 try which, if established, would produce $150,000,000 in value 
 of a staple article of food required in every American house- 
 hold, and save $100,000,000 now or in the immediate future, 
 annually paid to foreign producers, such an industry, with 
 the example of France and Germany to encourage us, is of 
 too serious importance to this nation to be treated by the 
 national legislature otherwise than with the utmost caution 
 and most cautious deliberation." 
 
 The following statistics will show the sugar and molasses 
 importation: 
 
 For the year ending June 30, i886/ free of duty from 
 the Hawaiian Islands : 
 
 Amount. Value. 
 
 Molasses 61,171 gallons. $7,786.00 
 
 Sugar 191,623,175 pounds. $9,174,612.00 
 
 Total $9,166,826.00 
 
 1 Bureau of Statistics, Treas. Dept. 1886. 
 
198 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Dutiable. Amount. Value. 
 
 Molasses 39,018,637 gallons $5,587,884.00 
 
 Sugar 2,498,258,590 pounds 71,606,918.00 
 
 Sugar candy, etc 23,333.00 
 
 Total $77,218,135.00 
 
 Value of all imported sugars and molasses. . . $86,392,747.00 
 
 The value of all imported sugars and molasses, 
 
 for the year ending June 30, 1885 76,738,719.00 
 
 For the year ending June 30, 1884 103,884,275.00 
 
 The total value r of domestic sugars and molas- 
 ses amounted to 43,037,409.03 
 
 The amount of money sent out of the country 
 during the last year to meet the demands of 
 sugar consumption was 135,000,000.00 2 
 
 The above figures show the amount of sugar and molasses 
 consumed in the United States annually. If we are to obtain 
 all of these products from our own lands, it is a reasonable 
 question to ask, how is this to be accomplished ? 
 
 Former analyses show that the yield of sugar from Louisiana 
 cane is less than from cane grown in the tropics. The future 
 prosperity of Louisiana growers need not suffer from this 
 poorer juice. The recent experiments at Fort Scott 3 demon- 
 strated that a given weight of cane, without notably increasing 
 the cost of manufacture, yielded thirty per cent, more sugar 
 than had ever been made before. The Southern sugar in- 
 dustry will thrive with the encouragement of a greater sugar 
 yield, and by the introduction of more scientific methods of 
 growing and manufacture. 
 
 Of late years the manufacture of sugar from Sorghum sac- 
 char alum has attracted attention. So far, as a business project, 
 it has proved a financial failure. From the recent chemical 
 reports of the Agricultural Bureau, under proper conditions 
 of cultivation, this cereal promises to become a profitable 
 source of sugar supply. 
 
 I give a few of the chemical results of the late Fort Scott 
 
 1 Bui. No. 5, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., pp. 7, 8. 
 
 2 From Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. of Washington, p. 1 6. 
 
 3 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., 1886. H. W. Wiley, Chemist. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 199 
 
 experiments. 1 Up to October ist, the mean composition of 
 the chips entering the diffusion battery was : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sucrose 8.76 
 
 Glucose 3- 28 
 
 Soluble solids 14.88 
 
 Available sugar 2.64 
 
 Following that date : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sucrose 7.02 
 
 Glucose 4.16 
 
 Soluble solids 14.89 
 
 Available sugar minus 0.85 
 
 With such raw material it was found to be impossible to 
 manufacture sugar successfully. 
 
 It must not be inferred from these discouraging analyses that 
 sorghum is not capable of becoming a good sugar-producing 
 plant. Many samples of cane brought fresh from the fields or 
 from protected parts of piles of cane cut for a day, showed 
 a remarkably high percentage of sugar. 
 
 On September 3oth, a sample of cane from the carrier 
 showed : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Sucrose I2 -39 
 
 Glucose 3.76 
 
 Total solids 17.8 
 
 Available sugar 6.98 
 
 Such cane would yield 140 pounds of sugar per ton. 
 
 An October cane cut one day gave an average of 176.6 
 pounds of sugar per ton. 
 
 Dozens of samples of cane during the season would have 
 given over 100 pounds of sugar per ton. When it is remem- 
 bered that sorghum cane can be grown and delivered at the 
 factory for $2 a ton, the importance of these figures cannot 
 be overestimated. If sorghum can be produced which will 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14. 
 
200 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 contain five per cent, available sugar from the whole crop, 
 the future of the industry is a most promising one. 
 
 Until the variations of the percentage of sucrose in the 
 juice can be controlled, sorghum cannot be considered a profit- 
 able crop for sugar production. 
 
 It is purely a question of more scientific agriculture. As far 
 as the processes are concerned, the problem of extracting 
 the sugar from the cane has been solved. 
 
 To insure the financial success it will be important to se- 
 lect a suitable situation of climate and soil. Before embarking 
 upon a large money outlay, the scientific representative of a 
 company should experimentally grow, under trial conditions, 
 sorghum cane in the localities where it is proposed to start 
 the industry. 
 
 On a broad scale the northern and southern limits have 
 been already defined. Seventy degrees Fahrenheit is the iso- 
 therm * for the best sorghum sugar production for June, July, 
 and August ; but cane for syrup will grow north of that line. 
 
 At a comparatively small expenditure the question of cli- 
 mate for special localities and other conditions could be tested 
 by a chemical analysis of the plant, whose juices respond as 
 quickly to favorable or adverse conditions as the mercury to 
 heat and cold. 
 
 Dr. Wiley 2 recently, in his annual address as President of 
 the Washington Chemical Society, said: "The hope of sor- 
 ghum is not in new methods and new machinery, it is in the 
 skill and patience of the agronomist. Wise selection of seed, 
 intensive culture, judicious fertilization these are the factors 
 that can make the sorghum sufficiently saccharifacient." 
 
 It seems to me that the refinements of plant analysis are 
 destined to play an important part in this connection. Chemi- 
 cal analysis of chosen seed would ensure a wise selection for 
 planting. Analysis of the cane and juice would show the re- 
 sults of experimental culture. For experiment, the proportional 
 constituents of the soil may be varied, to determine if the 
 proportion of chemical constituents of the cane, detrimental 
 
 1 Bui. No. 3, Chem. Div. Dept. oj Agr. 
 
 2 "Our Sugar Supply." 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 201 
 
 or favorable to the production of richer juice, may be con- 
 trolled. 
 
 Analyses would show what external chemical conditions 
 are requisite to insure a vigorous growth, and if upon these 
 depends a larger sugar yield. Series of experiments at different 
 stages of growth undertaken to discover the chemical pro- 
 cesses attending growth, maturing, and ripening of the canes, 
 under trial conditions, are necessary to be known by the chemi- 
 cal representative of the producer. 
 
 Plant chemistry, in applying this knowledge to practical 
 agricultural ends, will fulfill a high aim. It may be suggested 
 as a worthy object of agricultural experiment to discover 
 what parts of the residual sorghum, juice, and cane, after the 
 sugar extraction, may serve a practical end. A profitable 
 utilization of these products would assist the improved ma- 
 chinery and new chemical processes in lessening the cost of 
 sugar production. Paper l has been manufactured from the 
 cellulose of the sorghum cane. Future experiments will deter- 
 mine the separation and economic interest of other constitu- 
 ents. 
 
 Very many dye substances of vegetable origin are used 
 industrially. It would detain us too long to enumerate the 
 list, and I shall select a few of the well-known ones for illus- 
 tration: 
 
 The dye-woods imported in a crude state are as follows: 2 
 
 Camwood : Tons. Value. 
 
 1884 659.82 $65,461.00 
 
 1885 730.00 68,721.00 
 
 Fustic : Tons. Value. 
 
 1884 11,811 $177,830.00 
 
 1885 8,090 119,689.00 
 
 Logwood : Tons. Value. 
 
 1884 55,921.59 $875,291.00 
 
 1885 56,507.80 904,205.25 
 
 1 "Sorghum Saccharatum," by C. A. Goessmann. From Trans. N. Y. 
 State Agr. Soc., 1861. Bui. XLI, N. J. Agr. Experimental Station, 1887, p. 23. 
 Bui. No. 14, Ghent. Div. Dept. oj Agr., p. 56. 
 
 2 Bureau of Statistics, Treas. Dept., 1885. 
 
202 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The madder plant was formerly grown to a large extent in 
 many countries, and in France * large tracts of land were given 
 up to its cultivation. "Madder 2 owes its importance to the 
 beauty and fastness of the tints it yields, and to the fact that by 
 a variation of the mordant used, it produces rose pink, black, 
 violet, lilac, and puce colors." The character of the soil where 
 the madder grows affects the color of the dye. The roots 
 grown in a rich clay soil exhibit a rose-pink color; under other 
 conditions, a deep red coloration. 
 
 Alizarin, the chief coloring-matter of madder, is now pro- 
 duced artificially from coal tar in large quantities, though the 
 madder is especially in request for woolen dyeing. This 
 plant, which yielded such large revenues to the growers, is 
 replaced by a cheaper manufactured product. Very likely 
 we should not have discovered the synthesis of its valuable 
 dye, if our attention had not first been directed to it in the 
 plant. 
 
 When it is remembered that coal tar is undoubtedly of vege- 
 table origin, the many brilliant dyes derived from this source 
 are only evidences of what plant chemistry could have found 
 in the carboniferous ages. 
 
 The following statistics show : 
 
 The amount 3 of imported madder : 
 
 Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 253,385 $13,521.00 
 
 Ground or prepared madder : 
 
 Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 1,458,313 $111,456.00 
 
 1885 1,211,370 80,628.00 
 
 The natural or artificial alizarin : 
 
 Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 778,660 $296,123.00 
 
 1885 1,470,864 404,002.00 
 
 1 Tropical Agriculture, by P. L. Simmonds. London, 1877, p. 369. 
 
 2 Hand-Book of Dyeing and Calico Printing, by W. Crookes. London, 1874, 
 p. 228. 
 
 3 Bureau of Statistics, 1885. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 203 
 
 Total value madder and alizarin : 
 
 1884 $421,100.00 
 
 1885 484,630.00 
 
 Many species of plants grown in different parts of the world, 
 but especially the Indigofera, yield a glucoside called indican, 
 which, under the influence of dilute mineral acids and certain 
 ferments, breaks up, yielding indigo blue and a substance re- 
 sembling glucose. 
 
 "Indigo * has undoubtedly been known in Asia from a very 
 remote period of antiquity, since there exist, in very ancient 
 records written in the Sanskrit language, descriptions of its 
 mode of preparation mainly not different from the methods 
 yet in use." The manner of cutting the plant and extracting 
 the indigo is not the same in all countries. In India, the plants 
 are grown from seeds which are sown in the fall and spring, 
 according to the kind of plant. As soon as the young plants 
 are sufficiently forward they are replanted in regular rows. 
 The flower buds are pulled off before they are fully developed, 
 experience having taught that by so doing the leaves of the 
 shrub become larger and yield more indigo, the coloring-matter 
 being chiefly present in the leaves. 
 
 The indigo of commerce is a blue dyestuff extracted by 
 fermentation. Other plants 2 used occasionally for the ex- 
 traction of indigo are more frequently employed directly in 
 dyeing; they belong to the Polygonacea family. These plants 
 are from India, China, Central Africa, and South America, 
 and they can be acclimated in all warm countries. In the 
 mode of indigo manufacture 3 two processes are employed. In 
 the one the dry leaves are used, in the other the green leaves. 
 This is the one in most common use. When the plant begins 
 to flower it is cut down at about six inches from the ground 
 and carried to the steeping vats with as little delay as possible, 
 strewn horizontally in the vats, and pressed down by means 
 
 1 Hand-Book of Dyeing and Calico Printing, by W. Crookes, p. 447. 
 
 2 Matieres Premieres Organiqites, par Pennetier, p. 513. 
 
 3 Ibid.) p. 516. Bui. de la Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse, vol. xxviii, p. 
 
 307- 
 
204 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of beams fixed into side posts, bamboo being placed under the 
 beams. Water is immediately run in, just sufficient to cover 
 the plant. The pure water from the Ganges is especially 
 sought for in these manufactories, and many indigo factories 
 line the river banks. The time for steeping depends much on 
 the temperature of the atmosphere, and can only be learned 
 by experience and careful watching of the vats, but in close, 
 sultry weather, with the thermometer at 96 in the shade, 
 eleven or twelve hours are sufficient. In cooler weather more 
 time is requisite. 
 
 When fermentation is established, the surface of the vat is 
 covered with a violet scum. The liquid is drawn off through 
 plug holes in the wall of the vat. The fecula at the bottom 
 is then removed to the boiler. It is brought to the boiling 
 point as quickly as possible, and kept there for five or six 
 hours. While boiling it is stirred to keep the indigo from burn- 
 ing, and skimmed with a perforated ladle. When sufficiently 
 boiled it is run off to the straining table, where it remains 
 twelve or fifteen hours draining. It is then taken to the presses 
 and gradually pressed. This process takes twelve hours. It 
 is then ready to be taken out, cut, stamped, and laid in the 
 drying house to dry. 
 
 In the manufacture of indigo the ordinary processes of 
 fermentation, drawing-off the liquor, beating, and collecting 
 the fecula, are generally well known and are followed with 
 but trifling variation in different provinces and manufactories 
 in India. The main points appear to be the watching and the 
 soaking of the plant so as to be able to tap off the infused 
 liquid at exactly the right point of fermentation, and next to 
 beat the liquid in the second vat long enough. 
 
 Indigotin as it is contained in the vegetable tissues is color- 
 less, but it becomes blue on contact with air. If it is desired 
 to change indigo blue to indigo white, it is only necessary to 
 place it in the presence of a deoxidizing and alkaline liquid, 
 but as soon as air is admitted its blue color is resumed. 
 
 The dyeing of fabrics is based upon the transformation of 
 indigo blue into soluble indigo white. The colorless matter 
 is placed on the stuff, which becomes blue by exposure. The 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 205 
 
 solubility of indigo in sulphuric acid is utilized for blue dyeing 
 of wools. 
 
 Indigo has been made artificially by several methods, though 
 the process so far is too expensive to allow the manufactured 
 compound to replace the commercial supply from plants. 
 
 The table of statistics is as follows : 
 
 Amount of indigo l imported : Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 2,674,062 $2,267,048.00 
 
 1885 3,035,934 2,007,066.00 
 
 Artificial indigo : Pounds. Value. 
 
 1884 None. 
 
 1885 3,300 $3,600.00 
 
 The dye commonly known as logwood has been cultivated 
 in Jamaica 2 since 1715, and has been known and used in 
 Europe from a short period after the discovery of America. 
 The commercial supply of the dye is from Hamatoocylin 
 campechianum, a tree belonging to the natural order Legumi- 
 nosce. It is the wood of the tree which is used, and is met in 
 commerce in the shape of large, irregular blocks. 
 
 The only other tree besides logwood in which haematoxylin 
 so far has been discovered is the Saraca indica, of the same 
 natural order. 
 
 I stated 3 before the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Nov- 
 ember, the discovery of this principle in my analysis of the 
 bark of the Saraca indica. 
 
 The Saraca indica 4 is called in India the asok or asoka 
 tree, and it is said when this tree is in full blossom, there is 
 nothing in the vegetable kingdom which affords a more beauti- 
 ful sight. Frequent mention is made of the plant in Hindoo 
 mythology, and the bark is much used by native physicians 
 in some diseases. 
 
 1 Bureau of Statistics, 1885. 2 Crookes, p. 342. 
 
 3 "On Haematoxylin in the Bark of Saraca Indica," by Helen C. De S. 
 Abbott. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, November 30, 1886. See 
 p. 171. 
 
 4 The Materia Medi-ca of the Hindus, by Udoy Chaud Dutt. Calcutta, 
 1877. 
 
206 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 I undertook the analysis of this bark at the request of Messrs. 
 Parke, Davis & Co., of Detroit, Michigan, who furnished 
 me with a liberal supply of the drug. The coloring prin- 
 ciple exists in the bark in two or more conditions, as haema- 
 toxylin and as oxidized products. The former was separated 
 as yellow crystals, analogous in form to haematoxylin crystals 
 from the true logwood. The alcoholic extract of the bark con- 
 tained about eighteen per cent, of a red-colored substance 
 which agreed in color and dye tests with like constituents 
 found in logwood. Mordanted cotton fabric was dyed with 
 haematoxylin from Saraca bark, and presented the charac- 
 teristic logwood dye colors. 
 
 The extracts of Saraca indica bark containing its coloring 
 principle were tested with various reagents, 1 and it was ob- 
 served that the reactions agreed with haematoxylin colors, 
 and in no case with those of brazilin. 
 
 The bark of the commercial logwood tree is not used for 
 extracting the dye, the wood of the tree being employed for 
 this purpose. I determined the presence of a small quantity 
 of haematoxylin in the logwood bark, and obtained with its 
 extracts the same reaction without alkalies and other reagents 
 as with the other wood extracts. But owing to the smaller 
 percentage of dye in the bark of the specimens examined, 
 the colors were less intense. In the case of the Saraca indica 
 bark, the colors were very brilliant, and certainly indicated 
 the presence of a large proportion of coloring-matter in it. 
 It would be of interest to secure specimens of the wood of 
 Saraca, in order to determine if it contains the coloring 
 principle, and should this be so, if it exists in sufficiently large 
 quantities to warrant its introduction as a new source of this 
 commercial product. 
 
 Last summer 2 I extracted from a Honduras plant, called 
 " chichipate," a yellow dye. It yielded with mordanted wool 
 fabrics, colors somewhat resembling those yielded by fustic 
 
 1 S. P. Sadtler and W. L. Rowland, Amer. Jour. Pharm., February, 
 1881. 
 
 2 "Preliminary Analysis of a Honduras Plant, named ' Chichipate.' " 
 Paper read before the A. A. A. S , at Buffalo, August, 1886. 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 207 
 
 wood. A plant l was analyzed in the laboratory of Parke, 
 Davis & Co., named Cascara amarga, from which a new alka- 
 loid, picramnine, was separated. This alkaloid is like berberin 
 in its properties. Specimens of this plant were lately forwarded 
 to me, and there is every indication of the relationship of 
 identity of " chichipate " and Cascara amarga. This incident 
 is significant as deciding by means of chemical analysis the 
 identity of plants under distinct names from different regions. 
 No analysis under the name of "chichipate" had ever been 
 published until my own report. The dyeing property of the 
 substance, chichipatin, separated from " chichipate," I think 
 is quite independent of the alkaloid, though berberin, it is 
 well known, yields yellow colors with wool. I also separated 
 a new camphor from this plant. It is crystalline, and under 
 polarized light gives a beautiful play of colors. 
 
 During the year 1886, Professor Trimble 2 separated a new 
 crystalline camphor, phloxol, from the underground portion 
 of Phlox Carolina. This substance resembles the camphor 
 found in chichipate. It is soluble in petroleum-ether, and 
 this solvent is suggested as a means of distinguishing powdered 
 Phlox Carolina from Spigelia. The latter contains no cam- 
 phor. Phlox is frequently put on the market for Spigelia. The 
 two drugs in the normal condition can be readily identified. 
 
 An estimate of the profitable ends of the chemical analysis 
 of plants may be gathered from the above statements. 
 
 Plant analysis covers a wide field, for it includes the chemistry 
 of the living and the dead plant. Its application to various 
 industries is far-reaching. 
 
 Plant analysis in this country has been called an " infant 
 industry." There are probably differences of opinion about 
 the infant needing protection. It certainly needs encourage- 
 ment and support, when its importance as a citizen is recog- 
 nized. 
 
 Plant chemistry should not only be directed towards the 
 
 1 "Cascara Amarga," by F. A. Thompson. Ther. Gazette., January 15, 
 1884, p. 8. 
 
 "An Analysis of the Underground Portion of Phlox Carolina," by Henry 
 Trimble, Amer. Jour. Phar., October, 1886, p. 479. 
 
208 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 study of new plants, but in the study of old plants it is to be 
 encouraged; for each new investigation of many well-known 
 plants has revealed new chemical principles, and given ad- 
 ditional knowledge of the old ones. We can never know to 
 what practical uses the constituents of any plants may be 
 brought, and the money value of this information should be 
 considered. 
 
 Many chemical compounds which are of the most practi- 
 cal use, now made by synthesis, were first discovered in plants, 
 products of living matter. 
 
 Synthetical chemistry has derived its knowledge from the 
 results of analytical study. Researches in plant analysis have 
 revealed many facts, though the exploration field is still 
 wide. 
 
 In our present state of knowledge, plant chemistry is a safe 
 political ground for either the Protectionist or Free-Trader. 
 The vegetable cell has placed the tariff of human penetration 
 so high, and protected so well its industry, that the plant en- 
 joys the monopoly of proteids and a magazine of other sub- 
 stances. The Free-Trader may console himself, for if he is 
 intelligent enough he can find out the processes, and start 
 his own factory, duty free. 
 
 Professor Cohn, of Breslau, tells us that it is only a question 
 of time when we may hope for the chemist to succeed in doing 
 what the simplest Algae and mosses are able to do, namely, 
 to produce starch from carbonic acid and water. On that day 
 the bread problem, which is in fact the greatest of all social 
 problems, will be solved. 
 
 It is indeed true that those organic compounds which are 
 of the most importance in the life of the plant, the hydro- 
 carbons and the albuminoids, are those which as yet have 
 not permitted the secrets of their production to be discovered. 
 
 In the future, when synthesis has accomplished this pro- 
 phecy, and the synthetical chemist reigns supreme, our coming 
 race, to my imagination, will be chemists, and our farmers 
 will manufacture our food supply of proteids, sugars, and 
 starch. The surface of the land will be one huge teeming 
 laboratory. The plants, the analytical chemist, and others of 
 
PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 209 
 
 his race, asphyxiated by their environment, will have long ago 
 passed away into a suffocating forgetfulness. 
 
 But for the present we must be satisfied to depend upon 
 our humble colleagues, the plants, for our food and beverages, 
 our fabrics, perfumes, and dyestuffs, our medicines, and other 
 things too numerous to mention. 
 
 
PLANT CHEMISTRY, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE 
 PRODUCTION OF SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 1 
 
 IN its broadest sense, a knowledge of plant chemistry com- 
 prises, at least, a general understanding of botany and physi- 
 ology, as well as of chemistry. It may be compared to a plane 
 bounded by three lines. This simple geometrical figure stands 
 for a triple theorem, from which the life-problem of the plant 
 is to be solved. 
 
 Tables of analytical data are worthless as facts unless they 
 serve for purposes of generalization, or to interpret the physi- 
 ological changes incident to growth and decay. 
 
 All parts of plants are composed of chemical bodies, and 
 are, at some period of the plant's growth, engaged in certain 
 physiological functions. Chemical processes accompany the 
 different stages of development. Daily analyses of the plant, 
 from its seed to maturity, cannot fail to acquaint the student 
 with the order of chemical succession. "Such information 
 is of equal importance to agriculture, materia medica y and 
 scientific botany." 2 
 
 I shall not attempt to discuss the chemical analysis of plants 
 in all its bearings. Its application to many of our great indus- 
 tries may be shown; but I have selected the subject of sugar, 
 from the number, for illustration. 
 
 The sugar interests of our country concern all. Pharmacy 
 needs its quota of sugar, as well for the manufacture of its 
 placebo as for disguising the taste of its bitterest drug; and 
 the sources of this supply are of special interest to the scien- 
 
 1 A lecture delivered before the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia 
 College of Pharmacy, February 8th, 1887. Printed in Proceedings of the Alumni 
 Association; also in pamphlet form, under imprint of Burk and McFetridge, 
 1887. 
 
 2 " Plant Analysis as an Applied Science," see p. 175. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 211 
 
 tist as well as to the people. I am venturing upon a field that 
 has grown more crops of dissension and contest than acres 
 of the juicy reed. I refer to the possibility of an indigenous 
 sugar supply from sorghum cane. 
 
 It may be of interest to note that almost the earliest im- 
 pulses given to the consideration of the manufacture of sugar 
 from the beet root and sorghum cane were from Philadelphia. 
 As early as the year 1836, the sugar beet was first introduced 
 into the United States by a society in this city; * and Dr. 
 Goessmann called the attention of the agricultural institutes 
 of his native country, Germany, to his own observations con- 
 cerning the nature of the juice of sorghum, made during the 
 summer season of 1857, while here. 2 
 
 Nearly three quarters of a century have been spent to develop 
 the chemical processes of the beet-sugar industry, and im- 
 provements are even now being introduced. The working of 
 sorghum juices will be found as difficult as those of beet, 
 and true success cannot be hoped for until the processes used 
 for the one are as complete and scientific as for the other. 
 It is not meant by this that the processes and machinery are 
 to be identical. 
 
 Sorghum will have to develop a chemistry of its own. This 
 will not be the work of a day or a year, but it will be accom- 
 plished sooner or later. 3 
 
 The pronounced success of the beet-sugar industries of 
 France and Germany should serve as a beacon-light to the 
 struggling and distressed manufacturers of other countries. 
 
 I wish to sketch briefly what chemistry, particularly plant 
 analysis, has done for sorghum. 
 
 Before taking up this subject in detail, it may be well to 
 state that the sources of sugar supply to the world are from 
 a few plants 4 the sugar beet, maple, sugar cane, and sor- 
 ghum. 
 
 1 Observations on the Sugar Beet and its Cultivation. Philadelphia, 1840. 
 
 2 " Sugar Cane, Sorghum Saccharatum," by Dr. C. A. Goessmann. From 
 Transactions, N. Y. State Agricultural Society, 1861. 
 
 3 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. U. S. Dept. Agr., page 43, by H. W. Wiley. 
 
 4 A fifth source of sugar supply is threatened by introducing upon the 
 
212 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 It will be unnecessary in this connection to give the history 
 of beet culture from its introduction into this country up to the 
 present time. But during 1883 an< ^ x ^^4 a ^ the beet-sugar in 
 our country was made at a factory located at Alvarado, 
 California. 1 The juice of beets raised on the estate of this 
 corporation contained 14.38 per cent, sugar, and last August 
 reached 20.5 per cent, at one time, with the "purity coefficient" 
 of 82, the usual average per cent, in Germany being from 
 12 to 13, with but one factory reaching as high as 15.6 per 
 cent. 2 The quantity of sugar produced per acre by the factory 
 has averaged about 3000 pounds. 
 
 Sugar manufactured from the beet on the Pacific coast is 
 an assured success. The climate and soil of northern Cali- 
 fornia, Oregon, and Washington Territory are especially 
 suitable to this plant. A vast range of territory in our Northern 
 States would be adapted to the cultivation of the sugar beet. 
 Scientific methods of horticulture and agriculture should be 
 resorted to, to increase the supply, for an insufficiency of 
 beets in the past, and not the defects of machinery, has been 
 the cause of failures. 
 
 An adequate supply of sugar cannot be expected from the 
 maple, nor from the sugar-cane of the South during the present 
 state of this industry. 
 
 The maple is a tree of slow growth. Only after twenty- 
 five years can it be used for sugar- making. It yields the best 
 harvest after a severe winter, and, therefore, the North is the 
 proper field for the planting of this tree. "Even if forestry 
 is successful in securing a wide increase of maple orchard, 
 it will be many years before it can affect our sugar supply." 3 
 
 The annual production of maple sugar is now about 20,000 
 tons, 4 and of molasses, 2,000,000 gallons. 
 
 market saccharine-glucose a combination of two parts of the coal-tar 
 derivative product and one thousand parts glucose, which, it is claimed, will 
 be elevated to the dignity of a genuine competitor with cane sugar. 
 
 1 "Our Sugar Supply," by H. W. Wiley. From Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. oj 
 Washington, January, 1887. 
 
 2 Overland Monthly, December, 1886. E. W. Hilgard. 
 
 3 From Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. oj Washington. 
 
 4 Bui. No. 5, Chem. Div. Dept. Agr., p. 7. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 213 
 
 The yield of sugar per tree varies from 2.5 to 5 pounds, ac- 
 cording to the season. A single tree has been known to yield 
 as much as 40 pounds of sugar. It will be seen that the average 
 yield of sugar may easily reach 200 pounds per acre. 1 
 
 The period is remote when we may hope to obtain our sugar 
 supply from the maple. This sugar will doubtlessly always 
 remain a luxury rather than an article of general consump- 
 tion. 2 
 
 Former analyses show that the yield from Louisiana cane 
 is less than from cane grown in the tropics. The future pros- 
 perity of Louisiana growers need not suffer from the poorer 
 juice, since the recent experiments at Fort Scott 3 demon- 
 strated that a given weight of cane, without noticeably increas- 
 ing the cost of manufacture, yielded thirty per cent, more by 
 the diffusion process than has ever been made before. The 
 Southern sugar industry will thrive with the encouragement of 
 a greater sugar yield, and by the introduction of more scientific 
 methods of growing and manufacture. 
 
 The following statistics will show the sugar and molasses 
 importations for the year ending June 30, i886, 4 free of duty, 
 from the Hawaiian islands : 
 
 Free of Duty. Amount. Value. 
 
 Molasses 61,1 71 gallons $7,786.00 
 
 Sugar 191,623,1 75 pounds 9,166,826.00 
 
 Total, $9,174,612.00 
 
 Dutiable. Amount. Value. 
 
 Molasses 39,018,637 gallons $5,587,884.00 
 
 Sugar 2,498,258,590 pounds 71,606,918.00 
 
 Sugar candy, etc., 23,333.00 
 
 Total $77,218,135.00 
 
 Value of all imported sugar and molasses $86,392,747.00 
 
 1 Our Sugar Supply, by H. W. Wiley, p. 20. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 8 Bui. No. 14, Ghent. Div. Dept. Agr., 1886. 
 4 Bureau oj Statistics, Treas. Dept., 1886. 
 
2i 4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The value of all imported sugars and molas- 
 ses for the year ending June 30, 1885 $76,738,719.00 
 
 For the year ending June 30, 1884, 103,884,275.00 
 
 The total value l of domestic sugars and mo- 
 lasses amounted to 43,037,409.03 
 
 The amount of money sent out of the coun- 
 try during the last year to meet the de- 
 mands of sugar consumption, was 2 135,000,000.00 
 
 If it is admitted that the prosperity of a country is shown by 
 its advance in agriculture, the onward march should be en- 
 couraged by every means in our power. 3 To establish an 
 indigenous sugar industry would add to this prosperity. An 
 idea may be obtained, from the above statistics, to what mag- 
 nitude the industry must reach before it can supply to the 
 people this necessary article of food. 
 
 The President of the Chemical Society of Washington, in 
 his annual address, 4 presented, under four headings, the 
 possible solution of the sugar problem. The general conclu- 
 sions reached were in favor of the establishment of a domestic 
 industry. 
 
 The wide range of territory and the varied climate of our 
 country render it particularly fitted for sugar production. 
 The maple and sugar beet can be grown on our lands in the 
 North. The best range of latitude for the beet in America 
 is from 38 to 44. 5 The sugar-cane plantations of the South 
 will contribute their share, and the great middle belt of our 
 vast country may be given to sorghum crops. On a broad 
 scale the northern and southern limits of this belt have been 
 already defined. 
 
 The isotherm 6 is 70 Fahrenheit for the best sorghum sugar 
 production for June, July, and August; but cane for syrup 
 
 1 Bui. No. 5, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr. 
 
 2 Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. of Washington, p. 16. 
 
 3 "Plant Analysis as an Applied Science." Franklin Institute Journal. 
 
 4 "Our Sugar Supply," by H. W. Wiley. From Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. of 
 Washington, 1887. 
 
 6 Observations on the Beet Root Sugar and Sugar Beet Culture, as adapted 
 to the United States, Chicago, 1863, p. 13. 
 8 Bui. No. 3, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr. 
 
 
 CQL1 
 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 215 
 
 will grow north of that line. It is probable that the area of 
 successful sorghum culture is not nearly so extensive as a 
 few years ago it was thought to be; * but at a comparatively 
 small expenditure the question of climate for special localities, 
 the best varieties of sorghum for planting, and other condi- 
 tions, could be tested by a chemical analysis of the plant, 
 whose juices respond as quickly to favorable or adverse con- 
 ditions as the mercury to heat and cold. 
 
 The history of the introduction of sorghum into America 
 would fill several volumes. "All the evidence goes to show 
 that China was the first country that cultivated it, and manu- 
 factured sugar; and not only were the Chinese the first, but 
 there is good reason to believe that they enjoyed its use many 
 centuries before it was generally known and used in Europe. 
 When first known it went by the name of Indian salt, and 
 under that name it was sent abroad from China to India and 
 Arabia, and thence to Rome and^Greece among the costly 
 spices, and was considered a rare luxury. The cultivation of 
 the plant gradually extended over the different countries of 
 Europe. 
 
 "For some time after the introduction of sugar into Europe, 
 it was used only on great occasions, such as feasts, and for 
 medicines; and in a different form from what it is now com- 
 monly used more like our candy. The sugar cane was first 
 brought to this country and cultivated to some extent in Louisi- 
 ana, on the very place where the city of New Orleans now 
 stands." 2 
 
 It is said that sugar marks the progress of civilization. " The 
 consumption of sugar may be taken as the index to the pros- 
 perity and refinement of the people. Those nations holding 
 first rank in wealth, intelligence, and enterprise are the great- 
 est sugar-eaters." 3 We must contest with England to hold 
 the first place in this respect. The immensely large quantities 
 of table syrup used in this country, in addition to the 56 Ibs. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. Agr., p. 43. 
 
 2 The Chinese Sugar Cane, its History, Mode of Cultivation, etc., by James 
 F. C. Hyde, N. Y., 1857. 
 
 3 "Our Sugar Supply," from Bui. No. 2, Chem. Soc. of Washington, 
 p. 32. 
 
216 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of sugar per capita, doubtless rival England with her 67 Ibs. 
 per capita, and her marmalade and jelly consumption. 
 
 Sorghum saccharatum belongs, botanically, to the Gramine, 
 or grasses, a class of plants characterized chemically by their 
 large percentage of sugars, wax, and silica. The quantity 
 of silica in sorghum is small; according to Dr. Goessmann, 
 is .0015 per cent. 
 
 The principal end for the cultivation of sorghum is for 
 sugar and molasses manufacture. Uses are still to be found 
 for many of the by-products. The profitable utilization of 
 these products would assist in lessening the cost of sugar 
 manufacture. 
 
 The disposition of the bagasse is a question of great econo- 
 mic importance. "Three uses appear to be possible, No. i 
 for paper stock; No. 2 for manure; No. 3 for fuel." 1 
 
 "The great object sought in France in the cultivation of 
 this plant is the juice contained in its stalks, which furnishes 
 three important products namely, sugar, which is identi- 
 cal with that of cane; alcohol; and a fermented drink analo- 
 gous to cider or champagne. The chaff or pellicles which cover 
 the seeds is used for dyeing silk various permanent shades of 
 red." 2 
 
 The bagasse is a valuable fodder, being sweeter than ordi- 
 nary grasses and sufficiently nutritious. The leaves of the 
 plant, removed in stripping the stalks, are much relished by 
 stock. The leaves of the sorghum have a higher nutritive 
 ratio than our grain or hay, on account of the large percent- 
 ages of sugar and albumen they contain. 3 The seeds furnish 
 good food for farm animals. Proximate analyses show that 
 this seed differs but little in composition from the other cereals, 
 and closely resembles corn. It has been reported that sorghum 
 seeds contain considerable tannin, which makes them less 
 valuable as food. It is probable that the tannin is not present 
 in the seeds themselves, at least of many varieties, but in the 
 hulls which inclose these seeds. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, Div. of Ghent. Dept. of Agr., p. 56. 
 
 2 Chinese Sugar Cane and Sugar Making, by Charles F. Stansbury. N. Y., 
 
 3 Investigation of Sorghum, by Collier. Dept. of Agr., 1883. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 217 
 
 These hulls may be readily separated from some varieties 
 of sorghum seeds and with more difficulty from others. 1 
 
 Comparative analyses of the sorghum seeds with other cereals 
 show the place which the sorghum holds among the more 
 prominent cereals. The seeds contain starch, albuminoids, 
 oil, sugar, and fibre in such proportions as to render them 
 suitable for animal food. 2 These seeds are ground to flour, 
 and are used extensively for food by the people over large 
 tracts of India. 
 
 In the experiments of Dr. Goessmann 3 upon the bagasse 
 with various chemicals, he obtained a colorless pulp suitable 
 for making a superior quality of paper without injuring the 
 fibre. From his analyses he obtained 8.2 per cent, of very pure 
 cellulose or fibre. The manufacturer would probably obtain 
 more, as he could not afford to purify it as completely as was 
 done in the analysis. The increased consumption of paper 
 has for years obliged the manufacturer to seek new sources 
 of vegetable fibre supply. Sorghum promises to furnish this 
 supply. 
 
 The pulp from the mill bagasse of the Rio Grande Sugar 
 Company, by experiment, was shown to rank next to that from 
 linen rags. 4 
 
 Several organic acids probably occur in the sorghum juice. 
 The presence of these acids may interfere seriously with the 
 successful manufacture of sugar and of clear free syrup. 
 Among them aconitic acid has been found, and also malic 
 acid. The free acids vary in amount from .1 to .2 per cent. 
 There is also acid present combined, with potash and other 
 bases found in the ash. 5 The acidity of the sorghum juice 
 is often a serious cause of failure, by inverting the sucrose. 
 After the close of the season at Fort Scott, a comparative 
 study was made of the amount of the inversion which takes 
 place in the diffusion-cells. It was clearly shown "that the 
 
 Special Report, No. 33, Dept. of Agr., by Peter Collier, p. 99. 
 Bui. No. 3, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 114. 
 
 "Sugar Cane," by Dr. C. A. Goessmann. From Transactions N. Y. 
 State Agr. Soc., 1881, p. 25. 
 
 Bui. XLI, N. J. Agr. Experimental Station, 1887, p. 23. 
 Bui. No. 3, Dept. of Agr., by H. W. Wiley, p. 16. 
 
218 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 trouble is due to acids of the cane, chiefly to those formed 
 by the partial fermentation which has produced the inversion 
 of the sugar, or else in the increased susceptibility of the su- 
 crose remaining to the inverting action of the organic acids." 1 
 
 The soluble solids, not sugar, are soluble starch and gum, 
 the acids, coloring-matters, wax, resin, and mineral sub- 
 stances. In every case where sorghum juice was tested for 
 starch it was found to be present. 2 Several coloring-matters 
 have been obtained from sorghum, sorgothine and sorghine 
 from the covering of the fruit, and also a red dye from the cane 
 itself. 3 
 
 Since the ash constituents of a sugar-producing plant inter- 
 fere with its highest yield of sugar, we find that sorghum is 
 superior in this respect to the sugar beet, for its average total 
 ash amounts to .62132 per cent.; and the sugar beet reaches 
 1.3 per cent. 4 
 
 From these analyses it is seen that the sugar beet contains 
 nearly twice as much ash as the stalk of sorghum. 5 
 
 The presence of large quantities of the alkalies in sugar 
 juice is also unfavorable to the production of sugar. Hence, 
 in selecting localities for growing crops, it is very important 
 to obtain a soil free from such substances. 
 
 The character and composition of the soil best adapted to 
 the cultivation of sorghum for sugar production are obviously 
 matters of fundamental importance. 
 
 A sandy loam appears to be the most favorable soil for cane. 6 
 
 Comparative analyses were made on the sorghum to show 
 the effects of fertilizers on the sucrose, glucose, and solids in 
 the juice. In these experiments it was found that the soil must 
 have contained sufficient food for the proper development of 
 the sorghum plant, and that the addition of these special fer- 
 tilizers was unnecessary, and resulted in no marked change 
 in the composition of the sorghum juices. 7 These results 
 
 Bui. No. 14, p. 27. 2 Bui. No. 3, p. 16. 
 
 Matures Premieres Organiques, par Pennetier, pp. 480-509. 
 
 Bui. No. 3, p. 17. 6 Ibid. 
 
 Ibid., p. 44. 
 
 Dept. of Agr., Special Rep. No. 33, by Peter Collier, Chemist. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 219 
 
 do not prove that on certain soils, which are deficient in one 
 or more essential constituents of plant-food, that the addition 
 of proper fertilizers will not be of great value. 
 
 "The analysis of the ash, taken with that of the soil, is a 
 good guide for the application of mineral fertilizers. Sorghum 
 is a very much less rapacious potash and phosphoric acid 
 consumer than the sugar beet." 1 
 
 The importance of this statement about potash is obvious, 
 when it is remembered that alkalies seriously interfere with 
 the successful manufacture of sugar. 
 
 Many interesting facts about sorghum may be culled from 
 the earlier reports of the Agricultural Department. 
 
 From comparative analyses of different parts of the stalk 
 of the sorghum, it appears that the amount of juice present 
 in the upper and lower halves does not vary widely. Hence, 
 the practice of cutting the stalk several inches above the ground 
 involves a large waste of sugar. 2 
 
 Analyses of the stalk and leaves show that the stripping 
 of the cane diminished the quantity of the juice, but increased 
 its quality, although there is no available sugar in the juice 
 of the leaves, owing to the larger percentage of other solids 
 than glucose. 3 
 
 Experiments at the Rio Grande Station were conducted : 
 
 "No. i. To compare mill juice from unstripped cane with 
 diffusion juice from thoroughly cleaned stalks. 
 
 "No. 2. To compare the diffusion juice from stripped and 
 unstripped sorghum. 
 
 "The results were as follows: 
 
 "No. i. Eighty-nine per cent, of the total sugar in the cane 
 was secured by diffusion. Forty-eight per cent, of the total 
 sugar in the cane was secured by milling. Milled products, 
 therefore, must be increased by eighty-four per cent, in order 
 to equal diffusion products. 
 
 "No. 2. Diffusion juices from stripped cane excelled mill 
 juices in concentration, color, taste, and purity. Diffusion 
 
 1 Dept. of Agr., Chem. Div. Bui. No. 3, p. 19. 
 
 2 Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., Report, 1883, Collier, p. 30. 
 
 3 Report, 1883, Collier, p. 30. 
 
220 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 juices from unstripped cane are inferior to mill juice in all of 
 these respects. 
 
 "As a result of these experiments, it was claimed that 
 leaves, leaf-sheaths, and seed were the chief obstacles to the 
 introduction of diffusion. This claim was admitted by Mr. 
 Potts, and Mr. Hughes was directed to construct his strip- 
 ping machine." 1 
 
 "A further fact, which is illustrated by the analyses of the 
 diffusion juices from uninjured canes is, that the diminished 
 purity is produced solely by the extraction of gum and chloro- 
 phyll, chiefly from the blades and sheaths, and that this 
 injury can be avoided by a proper cleaning of the canes." 2 
 
 From tables of comparative analyses, showing the average 
 composition for each variety of sorghum in every stage of its 
 growth, it is seen that "in the earlier stages in the growth of 
 each plant, the amount of crystallizable sugar is small, but 
 as the plants mature, the sucrose rapidly increases, until it 
 equals from twelve to sixteen per cent, of juice. The solids, 
 not sugar, in the juice also increase from the first, but very 
 much less rapidly than does the crystallizable sugar; at the 
 same time, the glucose steadily diminishes." 3 
 
 The habits of some varieties of sorghum and their demands 
 upon climate and soil are almost identical with those of the 
 several varieties of maize, and yet there appears to be, in cer- 
 tain respects, marked differences. The sorghums, as a class, 
 are capable of sustaining a period of drought which would prove 
 fatal to maize. 4 
 
 The root system of sorghum renders it peculiarly adapted 
 to growing upon poorer lands than other kinds of crops, es- 
 pecially if the subsoil is sufficiently rich in nutritive matter to 
 give to the plant its needed food supply. 
 
 The chemical analyses of the sorghum may be made from 
 the expressed juice or directly from the cane. Numerous 
 investigations have been conducted in both ways. 
 
 1 Bui. XLI, 1887, p. 4. 2 Bui. 14, p. 40. 
 
 8 Spec. Rep. No. 33, Dept. of Agr., 1881, p. n. 
 
 4 Investigation of Sorghum as a Sugar-producing Plant, Dept. of Agr. 
 Peter Collier. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 221 
 
 The relative value of the juice of any sugar-producing 
 plant depends upon the ratio of crystallizable sugar or sucrose 
 to the other sugars or solids which it contains. The great in- 
 feriority of sorghum, as a sucrose-producing plant, as com- 
 pared with the sugar beet, is in the fact that it contains sugars 
 which are not sucrose. These sugars are not crystallizable 
 in the ordinary way. The general term glucose has been ap- 
 plied to them. 
 
 The chief one of these "other sugars" present does not 
 affect the plane of polarized light. Dr. Wiley proposes to call 
 it anoptosej a term wlu'ch signifies a sugar without influence 
 on the polarized ray. 1 
 
 In normal ripe sorghum cane, sucrose and anoptose are 
 probably the only sugars present. If the cane is abnormal or 
 exposed for a time after cutting, or frost-bitten, the sucrose 
 undergoes a transformation. It is converted into invert sugar, 
 which is non-crystallizable. 2 
 
 The expression of available sugar means "the proportion 
 of sugar which can be obtained in a dry crystallized form 
 from the canes. Its amount depends on the percentage of 
 juice extracted from the canes, and the ratio of sucrose to 
 the other bodies in the juice." 3 
 
 The " coefficient of purity" 4 is the ratio per cent, of the total 
 sucrose in a juice to the total solids. Juices having an average 
 "purity coefficient" less than sixty will scarcely prove profit- 
 able for sugar manufacture. They will, however, make good 
 syrup. 
 
 Sorghum has proved to be the most capricious of crops. 
 In the late experiments at Fort Scott, analyses of different 
 canes presented the widest differences, and with such raw 
 material it was found to be impossible, successfully, to manu- 
 facture sugar. 
 
 However, it must not be inferred, from these discouraging 
 analyses, that sorghum is not capable of becoming a good 
 sugar-producing plant. Many samples of cane brought fresh 
 
 1 Bui. No. 3, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 15. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 15. 3 Ibid., p. 20. 
 4 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
222 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 from the fields, or from protected parts of piles of cane 
 kept for a day, showed a remarkably high percentage of 
 sugar. 
 
 On September 30th, 1 a sample of cane from the carrier 
 showed : 
 
 Sucrose I2 -39 per cent. 
 
 Glucose 3.76 " 
 
 Total solids 17.80 " 
 
 Available sugar 6.98 " 
 
 Such cane would yield 140 Ibs. of sugar per ton. 
 
 An October cane gave an average of 176.6 Ibs. of sugar 
 per ton. Dozens of samples of cane during the season would 
 have given over 100 Ibs. of sugar per ton. When it is remem- 
 bered that sorghum cane can be grown and delivered at the 
 factory for $2.00 a ton, the importance of these figures cannot 
 be overestimated. If sorghum can be produced which will con- 
 tain 5 per cent, of available sugar from the whole crop, the 
 future of the industry is a most promising one. 
 
 Until the variations of the percentage of sucrose in the juice 
 can be controlled, sorghum cannot be considered a profitable 
 crop for sugar production. 
 
 The tendency of sorghum cane is to undergo rapid change. 
 This changeable disposition of the sorghum, as compared to the 
 sugar beet, and even to the tropical cane, is a serious fault. To 
 overcome this characteristic of sorghum will require the most 
 scientific agriculture and the researches of chemistry. Special 
 experiments should be undertaken, which have in view the 
 increase of the ratio of the sucrose to the other substances of 
 the juice. "The great trouble is in the remarkable variation 
 of the quantity of sugar in a field of sorghum plants. No esti- 
 mate of the total yield can be gathered from the examination 
 of one plant, as others in its immediate neighborhood might 
 be found to be radically different. The obtaining of a uniform 
 standard of high sucrose production by the sorghum cane will 
 possibly take scientists years to accomplish." 2 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, p. 15. 
 
 2 H. W. Wiley, The Eighth Annual Meeting of the National Sugar Growers' 
 Association. St. Louis, Feb. 8th, 1887. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 223 
 
 In the report for 1884, on the Northern Sugar Industry, 1 
 the chemist in charge summed up the necessary conditions 
 for a future success of the sorghum industry. 
 
 1. A careful selection and improvement of the seed with 
 a view of increasing the proportions of sucrose. 
 
 2. A definition of geographical limits of successful culture 
 and manufacture. 
 
 3. A better method of purifying juices. 
 
 4. A more complete separation of the sugar from the 
 canes. 
 
 5. A more complete separation of the sugar from the mo- 
 lasses. 
 
 6. A systematic utilization of by-products. 
 
 7. A careful nutrition and improvement of the soil. 
 Sorghum juice is specially fitted for the manufacture of an 
 
 excellent grade of syrup. There is no danger, should this 
 indigenous sugar industry grow to the proportions neces- 
 sary to supply the people with sugar, that our land would be 
 overloaded with an excess of molasses production. By suitable 
 methods this molasses might be used for distilling alcohol. 
 This would constitute an important part of the profit of the 
 sugar house. In France, distilleries are connected with the 
 beet-sugar factories. In the case of the alcohol from beets, 
 it is not fitted for the manufacture of beverages ; and such 
 alcohol may be used in the arts. It has been suggested, that 
 a similar use be made of the alcohol from sorghum, and that 
 it be distilled and sold free of taxation. 2 
 
 It is well, known that sorghum has been successfully and 
 profitably grown for the production of an excellent syrup. 
 But the problem which is now placed before us is to obtain 
 a crystallizable sugar from the juice which will compete suc- 
 cessfully with other sugars in the market. 
 
 The solution of this question will probably depend upon 
 advances to be made in plant chemistry. The following lines 
 of investigation are suggested : 
 
 i. To secure the increase and constancy of the percentage 
 
 1 Bui. No. 3, Ghent. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 107. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 1 1 8. 
 
224 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of sugar or sucrose would need a happy choice of location, 
 successful cultivation, and wise selection of the best seeds. 
 
 2. After cutting the cane, to counteract the instability which 
 inverts the sucrose into non-crystallizable sugar before it is 
 subjected to any process of extraction. 
 
 3. To determine the most favorable mechanical and chemi- 
 cal processes for obtaining the largest production of dry sugar 
 from this juice. 
 
 4. To utilize profitably the by-products. 
 
 I stated a few weeks since: * "It seems to me that the re- 
 finements of plant analysis are destined to play an important 
 part in this connection. Chemical analysis of chosen seeds 
 would insure a wise selection for planting. Analysis of the 
 cane and juice would show the results of experimental culture. 
 For experiment, the proportional constituents of the soil may 
 be varied, to determine if the proportion of chemical constitu- 
 ents of the cane, detrimental or favorable to the production 
 of a richer juice, may be controlled. 
 
 "Analysis would show what external chemical conditions 
 are requisite to insure a vigorous growth; and if upon this 
 depends a larger sugar yield, series of experiments, at different 
 stages of growth, undertaken to discover the chemical processes 
 attending growth, maturing, and ripening of the canes, under 
 experimental conditions, are necessary to be known by the 
 chemical representative of the producer. 
 
 "Plant chemistry, in applying this knowledge to practical 
 agricultural ends, will fulfill a high aim. It may be suggested, 
 as a w r orthy object of agricultural experiment, to discover what 
 parts of the residual sorghum and cane, after the sugar ex- 
 traction, may serve a practical end." 
 
 Among the most successful experiments on sorghum, have 
 been those conducted in Italy, a report of which is made by 
 the Italian Minister of Agriculture. 2 The sorghum plants 
 seem to thrive there better than in this country, and the per- 
 centage of sugar from the canes reached as high as twenty- 
 
 1 "Plant Analysis as an Applied Science." Lecture before the Franklin 
 Institute, Philadelphia, Jan. i7th, 1887. Seep. 175. 
 
 2 Annali di Agricultures. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 225 
 
 six, a month after cutting, which might be partly due to the 
 concentration by evaporation. 
 
 No statement is made as to how the canes were preserved 
 so long, but they were probably placed underground. 
 
 Experiments at the station in Washington 1 were conducted 
 by the chemist in charge, to preserve cane in the same man- 
 ner as beets are kept. The sorghum canes were placed in a 
 shallow ditch, and covered with earth. In January, when the 
 ground was frozen, the silo was opened, the cane, from analysis, 
 yielding 8.39 per cent, sucrose. The next analysis of the cane 
 was made after the winter was practically over. There was 
 a small loss of sucrose, and the yield showed 7 per cent. 
 Sorghum is preserved in silos in Japan. 2 
 
 The crude juice of the sugar beet is a very unpromising 
 product, but the processes are so perfected that nearly all 
 the juice is worked up into crystallizable sugar. Mr. Hilgard 
 states that "the juice of the sugar beet is in the same cases 
 the least pure of sugar-producing plants. To obtain pure 
 sugars from such a raw material requires the confidence of a 
 chemist in the resources of his science, and the solution of the 
 problem stands as one of the most striking instances of the 
 utility of apparently recondite research in developing latent 
 resources for industrial uses." 3 
 
 The cells of the sorghum cane are grouped together like 
 a honeycomb. The sugar, which is held in a state of solution, 
 is contained within the cellular tissue. Dr. Wiley states, 4 
 "The idea that sugar exists in the cane in a crystalline form 
 is contrary to all rules of chemical physics and accurate 
 observation." 
 
 A process of extracting the sugar from sugar-producing plants 
 is based upon taking advantage of the natural condition of 
 things as they exist in the plants, and the application of the 
 theory of osmose. 
 
 This process, known as diffusion, is the "spontaneous mixing 
 
 1 Bui. No. 3, p. 78, by H. W. Wiley. 
 
 2 From a Report of Consul-General Van Buren. 
 
 8 The Beet Sugar Industry in California, by E. W. Hilgard, Dec. 1886. 
 4 Bui. No. 2, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 5. 
 
226 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of two liquids of different nature, density, or temperature, in- 
 dependent of chemical action upon one another." 1 More 
 exactly it is a molecular force. 2 
 
 Practically, diffusion is the means by which all solid con- 
 tents are extracted from the cells. The water used for the dif- 
 fusion enters the cells of the cane and leaves it charged with 
 soluble solids. The end of the operation obtains when the 
 fluid within these cells is of the same density as the sur- 
 rounding medium. 
 
 The advantages of diffusion over the older methods of mill- 
 ing, to extract the juice of sugar-producing plants, will be seen 
 from the statement that 95 per cent, of the sugar present can 
 be secured by the new method, 3 whilst the old processes gave 
 only 50. 
 
 The method of diffusion is used in the beet-sugar factories 
 of Europe with marked success. The late experiments at Fort 
 Scott, applying this process to sorghum cane, resulted in a 
 marked success for extracting the juice. From the diffusion 
 experiments with sugar-cane, it was found that the yield of 
 sugar was the highest ever obtained from sugar-cane. 4 By this 
 same process a larger percentage of sugar was yielded than 
 that from the richer tropical cane with the old methods. 
 
 The marked cellular character of the sorghum adapts it 
 to the process of diffusion more readily than is the case with 
 the sugar beet. 
 
 It may be of interest briefly to describe the process of 
 diffusion, and the subsequent methods of defecation and 
 carbonatation employed in these experiments. 5 
 
 The cane is cut and transported from the field to the fac- 
 tory, where, by means of carriers, it is conveyed to the cut- 
 ters. 
 
 In the case of sorghum, it should be cleaned of its blades 
 
 1 Manuel Pratique de Diffusion, par Fleury et Lemaine. 
 
 2 Dubrunfault. 
 
 8 Bui. No. 8, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 15. From Bui. No. 2, Chem. 
 Soc. of Washington, p. 29, by H. W. Wiley. 
 
 4 Bui. No. 14, p. 51. 
 
 6 The machinery used in the manufacture of sugar from the beet-root and 
 sorghum was shown by lantern projections. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 227 
 
 and sheath before being submitted to the cutting machine. 
 The cane leaves the cutters in small chips ready to fill the dif- 
 fusion battery, which is composed of vessels technically called 
 cells, of various sizes; those at Fort Scott 1 held 1900 pounds 
 of chips, and had a capacity of 75 cubic feet each. 
 
 These cells may be disposed in a row or in a circular arrange- 
 ment as is usual in the beet-sugar factories abroad. The cells 
 are connected by means of pipes for the passage of water 
 from tanks to the cells of the battery, and for the flow of water 
 from cell to cell. Calorisators for heating are connected with 
 the cells, and an apparatus for compressed air to drive the 
 water from the chips when the process is over. The best tem- 
 perature for sorghum diffusion is about 70 Centigrade, 2 and 
 for sugar-cane 90 Centigrade. 3 
 
 The cells are filled with the chips from above by an opening 
 in the top, and when the diffusion is over they are removed 
 by opening a discharge gate of the diameter of the cell at its 
 bottom. This door is held firmly in place, during the extrac- 
 tion, by an hydraulic joint of circular rubber tubing, the 
 pressure within the tube being greater than within the cell. 
 
 The flow of water through the cell is controlled by pressure, 
 and passes from the cell first filled to the last one of the battery. 
 The water enters the first cell by means of a valve from below, 
 and is turned off, when it overflows, from an air valve above. 
 The pipes are reversed, and fresh water driven in from above 
 cell i, to displace its contents of saccharine liquid, which 
 then flows below into cell 2, as the fresh water originally passed 
 into cell i from the bottom upwards. This process is continual, 
 making a complete system of displacement, the water as it 
 passes from cell to cell becoming more dense. Whilst the last 
 cell is filling, cell i is emptied of the chips and refilled with a 
 fresh charge. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that in a battery of 14 cells all in 
 operation, 12 cells would be under pressure and one filling 
 and the other emptying. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., by H. W. Wiley, p. 9. 
 3 Ibid., p. 40. 
 Ibid., p. 45. 
 
228 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The fluid from the diffusion cell is placed in tanks for de- 
 fecation with lime, which is added in the amount of 1.5 per 
 cent, for sorghum; l though .75 per cent, has been found 
 ample in the case of juice from the sugar-cane. 2 
 
 Much of the albuminoid and non-sugar organic substances 
 are carried down, and the sugar forms a soluble lime sucrate. 
 Carbonic acid is then pumped in, and the lime is precipitated, 
 and with it further impurities. This process of single carbona- 
 tation was found to work better with sorghum juice than 
 double carbonatation. 3 
 
 The contents of the tanks are then carried to filter presses, 
 and the clear juice recovered from the lime cake. This juice 
 is partially evaporated, and then whilst hot put through bone- 
 black filters. The final evaporation of juice is conducted in 
 vacuum pans and its crystallization ends the process. 
 
 Among the difficulties to be overcome in this process is the 
 acidity of the chips in the diffusion cells. This will cause a 
 loss from inversion of the sucrose and a greatly diminished 
 yield of crystallizable sugar. The high temperature needed 
 for the diffusion will aid in bringing about a lil$.e result when 
 the canes are not in proper condition. 4 
 
 Various means were tried to prevent this inversion. It is 
 probable that fine carbonate of lime, if sprinkled over the 
 chips before they enter the battery, may obviate the diffi- 
 culty. 5 
 
 The addition of lime to the water tanks which supply the 
 diffusion cells was not favorable for the full extraction of the 
 sugar. Analysis showed 2 per cent, less of sugar in this juice. 
 The loss was probably induced by the coagulation of the 
 albumin of the cane cells. 8 
 
 The addition of milk of lime and sulphurous acid 7 to the 
 juice has a preservative effect, and juice so treated may be 
 kept unchanged for months. 
 
 Among the reasons advanced for the process of carbonatation 
 may be mentioned that it does away with skimming the juices. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 54. 2 Ibid., p. 54. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 25. * Ibid., p. 28. 6 Ibid., p. 32. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 20. 7 Bui. No. 3, pp. 96, 97. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 229 
 
 From analysis of the scum the quantity of the sugar in it was 
 found to be equal to that of the juice. 1 Thus a source of waste 
 is prevented. 
 
 The maximum yield of sugar can be obtained from car- 
 bonization, but it is fatal to the manufacture of molasses, as 
 it darkens too much the juice. But Dr. Wiley has suggested a 
 modification of the process, which, he believes, will prevent 
 this difficulty. 2 
 
 From the last " Chemical Bulletin of the Agricultural De- 
 partment," 3 published since the Fort Scott experiments, 
 the chemist in charge, in a general review of the work, points 
 to the "absolute failure of the experiments to demonstrate 
 the commercial practicability of manufacturing sorghum 
 sugar." Among the causes of this failure he mentions: 
 
 "i. Defective machinery for cutting the cane and for ele- 
 vating and cleaning the chips and for removing exhausted 
 chips. 
 
 "2. The deterioration of the cane, due to much of it be- 
 coming over ripe, but chiefly to the fact that time would gener- 
 ally elapse after the canes were cut before they reached the 
 diffusion batteries. 
 
 "3. The deteriorated cane caused a considerable inver- 
 sion of the sucrose in the battery an inversion which was 
 increased by the delay in furnishing chips, owing to the de- 
 fects of machinery." 
 
 The chemist in charge of these experiments states that he 
 should be glad to "leave this industry in a more promising 
 condition. All admit that the process of diffusion has been 
 successfully worked out." And to this opinion Dr. Wiley 
 subscribed, "with the reservation that a proper mechanical 
 method for distributing over the chips a substance to prevent 
 inversion of the sucrose has not yet been discovered." 
 
 There is a difference of opinion as to the best method of 
 treating the diffusion juices. Some method of purification by 
 carbonatation or other means, may easily be decided on. But 
 
 1 Bui. No. 5, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 57. 
 
 2 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., p. 40. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
2 3 o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 it was shown at Rio Grande that the juice from clean cane 
 can be worked without purification. 
 
 "Last of all, the chief thing to be accomplished is the pro- 
 duction of a sorghum plant containing a reasonably constant 
 percentage of crystallizable sugar." l 
 
 The above statement appears to be where the sorghum 
 industry rests for a solution of the problem. 
 
 "The universal experience of practical manufacturers 
 shows that the average constitution of the sorghum cane is far 
 inferior to that indicated in many of the tables of analyses." 2 
 
 " Taking the means of several seasons as a sure basis of com- 
 putation, it can now be said that the juices of the sorghum 
 as they come from the mill do not contain over 10 per cent, 
 of sucrose; whilst the percentage of other solids in solution 
 is at least 4. It is needless to say to a practical sugar-maker 
 that the working of such a juice is one of extreme difficulty, 
 and the output of sugar is necessarily small. 3 
 
 "It is true the present outlook is discouraging; but dis- 
 couragement is not defeat. The time has now come for solid, 
 energetic work. Science and practice must join improved 
 agriculture, and all together can accomplish what neither 
 alone would ever be able to achieve." 4 
 
 The beet-sugar factory at Alvarado makes money with a 
 competition of free cane sugar imported from the Hawaiian 
 Islands under the one-sided reciprocity treaty now in force. 
 
 As this is so, there seems to be no reason why sorghum 
 should not compete with other sugars when its physiology and 
 chemistry have become better known. 
 
 Compelled now to accept the fact that there is no sound 
 scientific expectation for the immediate success financially 
 of the production of sugar from sorghum, we are only the more 
 compelled to mark the present difficulties, and point out, as 
 I have done, the lines of research that will finally enable the 
 problem of an indigenous sugar supply to be safely solved. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 14, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr.,, p. 42. 
 
 2 Bui. No. 5, Chem. Div. Dept. of Agr., 1885. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 185. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 187. 
 
SUGAR FROM SORGHUM 231 
 
 Years of struggle preceded the final success of the best sugar 
 production, made possible only by the persevering investiga- 
 tions of chemists supported by the determination of the French 
 Government to prevent the admission of foreign sugars. The 
 full profitable employment of the beet-sugar factories of Europe 
 and jthe financial success of the one enterprise in California, 
 all warrant the hope of our establishing an indigenous sugar 
 industry from sorghum as well. By means of scientific dis- 
 covery carried on if requisite at experimental stations sup- 
 ported by Government aid, or if undertaken commercially 
 by private enterprises aided by full protection or an adequate 
 system of bounties, the final result will be reached, and we 
 shall save the millions now sent abroad for sugar, and estab- 
 lish our independence in this particular of the rest of the world. 
 
 It is not meant that the sorghum growers should profit at 
 the expense of other sugar growers. It has been indicated 
 that our great country can grow several kinds of sugar crops. 
 Each is to contribute its share. "There should be no enmity 
 between the grower of sorghum, the sugar beet, and the sugar- 
 cane, but all should work in harmony for the general good." 1 
 
 It will be observed that I have not attempted to give a his- 
 tory of the sorghum enterprise, nor to dwell upon the evolu- 
 tion of the mechanical or chemical methods which have cost 
 so much time and money with so little success. The very 
 latest series of experiments of diffusion and its chemistry as 
 conducted under the direction of the chemist of the Agricul- 
 tural Bureau himself, at Fort Scott, is placed at your service, 
 and the failure to solve the sugar problem but increases the 
 duties of students of plant chemistry, whose researches and 
 faithful studies will alone make it possible to surmount many 
 of these difficulties, we trust in the near future. 
 
 1 Bui. No. 5, p. 187. 
 
THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS l 
 
 THE boundary between the mineral and vegetable kingdom 
 is not a definite line. The individual of the one encroaches upon 
 the dominion of the other. The terms " non-living'' and "living 
 matter" are only relatively accurate. "Nature in all its mani- 
 festations constitutes a unity," . . . and "all matter is in a 
 sense living." 2 
 
 Through chemical evolution a condition of matter obtains 
 favorable for functional activity or life. This state may be de- 
 scribed 3 "as a colloidal albuminoid united with more or less 
 water." Its simplest expression is found in the low forms of 
 plants, slime-mould for example. This colloidal basis of life 
 is protoplasm, a chemical compound of complex constitution, 
 very unstable, and manifesting when alive certain properties 
 called vital, or "biotic." 4 
 
 Active chemical changes are inseparably associated with both 
 living and dead protoplasm. Synthetical or progressive pro- 
 cesses prevail in life, analytical or retrogressive in death. 
 
 Absorption, metabolism, excretion, reproduction, contrac- 
 tility, automatism, and irritability are the properties of living 
 matter; disorganization and dissociation those of dead matter. 
 
 Chemists have to discover the subtle differences between the 
 chemical equation of living and dead protoplasm. 
 
 I wish to speak of some of the chemical compounds of plants, 
 or more properly the chemical forms, since the structure of all 
 plants is built up of chemical constituents. This subject is as 
 extensive as the genera and species of the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 Last August, I read a paper on " Certain Chemical Con- 
 
 1 A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, January 24, 1887. 
 Printed in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, September, 1887; also re- 
 printed in pamphlet form, Philadelphia, 1887. 
 
 2 Mineral Physiology and Physiography, by T. Sterry Hunt. Boston, 1886, 
 p. 18. 3 Ibid. * Dr. T. Sterry Hunt. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 233 
 
 stituents of Plants considered in Relation to their Morphology 
 and Evolution." L The facts cited tended to show a chemical 
 progression in plants, and a mutual dependence between chem- 
 ical constituents and change of form. 
 Among the conclusions reached were the following: 
 
 1. A similarity of one or more chemical constituents is to 
 be found in all plants which are equally developed, and on the 
 same evolutionary plane. 
 
 2. The evolution of chemical constituents follows parallel 
 lines with the evolutionary course of plant forms, the one 
 being intimately connected with the other, and consequently 
 chemical constituents are indicative of the height of the scale 
 of progression, and are essentially appropriate for a basis of 
 botanical classification; in other words, the theory of evolu- 
 tion in plant life is best illustrated by the chemical constituents 
 of vegetable forms. 
 
 Chemistry will aid us to comprehend the laws of evolution 
 controlling plant forms. Evolution should also apply to chem- 
 ical compounds as well as to morphology, since the latter can 
 be shown to depend upon chemistry in general. 
 
 We have no certain knowledge of the precise chemical changes 
 which take place in transforming carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
 nitrogen, sulphur and other elements into the starches and 
 proteids. We know, however, certainly the necessary condi- 
 tions for many of these changes. The law controlling the ab- 
 solute relation, or the connective link, between the form of a 
 plant and its chemical composition is undetermined. But in- 
 vestigations in plant chemistry have not been conducted with 
 this end in view. The facts which I have to offer, to sustain the 
 theory of a possible relation between plant forms and chemical 
 compounds, may seem to some inadequate, but no other expla- 
 nation than the one offered to account for these statements has 
 been suggested. 
 
 The chemical composition of the cell-contents and wall has 
 been determined in many plants; also of their roots, leaves, 
 flowers, and fruits. 
 
 1 Chem. Section A. A. A. Science, Buffalo, 1886. Abstract, Botanical Gazette, 
 xi, No. 10, October, 1886. See p. 168. 
 
234 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Most of the ash- constituents essential or injurious to the 
 growth and development of plants are known, and also the va- 
 riations in growth caused by the presence or absence of certain 
 inorganic compounds. 
 
 The chemical changes through which many plants pass from 
 the germination of their seed to maturity and decay are also 
 known, each separate stage of growth showing a distinct chem- 
 ical composition or a predominance of some one chemical com- 
 pound. 
 
 It should be especially noted that some chemical compounds 
 occur in certain species of plants and do not occur in others. 
 Certain classes of compounds are found widely distributed 
 through the plant kingdom, accompanied by correlated mor- 
 phological characters. Some one compound, as saponin, will 
 be found with similar botanical characters in plants of distinct 
 genera and families, on the same plane of evolution or devel- 
 opment. 
 
 It cannot be the result of accident that cinchona and related 
 plants contain, quinine; and other plants, distributed through 
 the vegetable kingdom, their own typical compounds. Nor can 
 it be the result of accident, or changes produced by climate 
 or other causes, that an absence of some one or more com- 
 pounds is accompanied by a modification of the exterior of 
 the plant. 
 
 Before taking up the consideration of the above statements 
 in detail, it may be well to study briefly two properties 1 of liv- 
 ing protoplasm, namely, absorption and metabolism. 
 
 The seeds of plants are the storehouses of a certain amount 
 of latent energy or life, elaborated by the parent plant and 
 stored up in the form of complex chemical compounds. Under 
 suitable conditions of warmth and moisture, certain chemical 
 changes take place within the seed. The latent energy becomes 
 active, and the seedling grows, feeding upon its food supply 
 until it has exhausted its store. 
 
 At this stage the little plant must seek its food from without, 
 from the atmosphere and the soil. The soil is of varying and 
 complex composition, containing, between its particles, gases 
 
 1 Lectures on the Physiology of Plants, by S. H. Vines. Cambridge, 1886. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 235 
 
 and moisture. The air which surrounds the leaves of land plants 
 is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen with small quantities of 
 carbon-dioxide, ammonia, varying quantities of aqueous vapor, 
 and occasionally traces of nitric acid. 
 
 The elements from these media are absorbed by different 
 parts of the plant, and there is a difference in the manner of 
 absorption by fungi, parasites, air plants, and green plants. 
 However, the elements which are absolutely essential for the 
 nutrition and maintenance of the life of all plants are carbon, 
 hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, 
 calcium, magnesium, iron, in the case of green plants, and, in 
 certain cases, chlorine. 
 
 It is characteristic of plants that they must absorb their food 
 in the fluid form. The absorbent organs of plants are the roots, 
 for water and salts in solution, and the leaves, for gases. In the 
 lower plants, where there are no roots or leaves, water or sub- 
 stances in solution and gases are absorbed either directly by 
 the cells of the thallus, or by root hairs. Among the higher 
 plants, the root hairs and the uncuticularized epidermal cells 
 of the younger roots are active in absorbing material from the 
 soil. Any part of the plant, if immersed in water, will absorb a 
 smaller or a larger quantity of it; as, for instance, cut flowers 
 placed with their cut ends in water will absorb, for a time, suffi- 
 cient to prevent withering. The absorption of gases in higher 
 plants is by means of the leaves, for it has been found that car- 
 bon-dioxide is absorbed from the air by those organs which are 
 green and contain chlorophyll ; and in experiments where the 
 carbon- dioxide of the air was cut off from the leaves, though it 
 was supplied to the roots, it was found that the plant could not' 
 live long. It has also been found that the presence of carbon- 
 dioxide in another part of the plant does not contribute to the 
 formation of starch in the leaves. 
 
 Green plants obtain their carbon from the carbon-dioxide of 
 the air. Plants which do not contain chlorophyll obtain their 
 carbon by the absorption of complex organic substances. Green 
 plants can absorb complex carbon compounds, and it has been 
 proved by direct experiment that they can take up these com- 
 plex substances when supplied to their roots. 
 
236 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Darwin * has shown that the insectivorous plants, by means 
 of their modified leaves, absorb complex compounds, and that 
 these are of importance in their nutrition. Flies and other small 
 insects may often be found clasped in the tentacles of the 
 Drosera, and in those experiments small pieces of meat, when 
 placed on the leaves, were dissolved after a time by the secre- 
 tions of the leaf glands and absorbed. 
 
 Hydrogen is absorbed by all plants in combination in the 
 form of water or ammonia and its compounds, or in the com- 
 plex substances mentioned above. 
 
 Oxygen is taken up by plants, free or in combination in water 
 or in salts. The free oxygen is especially concerned in destruc- 
 tive metabolic processes. The large quantities of this gas ab- 
 sorbed by plants, and especially by fungi, show conclusively 
 its consumption in metabolic processes. 
 
 The process known as the respiration of plants is the absorp- 
 tion of oxygen and the exhalation of carbon-dioxide. 
 
 The researches of Garreau 2 show that two distinct processes 
 are in operation when leaves are exposed to the light : in the one 
 oxygen is absorbed and carbon-dioxide is exhaled; in the other, 
 carbon-dioxide is absorbed and oxygen is exhaled. When the 
 leaves are exposed to a very bright sunlight, carbon-dioxide is 
 absorbed and oxygen is exhaled, and the activity of these pro- 
 cesses is so much greater than the absorption of oxygen and the 
 exhalation of carbon-dioxide, that it appears as if the former 
 only were in operation. 
 
 Gases, like solids, can be assimilated only in solution, and as 
 they are soluble in water, the cell walls of submerged plants 
 may absorb them, and the sap near the surface of land plants 
 will dissolve the gases from the atmosphere. The sap of plants 
 contains, in solution, carbon-dioxide, oxygen, and also a certain 
 amount of free nitrogen. That this nitrogen does not enter into 
 the metabolism of the plant seems completely decided by the 
 experiments 3 of Lawes, Gilbert, and Pugh; but the more recent 
 experiments of Atwater 4 and Hellriegel 5 should be compared 
 
 1 Insectivorous Plants. 2 Ann. d. Sci. Nat., ser. 3, t. xv. 
 
 3 Phil. Trans., 1860. 4 Amer. Chem. Jour., viii, Nos. 5 and 6. 
 
 5 Zeit. d. Ver. j. d. Rubenzucker Industrie, Nov., 1886. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 237 
 
 in this connection, and the matter cannot be said to be definitely 
 settled. 
 
 I can only enumerate in this connection, without going into 
 the subject, the possible sources 1 of the nitrogen supply: 
 
 1. Organic, nitrogenous matter. 
 
 2. The ammonia of the air, and of the ocean. 
 
 3. The nitrous and nitric compounds formed by combus- 
 tion and by electric discharges. 
 
 4. Nitrogen fixed in the soil by microbes. 
 
 5. The free nitrogen of the atmosphere. 
 
 6. Mineral nitrates. 
 
 The sap which is continually flowing through living plants 
 is a watery fluid, holding in solution mineral matters, gases, 
 and organic substances. The root hairs of plants penetrate the 
 particles of soil and absorb the moisture from a film which sur- 
 rounds each particle : this is known as hygroscopic water. In 
 thallophytes, the absorption is effected by the cells of the 
 thallus, and in epiphytes a membrane invests the air roots 
 especially adapted for the purpose. The distribution of water 
 takes place at least to some extent by the same pro- 
 cess as its absorption. It passes by osmosis from cell to 
 cell, as it passes originally from without into the superficial 
 cells of the plant. The direction of this movement is not 
 necessarily constant. The proportion of water in each cell 
 varies and the tendency to establish a fluid equilibrium will 
 cause a current towards those tissues which are deficient. These 
 statements apply equally to gases and other substances held in 
 solution, which are needed for the continuance of the chemical 
 and physical changes going on in the living cells of different 
 parts of the plant. 
 
 The changes are more active for different substances in dif- 
 ferent parts of the plant. The mineral substances absorbed by 
 the roots pass up to the leaves, where they are concerned in the 
 constructive metabolism going on in those organs. The pro- 
 ducts of these processes pass from the leaves to parts of the plant 
 which are actively growing, and where plastic material is re- 
 
 1 "The Economical Aspect of Agr. Chemistry." By H. W. Wiley. Proc. 
 A. A. A. S., xxxv, 1886. 
 
238 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 quired, or to the seeds or other organs in which organic stores 
 are being laid up. 
 
 If the stems or plants are cut in the spring, a flow of sap pro- 
 ceeds from the cut surface of that portion of the stem which is 
 connected with the roots. This fact was investigated by Hales. 1 
 He concluded that there is " a considerable energy in the root to 
 push up sap in the bleeding season." This force is termed the 
 root pressure, and is the measure of the absorbent activity of 
 the root hairs. The root pressure is not only manifested by caus- 
 ing the flow of sap; it also may cause the exudation of drops 
 of sap on the surface. There is a marked periodicity in the flow 
 of sap, which is not due to the immediate result of variations 
 in external conditions, but is inherent in the absorbent cells 
 themselves. 
 
 The current travels from the roots to the leaves through the 
 lignified cell walls of the wood of the plant. The activity of the 
 exhalation of watery vapor from the plant is not the same from 
 its surfaces. The refreshing effect of a shower on withered 
 leaves is due to the moisture penetrating the soil and being 
 absorbed by the root hairs. From experiments 2 it has been 
 shown that if the air is very moist, and the leaves dry, the leaf 
 surfaces may absorb a little water. 
 
 The cuticle offers a certain amount of resistance to the pas- 
 sage through it of vapor ; this is due to resinous or waxy sub- 
 stances contained in it. The Mexican ocotilla 3 offers a striking 
 example. It grows in very dry and exposed parts of the country, 
 where rainfalls are infrequent. The bark is chiefly composed 
 of wax and resinous substances. 
 
 Other substances, as well as water, can be absorbed by 
 leaves, 4 experiments having shown that if a drop of calcium sul- 
 phate solution be placed on a leaf, it will have disappeared in 
 the course of a few hours. This is more rapid when placed on 
 the under surface. Though it seems that leaves may absorb 
 water and substances in solution under certain circumstances, 
 
 1 Statical Essays, i, 1769 (4th edition). 
 
 2 Detmer and Boussingault. 
 
 3 H. C. De S. Abbott, Proc. A. A. A. S., xxxiii. See p. 117. 
 
 4 Boussingault, Ann. Chem. et Phys., ser. V, xiii; also Agronomic, VI, 1878. 
 Mayer, Landwirthschajtl. Versuchs-Stat., xvii, 1874. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 239 
 
 the especial absorptive function of leaves is the absorption of 
 gases, as has been already explained. 
 
 The subject of the ash-constituents of plants is a very impor- 
 tant one in this connection. The essential mineral constituents 
 of plants have already been mentioned; silicon, fluorine, manga- 
 nese, sodium, lithium, rubidium, caesium, barium, aluminium, 
 zinc, copper, titanium, iodine, and bromine have also been 
 found among the ash ingredients of certain plants. 
 
 The method of absorption of soluble mineral salts has already 
 been described. A solution of insoluble salts is brought about 
 in a different way. A soil rich in organic matter is always 
 charged with carbon- dioxide, and this gas is also given off by 
 the roots of living plants. Water containing this gas is able to 
 dissolve calcium carbonate and some silicates that are insolu- 
 ble in pure water. The presence of certain soluble salts in the 
 soil brings about a decomposition and renders the insoluble salts 
 more readily soluble. Finally, the insoluble salts are brought 
 into solution by means of the acid sap which saturates the cell 
 wall of the root hair. This acid is not carbonic acid, for its red- 
 dening of litmus paper is permanent. 
 
 It has been shown by experiment that the chemical elements 
 are not universally absorbed by roots in their combinations in 
 the soil. 
 
 The wide differences in the composition of the ashes of 
 plants show that each plant is endowed with a specific absorb- 
 ent capacity. It is upon this fact that the "rotation of crops" 
 in farming depends. A gramineous plant 1 is able to withdraw 
 relatively larger quantities of silica from the soil than a legu- 
 minous plant. The latter can only do so to a very slight extent. 
 
 The absorbent capacities of nearly allied species are very dif- 
 ferent; again, individuals of the same species yield different ash 
 compositions, depending upon their vigor; and the absorbent 
 capacity of the plant varies at different periods of its life. It has 
 been stated that " similar kinds of plants, and especially the 
 same parts of similar plants, exhibit a close general agreement 
 in the composition of their ashes, while plants which are unlike 
 in their botanical characters are also unlike in the proportions 
 
 1 Wolff, Aschenanalysen, 1871. 
 
2 4 o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of their fixed ingredients." 1 If an ash-constituent can pass 
 through a cell wall, its absorption will take place independently 
 of its use or harmfulness to the plant, but the absorption of es- 
 sential inorganic constituents will depend upon its relation to 
 the metabolism of the plant. 
 
 The ash- constituents of a plant increase from the roots up- 
 wards to the leaves, a fact showing that the leaves are the organs 
 in which more especially active chemical changes take place. 
 
 The ash ingredients are usually present in each plant cell; in 
 the cell wall, imbedded in the cellulose, and partly in the con- 
 tents of the cell. The salts of the alkaline metals and of the sul- 
 phates and the chlorides of magnesium and calcium occur in 
 the solution of the sap. Silica and phosphates of calcium and 
 magnesium are mostly insoluble and exist in the tissues of the 
 plant. 
 
 Water- culture experiments 2 have shown the essential ash- 
 ingredients. Potassium, like phosphorus, is always found in 
 relation with living protoplasm. If 3 the plant was not supplied 
 with potassium, it grew very little, and very little starch was 
 formed in the chlorophyll corpuscles of the leaves. On the addi- 
 tion of potassium chloride, the starch grains became more nu- 
 merous in the leaves, and made their appearance in other parts 
 of the plants. Potassium, doubtless, plays an important role 
 in the formation and the storing up of carbohydrates, for the 
 organs in which these processes are active, as the leaves, seeds, 
 and tubers, are found to be the richest in this element. 
 
 It has been observed that caesium 4 and rubidium can replace 
 potassium in the food of certain fungi (mould, yeast, and bac- 
 teria). 
 
 Salm-Horstmar describes 5 some experiments, from which 
 he infers that minute traces of lithium and fluorine are indis- 
 pensable to the fruiting of barley. The same investigator has 
 concluded that a trace of titanic acid is a necessary ingredient 
 of plants. 
 
 How Crops Grow, by S. W. Johnson, London, p. 145. 
 Nobbe, Siegert, Wolff, Stohmann, Sachs, and others. 
 Nobbe, Die organische Leistung des Kaliums, 1871. 
 Naegeli, Sitzber. d. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Munchen, 1880. 
 Jour, jur Prakt. Chem., 1884, p. 140. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 241 
 
 Zinc l is also a frequent constituent of plants growing about 
 zinc mines. Certain marked varieties of plants are peculiar to, 
 and appear to have been developed by such soils, as the violet, 
 var. calaminaris, and penny- cress. In the leaves of the latter 
 plants, thirteen per cent, of zinc oxide was found ; in other plants 
 from .3 per cent, to 3.3 per cent. 
 
 From the investigations of Baumann, 2 insoluble zinc salts in 
 the soil are harmless to plants. All plants excepting the Coni- 
 ferae speedily die in a solution containing 10 mg. zinc to the litre, 
 though traces of zinc in solution are harmless. 
 
 The specific action of zinc on the vegetable organism consists 
 in a destruction of the chlorophyl coloring- matter and a con- 
 sequent stoppage of the whole process of assimilation. 
 
 Experiments 3 on maize, oats, buckwheat show that arsenic 
 attacks the protoplasm of the cell and destroys the power of 
 osmose by the roots. 
 
 Sulphates occur in the cell sap of organs where chemical 
 changes are rapidly taking place, and are doubtless formed in 
 connection with the decomposition of proteids. Phosphorus 
 occurs in actively growing cells in the most various plants. It 
 has been found present in the green coloring- matter of the 
 leaves and is always found in relation with living protoplasm. 
 Schumacher 4 holds that the chief work of the alkaline phos- 
 phates is the acceleration of the diffusion of these difficultly 
 diffusible albuminoids. 
 
 Calcium is especially abundant in the leaves of green trees, 
 and it cannot be replaced in the food of green leaves by any 
 other metal. It can be replaced by strontium, 5 barium, or mag- 
 nesium in the food of certain fungi. Magnesium 6 resembles 
 lime in many points, but is present in larger quantity in the 
 stem and grain, and not in the leaves of the maize plant. 
 
 1 A. Braun and Risse (Sachs, Exp. Physiologic, 153). 
 
 2 Landw. Versuchs-Siat., xxxi, 1-53 (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1884, p. 1408). 
 
 3 F. Nobbe and others. Landw. Versuchs-Stat., xxx, 381-422 (Jour. Chem. 
 Soc., 1884, p. 1409). 
 
 4 Physik der Pftanze, p. 128. 
 
 5 Naegeli. 
 
 8 R. Hornberger and E. V. Raumer, Bied. Centr. Bl., 1882, 837-844 (Jour. 
 Chem. Soc., 1883, p. 491). 
 
242 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Iron is found to be essential to green plants only. If a seed- 
 ling be cultivated by water culture in a fluid containing no iron, 
 the leaves will become pale until at length they are nearly white, 
 but on the addition of a small quantity of iron to the solution, 
 or if the white leaves are painted with a dilute iron solution, 
 they will very shortly become green. It plays an important part 
 in the formation of the green coloring- matter, though it does 
 not enter into its chemical composition. 
 
 " Buckwheat, 1 barley, and oats do not flourish when grown 
 in solutions containing no chlorides, and as in these plants the 
 chlorophyll corpuscles become overfilled with starch grains, it 
 was thought that this element was of importance in connection 
 with the translocation of carbohydrates." 
 
 Sodium 2 has been used in water culture to replace potassium, 
 but the plants deprived of potash did not develop. 
 
 Manganese is abundant in the ash of Trapa natans. I also 
 found it in the different portions of Yucca angustijolia. s 
 
 Iodine and bromine are found in marine Alga and in minute 
 quantity in some plants grown far from the sea. 
 
 Silica is found in the form of soluble or insoluble silicic acid. 
 It occurs principally in the cell wall, but it has been found in the 
 cell sap of a plant (Equisetum hiemale 4 ), and certain cells in 
 the pseudo-bulbs of epiphytic orchids 5 contain each a plate of 
 silica. 
 
 Experiments have shown that the absorption of silicic 6 acid 
 greatly assists the assimilation of other plant foods, and that 
 plants to which it is supplied show a decidedly more healthy 
 development of grain and straw than others not so treated. 
 Silica is doubtless of mechanical use, giving firmness and rigid- 
 ity to plant tissues; though the real cause of "laying" of crops 
 
 1 Vines, Cambridge edition, p. 136. Also, Beyer, Landw. Versuchs-Stat., xi. 
 Leydhecker, ibid., viii. 
 
 2 Salm-Horstmar, Knop and Schreber. 
 
 8 "Yucca Angustifolia," Helen C. De S. Abbott, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., 
 Dec. 18, 1885, also ante, p. 126. 
 
 4 Lange, Ber. d. Deutsch. Chem. Ges., xi. 
 
 6 Pfitzer, Flora, 1877. 
 
 8 C. Kreuzhage and E. Wolff, Landw. Versuchs-Stat., xxx, 161-198 (Jour. 
 Chem. Soc., 1884, p. 1112). 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 243 
 
 has been found to be due to the imperfect development of the 
 tissue and not to an insufficient supply of silica. 
 
 The percentage of ash- constituents in plants varies, but the 
 quantity is sufficient to be a very important factor in the con- 
 sideration of chemical forms of plants. 
 
 I have already said that the albuminous cell contents, called 
 protoplasm, are always present in the living cells of plants. The 
 introduction into the cell of the gases, water, and inorganic sub- 
 stances goes to the direct formation of this colloidal body, or 
 assists in it. 
 
 It has been stated that the soil, water, and atmosphere supply 
 the food of all plants. It would be of interest to dwell upon the 
 processes of assimilation and the chemical changes that go on 
 within the living plant, if our time would allow. It may be men- 
 tioned that nowhere in any department of chemistry have our 
 former views been more modified than in the physiological 
 chemistry of the vegetable cell during the last three years. 
 
 For example, I may say that, at least in some plants, nascent 
 starch passes in a soluble form from cell to cell by osmosis with- 
 out conversion into sugar, as was formerly held. 
 
 Sugar in some plants may be regarded as a waste product, 
 resulting from the breaking down of more complex substances, 
 of no further service in the development of the plant. 
 
 Sorghum 1 cane, at the time of the maturing of the seed and 
 the full growth of the plant, contains the largest percentage of 
 sugar, and this sugar appears to be really a waste product. 
 
 The classification of Plastic and Waste Products, in Vines' s 
 late Physiology* cannot be accepted as final, since many changes 
 in plant chemistry have resulted since 1882 the date of his 
 chemical bibliography. 
 
 It may be generally said that the proteids or albuminoid sub- 
 stances are formed in the cell from a simple carbohydrate and 
 some nitrogenous body, probably an amide. 
 
 The inorganic acids supply sulphur and other substances 
 necessary to enter into combination with the proteid, or act 
 mechanically by removing waste material. 
 
 1 H. W. Wiley, Botanical Gazette, 1887. 
 
 2 Cambridge edition, 1886. 
 
244 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The function of chlorophyll may be briefly stated : * It ab- 
 sorbs certain rays of light, and thus enables the protoplasm of 
 the cell to avail itself of the radiant energy of the sun's rays for 
 the construction of organic substances from carbon-dioxide 
 and water. 
 
 Plants which are grown in the dark, or at low temperature, 
 are usually of a yellow color. Such plants are said to be etio- 
 lated. There is reason to think that this yellow substance, 
 etiolin, is an intermediate substance in the formation of chlo- 
 rophyll, for if it is exposed to light it is converted into a green 
 color; these complex coloring- matters are probably derivatives 
 of protoplasm. 
 
 The autumnal change of leaves is owing to a third coloring- 
 matter, called xanthophyll; in many cases, the leaves also con- 
 tain a red coloring- matter, erythrophyll. 
 
 The importance of chlorophyll in the plant will be admitted 
 when it is said that the absorption of carbon-dioxide, the evo- 
 lution of oxygen, and the formation of many organic substances 
 are effected solely by chlorophyll corpuscles. 
 
 The organic acids occur in plants free and also in combina- 
 tion with bases. It is to the presence of these bodies that the 
 acid reaction of plant tissues is due. Some organic acids are 
 assimilated by plants ; the turgidity of cells is to be ascribed to 
 their presence, and the acid sap in root hairs renders possible 
 the solution and absorption of mineral substances insoluble in 
 water. 
 
 The primary function of the resins 2 of Coniferae and analo- 
 gous juices of other plants is to render service in cases of injury, 
 and, by covering the wound with a protecting coating, to favor 
 its healing. 
 
 During my studies on the Yucca, 3 resins and saponin were 
 separated from each part of the plant. Experiments were made 
 to determine the emulsive power of saponin on resins. It was 
 found that aqueous solutions of saponin were able to emulsify 
 
 1 Cambridge edition, p. 157. 
 
 2 H. De Vries, Chem. Centr. Bl., III, xiii, 565 (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1883, p. 
 
 )- 
 
 3 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., Dec. 1885. See ante, p. 126. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 245 
 
 many classes of resins, and in my paper it was pointed out that 
 saponin may serve mechanical purposes in the plant as well as 
 those of nutrition. 
 
 The succession of plants from the lower to the higher forms 
 will be reviewed superficially, and chemical compounds noted 
 where they appear. 
 
 When the germinating spores of the fungi, Myxomycetes, 
 rupture their walls and become masses of naked protoplasm, 
 they are known as plasmodia. The plasmodium jEthalium 
 septicum occurs in moist places, on heaps of tan or decaying 
 barks. It is a soft, gelatinous mass of yellowish color, some- 
 times measuring several inches in length. 
 
 The plasmodium l has been chemically analyzed, though 
 not in a state of absolute purity. The table of Reinke and Ro- 
 dewold gives an idea of its proximate constitution. 
 
 Many of the constituents given are always present in the liv- 
 ing cells of higher plants. It cannnot be too emphatically stated 
 that where "biotic" force is manifested, these colloidal or 
 albuminous compounds are found. 
 
 The simplest form of plant life is an undifTerentiated indi- 
 vidual, all of its functions being performed indifferently by all 
 parts of its protoplasm. 
 
 The chemical basis of plasmodium is almost entirely com- 
 posed of complex albuminous substances, and correlated with 
 this structureless body are other compounds derived from them. 
 Aside from the chemical substances which are always present 
 in living matter, and are essential properties of protoplasm, we 
 find no other compounds. In the higher organisms, where these 
 functions are not performed indifferently, specialization of tis- 
 sues is accompanied by many other kinds of bodies. 
 
 The algae are a stage higher in the evolutionary scale than 
 the undifferentiated non- cellular plasmodium. The simple Alga 
 protococcus 2 may be regarded as a simple cell. All higher plants 
 are masses of cells, varying in form, function, and chemical com- 
 position. 
 
 1 Studien uber das Protoplasm, 1881. 
 
 2 Vines, p. i. Rostafinski, Mem. de la Soc. des Sc. Nat. de Cherbourg, 1875. 
 Strasburger, Zeitschr., XII, 1878. 
 
246 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 A typical living cell may be described as composed of a cell 
 wall and contents. The cell wall is a firm, elastic membrane, 
 closed on all sides, and consists mainly of cellulose, water, and 
 inorganic constituents. The contents consist of a semi-fluid 
 colloidal substance, lying in contact with the inner surface of 
 the membrane, and like it, closed on all sides. This always is 
 composed of albuminous substances. In the higher plants, at 
 least, a nucleus occurs embedded in it. A watery liquid holding 
 salts and saccharine substances in solution, fills the space called 
 the vacuole enclosed by the protoplasm. 
 
 These simple plants may be seen as actively moving cells or 
 as non-motile cells. The former consist of a minute mass of 
 protoplasm, granular and mostly colored green, but clear and 
 colorless at the more pointed end, and where it is prolonged into 
 two delicate filaments called cilia. After moving actively for a 
 time they come to rest, acquire a spherical form, and invest 
 themselves with a firm membrane of cellulose. This firm, outer 
 membrane of the Prolococcus accompanies a higher differenti- 
 ation of tissue and localization of function than is found in the 
 plasmodium. 
 
 H&atococcus and plasmodium come under the classes Algae 
 and Fungi of the Thallophyta group. The division * of this 
 group into two classes is based upon the presence of chlorophyll 
 in Algae and its absence in Fungi. Gelatinous starch is found 
 in the Algae; the Fungi contain a starchy substance called 
 glycogen, which also occurs in the liver and muscles of animals. 
 Structureless bodies, as athalium, contain no true sugar. Strati- 
 fied starch 2 first appears in the Phanerogams. Alkaloids have 
 been found in Fungi, and owe their presence doubtless to the 
 richness of these plants in nitrogenous bodies. 
 
 In addition to the green coloring- matter in Algae are found 
 other coloring- matters. 3 The nature 4 of these coloring- mat- 
 
 1 Botany, Prantl and Vines, London, 1886, p. no. 
 
 2 For the literature of starch, see p. 115, Die Pflanzenstoffe, von Hilger and 
 Husemann. 
 
 3 Kiltzing, Arch. Pharm. xli, 38. Kraus and Millardet, Bui. Soc. Sciences 
 Nat., Strasbourg, 1868, 22. Sorby, Jour. Lin. Soc. xv, 34. J. Reinke, Jahrb. 
 Wissenscht. Botan., x, B. 399. Phipson, Phar. Jour. Trans., clxii, 479. 
 
 4 Prantl and Vines, p. in. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 247 
 
 ters is usually the same through whole families, which also re- 
 semble one another in their modes of reproduction. 
 
 In form, the Algae differ greatly from filaments or masses of 
 cells; they live in the water and cover damp surfaces of rocks 
 and wood. In these they are remarkable for their ramifications 
 and colors and grow to a gigantic size. 
 
 The physiological functions of Algae and Fungi depend upon 
 their chemical differences. 
 
 These facts have been offered, simple though they are, as 
 striking examples of chemical and structural opposition. 
 
 The Fungi include very simple organisms, as well as others 
 of tolerably high development, of most varied form, from the 
 simple bacillus and yeast to the truffle, lichens, and mushrooms. 
 
 The cell membrane of this class contains no pure cellulose, 
 but a modification called fungus cellulose. The membrane also 
 contains an amyloid substance, amylomycin. 1 Many of the 
 chemical constituents found in the entire class are given in 
 Die Pflanzenstofje. 2 
 
 Under the SMzomycetes, to which the Micrococcus and Bacte- 
 rium* belong, are found minute organisms differing much in 
 form and in the coloring 4 matters they produce, as that caus- 
 ing the red color of mouldy bread. 
 
 The class of lichens 5 contains a number of different color- 
 ing substances, whose chemical composition has been exam- 
 ined. These substances are found separately in individuals 
 differing in form. In the Polyporus 6 an acid has been found 
 peculiar to it, as in many plants special compounds are found. 
 In the Agaricaceae the different kinds of vellum distinguish be- 
 tween species, and the color of the conidia is also of differential 
 
 1 L. Crie, Compt. Rend., Ixxxviii, 759, 985. J. de Seynes, 820, 1043. 
 
 2 Page 279. 
 
 3 M. Nencki and F. Schaffer. N. Sieher, Jour. Pract. Chem., xxiii, 412. 
 
 4 E. Klein, Quar. Jour. Micros. Science, 1875, 381. O. Helm, Arch. Pharm., 
 1875, 19-24. G. Gugini, Gaz. Chem., 7, 4. W. Thorner, Bui. Ber., xi, 533. 
 
 5 Handbook of Dyeing, by W. Crookes, London, 1874, p. 367. Schunck, 
 Ann. Chem. Pharm., xli, 157; liv, 261; Ixi, 72; Ixi, 64; Ixi, 78. Rochelder 
 and Heldt, ibid., xlviii, 2; xlviii, 9. Stenhouse, ibid., Ixviii, 57; Ixviii, 72; Ixviii, 
 97, 104; cxxv, 353. See also researches of Strecker, O. Hesse, Reymann, 
 Liebermann, Lamparter, Knop and Schnedermann. 
 
 8 Stahlschmidt. 
 
248 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 importance. In all cases of distinct characteristic habits of 
 reproduction and form, one or more different chemical com- 
 pounds is found. 
 
 In the next group of the Musiceae, or mosses, is an absence of 
 some chemical compounds that were characteristic of the classes 
 just described. Many of the albuminous substances are pre- 
 sent. Starch 1 is found, often in large quantities, and also oily 
 fats, which are contained in the oil bodies of the liverworts; 
 wa!x, 2 organic acids, including aconitic acid, and tannin, which 
 is found for the first time at this evolutionary stage of the plant 
 kingdom. 
 
 The vascular Cryptogams are especially characterized by 
 their mineral composition. 3 The ash is extraordinarily rich 
 in silicic acid and alumina. 
 
 Equisetum 4 silicic acid 60 per cent. 
 
 Aspidium " " 13 " " 
 
 Asplenium " " 35 " " 
 
 Osmunda " " 53 " " 
 
 Lycopodium 5 " " 14 " " 
 
 alumina 261027 " " 
 
 manganese 2102.5 " " 
 
 These various plants contain acids and compounds peculiar 
 to themselves. 
 
 As we ascend in the plant scale, we reach the Phanerogams. 
 These plants are characterized by the production of true seeds, 
 and many chemical compounds not found in lower plants. 
 
 It will be convenient, in speaking of these higher groups, 
 to follow M. Heckel's 6 scheme of plant evolution. All these 
 plants are grouped upder three main divisions: apetalous, 
 monocotyledonous, and dicotyledonous, and these main di- 
 visions are further subdivided. 
 
 It will be observed that these three main parallel columns 
 are divided into three general horizontal planes. 
 
 1 E. Treffner, Inaugur. Diss. Dorpat, 1880. 2 W. Pfeffer, Flora, 1874. 
 
 3 Die Pftanzenstoffe, p. 323. W. Lange, Bui. Bcr., xi, 822. 
 
 4 Ann. Chim. Phys., xli, 62, 208; Ann. Chim. Pharm., Ixxvii, 295. 
 
 5 Fliickiger, Pharmakognosie. Kamp, Ann. Chim. Pharm., c, 300. 
 
 6 Revue Scientifique, March 13, 1886. 
 
* 
 
 CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 249 
 
 On plane i are all plants of simplicity of floral elements, or 
 parts; for example, the black walnut with the simple flower 
 contained in a catkin. 
 
 On plane 2, plants which have a multiplicity of floral ele- 
 ments, as the many petals and stamens of the rose ; and finally, 
 the higher plants, the orchids among the monocotyledons, and 
 the Composite among the dicotyledonous plants, come under 
 the third division of condensation of floral elements. 
 
 It will be impossible to take up in order for chemical con- 
 sideration all these groups, and I shall restrict myself to point- 
 ing out the occurrence of certain constituents. 
 
 I desire now to call attention to chemical groups under the 
 apetalous plants having simplicity of floral elements. 
 
 Cassuarina equisetijolia 1 possibly contains tannin, since it 
 is used for curing hides. The bark contains a dye. It is said to 
 resemble Equisetum 2 in appearance, and in this latter plant 
 a yellow dye is found. 
 
 The Myrica 3 contains ethereal oil, wax, resin, balsam, in 
 all parts of the plant. The root contains, in addition, fats, tan- 
 nin and starch, also myricinic acid. 
 
 In the willow and poplar, 4 a crystalline, bitter substance, 
 salicin or populin, is found. This may be considered as the 
 first appearance of a real glucoside, if tannin be excluded from 
 the list. 
 
 The oak, walnut, beech, alder, and birch contain tannin 
 in large quantities; in the case of the oak ten to twelve per 
 cent. Oak galls yield as much as seventy per cent. 5 
 
 The numerous genera of pine and fir trees are remarkable 
 for ethereal oil, resin, and camphor. 
 
 The plane 6 trees contain caoutchouc and gum; peppers, 7 
 
 1 Dictionary of Economic Plants, by J. Smith, London, 1882, p. 294. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 160. Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreichs, Wittstein, p. 736. Ann. 
 Chem. Pharm., LXXVII, 295. 
 
 3 Rabenhorst, Repert. Pharm., Ix, 214. Moore, Chem. Centralbl., 1862, 
 779, Dana. 
 
 4 Johansen, Arch. Pharm., Ill, ix, 210. Ibid., Ill, ix, 103. Bente, Berl. 
 Ber., viii, 476. Braconnot, Ann. Chim. Phys., II, xliv, 296. 
 
 5 Wittstein, Pharm. des Pflanzenreichs, p. 249. 
 
 6 John, ibid., p. 651. 
 
 7 Dulong, Oersted, Lucas, Poutet, ibid., p. 640. 
 
250 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 ethereal oils, alkaloids, piperin, white resin, and malic acid. 
 Datisca cannabina l contains a coloring- matter and another 
 substance peculiar to itself, datiscin, a kind of starch, or allied 
 to the glucosides. 
 
 Upon the same evolutionary plane among the monocotyle- 
 dons, the dates and palms 2 contain in large quantities spe- 
 cial starches, and this is in harmony with the principles of the 
 theory. Alkaloids and glucosides have not as yet been dis- 
 covered in them. 
 
 Other monocotyledonous groups with simplicity of floral 
 elements, such as the Typhaceae, contain large quantities of 
 starch; in the case of Typha latifolia, 3 12.5 per cent., and 1.5 
 per cent gum. In the pollen of this same plant, 2.08 per cent 
 starch has been found. 
 
 Under the dicotyledonous groups there are no plants with 
 simplicity of floral elements. 
 
 Returning, now, to apetalous plants of multiplicity and sim- 
 plification of floral elements, we find that the Urticaceae 4 con- 
 tain free formic acid; the hemp 5 contains alkaloids; the hop, 6 
 ethereal oil and resin; the rhubarb, 7 crysophonic acid; and 
 the begonias, 8 chicarin and lapacho dyes. The highest apetal- 
 ous plants contain camphors and oils. The highest of the 
 monocotyledons contain a mucilage and oils; and the highest 
 dicotyledons contain oils and special acids. 
 
 The trees yielding common camphor and Borneol are from 
 genera of the Lauraceae family; also sassafras camphor is from 
 the same family. Small quantities of Stereoptenes are widely 
 distributed through the plant kingdom. 
 
 The Gramineae, or grasses, are especially characterized by 
 
 1 Braconnot, Ann. Chim. Phys., II, iii, 277. Stenhouse, Ann. Chim. 
 Pharm., CXCVIII, 166. 
 
 Pftanzenstoffe, p. 412. 
 
 Lecocq, Braconnot, Pharmacog. Pftan., p. 693. 
 
 Gorup-Besanez. 
 
 Siebold and Brodbury, Phar. Jour. Trans., Ill, 590, 1881, 326. 
 
 Wagner, Jour. Prakt. Chem., Iviii, 352. E. Peters, v. Gohren, Jahresb. 
 Agric., viii, 114; ix, 105; v, 58. Am. Jour. Pharm, IV, 49. 
 
 Dragendorff, Pharm. Zeitschr. Russ., xvii, 65-97. 
 
 Boussingault, Ann. Chim. Phys. II, xxvii, 315. Erdmann, Jour. Pract. 
 Chem. Ixxi, 198. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 251 
 
 the large quantities of sugar and silica they contain. The ash 
 of the rice hull, for example, contains ninety-eight per cent, 
 silica. 
 
 The Ranunculaceae contain many plants which yield alka- 
 loids, as Hydrastis canadensis, Helleboms, Delphinum, Aco- 
 nitum, and the alkaloid berberin has been obtained from 
 genera of this family. 
 
 The alkaloid * furnishing families belong, with few excep- 
 tions, to the dicotyledons. The Liliaceae, from which is ob- 
 tained veratrine, form an exception among the monocotyle- 
 dons. The alkaloids of the fungus have already been noted. 
 
 2 Among the greater number of plant families, no alkaloids 
 have been found. In the Labiatae none has been discovered, 
 nor in the Composite among the highest plants. 
 
 One alkaloid is found in many genera of the Loganiaceae, 
 in genera of the Berberidaceae, Ranunculaceae, Menisper- 
 maceae, Rutaceae, Papaveraceae, Anonaceae. 
 
 Waxes are widely distributed in plants. They occur in quan- 
 tities in some closely related families. 
 
 Ethereal oils occur in many families, in the bark, root, wood, 
 leaf, flower and fruit, particularly in Myrtaceae, Laurineae, 
 Cyperaceae, Cruciferae, Aurantiaceae, Labiatas, and Umbelli- 
 ferae. 
 
 Resins are found in most of the higher plants. Tropical 
 plants are richer in resins than those of cold climates. 
 
 Chemical resemblance between groups, as indicating mor- 
 phological relations, has been well shown. For example : the 
 similarity 3 of the viscid juices, and a like taste and smell 
 among Cactaceae and Portulaceae, indicate a closer relationship 
 between these two orders than botanical classification would 
 perhaps allow. This fact was corroborated by the discovery 
 of irritable stamens in Portulaca and Opuntia, and other gen- 
 era of Cactaceae. 
 
 Darwin 4 states that in the Compositae the ray florets are more 
 poisonous than the disc florets in the ratio of about 3 to 2. 
 
 1 Die Pftanzenstoffe, p. 21. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Meehan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences. 
 
 * " Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species," Introduction. 
 
252 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Comparing the Cycadeae and Palmae, the former are differ- 
 ently placed by different botanists, but the general resemblance 
 is remarkable, and they both yield sago. 
 
 Chemical constituents of plants are found in varying quan- 
 tities during stated periods of the year. Certain compounds 
 present at one stage of growth are absent at another. Many 
 facts could be brought forward to show the different chemical 
 composition of plants in different stages of growth. The Thuja 
 occidentalism in the juvenescent and adult form, offers an ex- 
 ample where morphological and chemical differences go hand 
 in hand. Analyses of this plant under both conditions show 
 a striking difference. 
 
 Different parts of plants may contain distinct chemical com- 
 pounds, and the comparative chemical study of plant orders 
 comprises the analysis of all parts of plants of different species. 
 
 For example : four portions of the Yucca angustijolia 2 were 
 examined chemically the bark and wood of the root and the 
 base and blades of the leaves. Fixed oils were separated from 
 each part. These were not identical, two were fluid at or- 
 dinary temperature, and two were solid. Their melting and 
 solidifying points were not the same. 
 
 This difference in the physical character and chemical re- 
 action of these fixed oils may be due to the presence of free 
 fatty acid and glycerides in varying proportions in the four 
 parts of the plants. It is of interest to note that, in the subter- 
 ranean part of the Yucca, the oil extracted from the bark is 
 solid at the ordinary temperature; from the wood it was of a 
 less solid consistency; while the yellow base of the leaf con- 
 tained an oil quite soft, and in the green leaf the oil is almost 
 fluid. 
 
 Two new resins were extracted from the yellow and green 
 parts of the leaf. It was proposed to name them yuccal and 
 pyrophaal. An examination of the contents of each extract 
 showed a* different quantitative and qualitative result. 
 
 Saponin was found in all parts of the plant. 
 
 Many of the above facts have been collected from the in- 
 
 1 Meehan, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences. 
 
 2 H. C. De S. Abbott, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1886. See p. 126. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 253 
 
 vestigations of others. I have introduced these statements, 
 selected from a mass of material, as evidences in favor of the 
 view stated at the beginning of this paper. 1 My own study has 
 been directed towards the discovery of saponin in those plants 
 where it was presumably to be found. The practical use of this 
 theory in plant analysis will lead the chemist at once to a search 
 for those compounds which morphology shows are probably 
 present. 
 
 I have discovered saponin in all parts of the Yucca angusti- 
 jolia, in the Y '. filimentosa, and Y.gloriosa] in several species of 
 Agavae, and in plants belonging to the Leguminosae family. 
 
 The list 2 of plants in which saponin has been discovered is 
 given in the note. All these plants are contained in the middle 
 plane of HeckePs scheme. No plants containing saponin have 
 been found among apetalous groups. No plants have been 
 found containing saponin among the lower monocotyledons. 
 
 The plane of saponin passes from the Liliaceae and allied 
 groups to the resales and higher dicotyledons. 
 
 Saponin belongs to a class of substances called glucosides. 
 Under the action of dilute acids, it is split up into two sub- 
 stances, glucose and sapogenin. The chemical nature of this 
 substance is not thoroughly understood. The commercial 3 
 product is probably a mixture of several substances. 
 
 This complexity of chemical composition of saponin is ad- 
 mirably adapted for the nutrition of the plant, and it is asso- 
 ciated with the corresponding complexity of the morphological 
 elements of the plant's organs. According to M. Perrey, 4 it 
 seems that the power of a plant to direct the distribution of its 
 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen to form complex glucosides is 
 indicative of its higher functions and developments. 
 
 The solvent action of saponin on resins has been already 
 
 1 For further facts confirming this theoiy, see "Comparative Chemistry 
 of Higher and Lower Plants," by H. C. De S. Abbott, Amer. Naturalist, 
 August, 1887. See p. 257. 
 
 2 Different genera and species of the following: Ranunculaceae, Berberi- 
 daceae, Carophyllaceae, Polygalacea?, Bromeliaceae, Liliaceae, Smilaceae, Yuccas, 
 Amaryllideae, Leguminosae, Primulaceae, Rosaces?, Sapindaceae, Sapotaceae. 
 
 3 Robert, Chem. Ztg. 
 
 4 Compt. Rend., xciv, p. 1124. 
 
254 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 discussed. Saponin likewise acts as a solvent upon barium l 
 sulphate and calcium 2 oxalate, and as a solvent of insoluble 
 or slightly soluble salts would assist the plant in obtaining 
 food otherwise difficult of access. 
 
 Saponin is found in endogens and exogens. The line di- 
 viding these two groups is not always clearly denned. State- 
 ments pointing to this are found in the works of Heckel, 
 Bentham, and others. 
 
 Smilax belongs to a transition class, partaking somewhat of 
 the nature of endogen and of exogen. It is worthy of note 
 that this intermediate group of the sarsaparillas should con- 
 tain saponin. 
 
 It is a significant fact that all the groups above named con- 
 taining saponin belong to Heckel's middle division. 
 
 It may be suggested that saponin is thus a constructive ele- 
 ment in developing the plant from the multiplicity of floral 
 elements to the cephalization of those organs. 
 
 It has been observed that the composite occurs where the 
 materials for growth are supplied in greatest abundance, and 
 the more simple forms arise where sources of nutrition are re- 
 mote. We may gather from this fact that the simpler organs 
 of plants low in the evolutionary scale contain simpler non- 
 nitrogenous chemical compounds for their nutrition. 
 
 The presence of saponin seems essential to the life of the 
 plant where it is found, and it is an indispensable principle in 
 the progression of certain lines of plants, passing from their 
 lower to their higher stages. 
 
 Saponin is invariably absent where the floral elements are 
 simple; it is invariably absent where the floral elements are 
 condensed to their greatest extent. Its position is plainly that 
 of a factor in the great middle realm of vegetable life, where 
 the elements of the individual are striving to condense, and thus 
 increase their physiological action and the economy of parts. 
 
 It may be suggested as a line of research to study what are 
 the conditions which control the synthesis and gradual forma- 
 
 1 Bui. de la Soc. Chim. 
 
 2 "Yucca Angustifolia," Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., December, 1885. See 
 p. 126. 
 
CHEMICAL BASIS OF PLANT FORMS 255 
 
 tion of saponin in plants. The simpler compounds of which 
 this complex substance is built up, if located as compounds of 
 lower plants, would indicate the lines of progression from the 
 lower to the saponin groups. 
 
 In my paper. 1 read in Buffalo at the last meeting of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science, vari- 
 ous suggestions were offered why chemical compounds should 
 be used as a means of botanical classification. 
 
 The botanical classifications based upon morphology are 
 so frequently unsatisfactory, that efforts in some directions 
 have been made to introduce other methods. 2 
 
 There has been comparatively little study of the chemical 
 principles of plants from a purely botanical view. It promises 
 to become a new field of research. 
 
 The Leguminosae are conspicuous as furnishing us with im- 
 portant dyes, e. g., indigo, logwood, catechin. The former is 
 obtained principally from different species of the genus Indi- 
 gofera, and logwood from the H&matoxylon and Saraca indica. 
 
 The discovery 3 of haematoxylin in the Saraca indica illus- 
 trates very well how this plant, in its chemical as well as bo- 
 tanical character, is related to the Hamatoxylon campechianum; 
 also, I found a substance like catechin in the Saraca. This 
 compound is found in the Acacias, to which class Saraca is 
 related by its chemical position as well as botanically. Saponin 
 is found in both of these plants as well as in many other plants 
 of the Leguminosae. The Leguminosae come under the mid- 
 dle plane or multiplicity of floral elements, and the presence 
 of saponin in these plants was to be expected. 
 
 From many of the facts above stated, it may be inferred that 
 the chemical compounds of plants do not occur at random. 
 Each stage of growth and development has its own particular 
 chemistry. 
 
 It is said that many of the constituents found in plants are 
 the result of destructive metabolism, and are of no further use 
 
 1 Botanical Gazette, October, 1886. See ante, p. 168. 
 
 2 Borodin, Pharm. Jour. Trans., xvi, 369. Pax. Firemy, Ann. Sci. Nat., 
 xiii. 
 
 3 H. C. De S. Abbott, Proc. Acad.Nat. Sciences, Nov. 30, 1886. See ante, 
 p. 171. 
 
256 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 in the plant's economy. This subject is by no means settled, 
 and even should we be forced to accept that ground, it is a sig- 
 nificant fact that certain cells, tissues, or organs peculiar to a 
 plant secrete or excrete chemical compounds peculiar to them, 
 which are to be found in one family, or in species closely al- 
 lied to it. 
 
 It is a fact that the chemical compounds are there, no mat- 
 ter why or whence they came. They will serve our purposes 
 of study and classification. 
 
 The result of experiment shows that the presence of certain 
 compounds is essential to the vigor and development of all 
 plants, and particular compounds to the development of cer- 
 tain plants. Plant chemistry and morphology are related. Fu- 
 ture investigations will demonstrate this relation. 
 
 In general terms, we may say that amides and carbohy- 
 drates are utilized in the manufacture of proteids. Organic 
 acids cause a turgescence of cells. Glucosides may be a form 
 of reserve food material. 
 
 Resins and waxes may serve only as protection to the surfaces 
 of plants ; coloring- matters, as screens to shut off or admit cer- 
 tain of the sun's rays; but we are still far from penetrating the 
 mystery of life. 
 
 A simple plant does what animals more highly endowed can- 
 not do. From simplest substances they manufacture the most 
 complex. We owe our existence to plants, as they do theirs to 
 the air and soil. 
 
 The elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen pass 
 through a cycle of changes from simple inorganic substances to 
 the complex compounds of the living cell. Upon the decomposi- 
 tion of these bodies the elements return to their original state. 
 During this transition those properties of protoplasm which 
 were mentioned at the beginning, in turn, follow their path. 
 From germination to death this course appears like a crescent, 
 the other half of the circle closed from view. Where chemistry 
 begins and ends it is difficult to say. 
 
COMPARATIVE CHEMISTRY OF HIGHER AND 
 LOWER PLANTS 1 
 
 ON coming before a popular audience to present a special 
 subject like plant chemistry, I do so in hopes, perhaps, of show- 
 ing some of the less familiar sides of plant life. The chief 
 idea of the remarks I am about to make is one that has not 
 occupied to any great extent the minds of botanists and chem- 
 istSj and if it be not true, at least no other hypothesis has been 
 suggested than the one I shall indicate to account for the 
 chemical compounds of the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 On past occasions 2 1 have spoken of certain chemical com- 
 pounds in relation to plant morphology and evolution. The 
 facts then advanced tended to show a chemical progression 
 in plants, and a mutual dependence between chemical con- 
 stituents and change of vegetable form, and in the following 
 pages I shall keep this idea prominently before you. 
 
 Certain condensations of force on our planet are known 
 as chemical bodies. By usual methods they cannot be split 
 up into component parts, hence are denominated elements. 
 However, we have reason to believe that these so-called 
 elements are in reality themselves compounds, formed in the 
 cosmic laboratory from still simpler aggregations of matter. 
 
 In mineralogy the series of chemical formations are doubt- 
 
 1 Lecture delivered in the course given under the auspices of the Philo- 
 sophical, Anthropological, and Biological Societies in the United States Na- 
 tional Museum, Washington, April 23, 1887. Printed in the American Nat- 
 uralist, August, September, 1887; also in pamphlet form, Philadelphia, 
 1887. 
 
 2 " Certain Chemical Constituents of Plants considered in Relation to their 
 Morphology and Evolution." Read before the Chemical Section of the A. A. 
 A. S. at Buffalo, 1886. Abstract published in the Botanical Gazette, vol. xi, 
 October, 1886. " The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms." Lecture delivered 
 before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 1887. Franklin Institute Journal. 
 See ante, p. 168. 
 
258 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 less the result of evolution from the more simple elements to 
 the complex structure of the crystalline rocks. 1 
 
 The plant kingdom may be considered as a third and 
 higher stage; it contains in its structure combinations of the 
 elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, phos- 
 phorus, and compounds derived from the mineral world. 
 
 The essence which underlies all force and life may be traced 
 through these three planes as a law of progression, little 
 varying in its general course, though ever giving more involved 
 problems for solution, according to the increasing complexity, 
 from elements and minerals to plants, and even to animals. 
 
 The line separating each of these conditions of matter is 
 indistinct, "the individual of the one encroaches upon the 
 dominion of the other; " 2 as a spiral coil is of a single thread, 
 so " nature in all her manifestations constitutes a unity," 3 
 and the rounds of the spiral present each stage parallel, but 
 in reality a continuation. 
 
 Analogies should not be given too much weight, but from 
 numerous facts the above statements seem theoretically 
 reasonable and may be provisionally accepted. The possi- 
 bility of chemical evolution of the elements, in itself, is not 
 only one of the most absorbing questions of the moment for 
 investigation, but the evolution of compounds from these 
 elements and their possible influence upon the external forms 
 of plants is of equal interest. 
 
 That directive force which controls the different groupings 
 of atoms in a molecule under the solid, liquid, or gaseous 
 forms of matter, manifests itself in still more complicated 
 conditions in each grade of the chemical compounds of living 
 cells, and thus, from the single cell to the highest of plants, is 
 ever active. 
 
 It is not my wish to claim for plant chemistry more than 
 the facts at my disposal will allow; though in the past, and 
 this should not be overlooked, without the aid of the imagi- 
 nation to penetrate the avenues of the unknown, many of 
 
 1 Mineral Physiology and Physiography, by T. Sterry Hunt, Boston, 1886. 
 
 2 The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms, p. 232. 
 
 3 T. Sterry Hunt, p. 18. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 259 
 
 our well-established scientific facts would still be buried from 
 sight. 
 
 The chemical analysis of the dead plant and the study of 
 the chemical changes occurring in the living plant are among 
 our means for some of these investigations; and much of all 
 the knowledge derived from each field of chemical research 
 may be utilized in aiding to unravel the mystery of these changes 
 in the vegetable cell. 
 
 In the mineral kingdom certain elements are invariably 
 associated with others, as nickel with cobalt; and in plants 
 not only do we find two or more compounds invariably present 
 together, i. e., tannin and starch in the tannin groups, lime 
 and saponin in the pink family (CaryophyllacecB)^ resins and 
 saponin in all of the saponin-containing groups, and sugar 
 and silica in the grasses (Graminece), but also in certain 
 plant groups we notice the predominance of special com- 
 pounds, and their absence in other groups. The grouping of 
 these compounds in definite association must bear some re- 
 lation to their respective sequence and formation, and cannot 
 be the result of accident. That the cinchona plant does not 
 manufacture the alkaloids of the poppy, but each its own 
 particular series of compounds, illustrates this. 
 
 I have said, elsewhere, 2 "The chemical compounds of plants 
 do not occur at random. Each stage of growth and develop- 
 ment has its own particular chemistry. . . . The result of 
 experiment shows that the presence of certain compounds is 
 essential to the vigor and development of all plants, and par- 
 ticular compounds to the development of certain plants." 
 It may be inferred that "plant chemistry and morphology 
 are related. Future investigation will ^demonstrate this re- 
 lation." 
 
 The theory of evolution, which underlies all mineral and 
 organic forms, comprises the evolution of the component parts 
 of the whole, and since the structural bases of minerals and 
 plants are chemical compounds, their evolution must neces- 
 
 1 Die Pflanzenstoffe, by Hilger and Husemann, p. 542; E. v. Wolff, /. pr 
 Chem., li, 24; lii, 86; Wolff, Aschenanalysen, 1881, pp. 144, 145. 
 
 2 "The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms," p. 232, ante. 
 
260 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 sarily be included in a study of plant life. Whether this life 
 reveals itself in the perfume of sweet flowers, or in the mani- 
 fold forms of vegetation, from the simple mass of plant- jelly 
 to the majestic forest- tree, its dependence upon matter invokes 
 the most eager desire to acquaint ourselves with its various 
 manifestations. 
 
 When matter, through chemical change, exhibits properties 
 of absorption, metabolism, excretion, reproduction, contractil- 
 ity, automatism, and irritability, it is said to be living. In this 
 condition it is called protoplasm. This substance is very com- 
 plex and of undetermined composition, though its proximate 
 constitution is known. 1 It is always present where life, as de- 
 fined, is found, apparently the same in the lower as in the 
 higher plants. 
 
 The lowest forms of plants, plasmodia, are irregular-shaped 
 masses of jelly, undifferentiated in form, function, and chemical 
 composition. This living jelly is described "as a colloidal 
 albuminoid united with more or less water." 2 
 
 Plant cells, when alive, are composed of a semi-fluid albumi- 
 nous substance very like plasmodia, closed on all sides, with 
 a watery liquid holding salts and saccharine substances in 
 solution, and lying in contact with a firm elastic membrane 
 called the cell wall ; also, like it, closed on all sides, and con- 
 sisting of cellulose, water, and inorganic matter. Some of 
 the Algae and all higher plants are congregations of these 
 cells grouped as tissues and organs, and their albuminoid 
 contents are undergoing continual change; in life it is a 
 building-up process, the food being supplied from the gases, 
 water, and inorganic substances of the surroundings, and 
 elaborated in the plant's own laboratory to meet its needs. 
 
 The vegetable kingdom does not usually claim our atten- 
 tion for its intellectual attainments, although its members 
 would certainly seem to possess greater chemical skill than 
 a higher race of beings exhibit in their laboratories. Some 
 few of this higher race are "going to take lessons" how to 
 
 1 Reinke and Rodewald, Berlin, 1881; Physiological Botany, by G. L. 
 Goodale, 1885, p. 197. 
 
 2 T. Sterry Hunt, Min. Phys. and Physiography. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 261 
 
 construct proteids and carbohydrates as we are told our now 
 automatic cousins were once taught to do; though man fails 
 to consider that it may be a lost art, and the secret has died 
 with the plants in a " catagenetic " decline. 
 
 All plants and their products are composed of two general 
 classes of compounds, volatile and fixed. The former, on 
 incineration of the plant, are transformed into gases, leaving 
 the last as so-called ash-constituents. 
 
 I will very briefly refer to the sources of the substances 
 which go to the building of the plant structure. Green plants 
 derive their carbon from the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, 
 and even from complex organic compounds, since Darwin 1 
 has shown that insectivorous plants, by means of their modified 
 leaves, are able to absorb flies and other small insects. 
 
 Plants that do not contain chlorophyll, as fungi, take 
 their carbon from complex compounds of decaying organic 
 matter. Not only do all the so-called organic compounds of 
 plants contain carbon, but it is found also in the form of car- 
 bonates. 2 
 
 Hydrogen is absorbed by all plants in the form of water, 
 or ammonia and its compounds, or in complex substances, 
 as mentioned above. Oxygen is taken up by plants free or in 
 combination, in water or in salts, and there are six possible 
 sources of nitrogen supply; but I will not delay by going into 
 this subject. 8 
 
 Sulphur and phosphorus are constituents of proteids, and 
 are derived from inorganic compounds. In addition to these 
 the elements essential to the nutrition and maintenance of 
 the life of all plants are potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron 
 in the case of green plants, its absence producing the con- 
 dition of etiolation; and, in certain cases, chlorine. Silicon, 
 fluorine, manganese, sodium, lithium, rubidium, caesium, 
 barium, strontium, aluminium, zinc, copper, arsenic, titanium, 
 iodine, and bromine have also been found among the ash- 
 ingredients of certain plants. 
 
 1 Insectivorous Plants. 2 Ann. Phys. et Chim., Berthelot. 
 
 3 " The Economical Aspect of Agr. Chem.," by H. W. Wiley, Proc. A. A. 
 A. S., vol. xxxv, 1886. 
 
262 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 These ash-ingredients are usually present in each p>lant 
 cell, in the cell wall, imbedded in the cellulose and partly in the 
 contents of the cell. The salts of the alkaline metals, sul- 
 phates, chlorides of magnesium and calcium, also soluble 
 silicic acid, as in Equiselum hiemale, 1 occur in solution in 
 the cell-sap, and insoluble salts exist in the tissues of plants. 
 
 The differences in the composition of the ash of plants show 
 that each plant is endowed with a specific absorbent capacity; 
 thus a gramineous plant 2 is able to withdraw relatively larger 
 quantities of silica from the soil than a leguminous plant. 
 The latter can only do so to a very slight extent. 
 
 The absorbent capacities of allied species are very different. 
 Again, individuals of the same species yield different ash-con- 
 stituents, depending upon their vigor, and at different periods 
 of growth the ash-composition varies. In a summary of experi- 
 mental results it has been stated that 3 " similar kinds of plants, 
 and especially the same parts of similar plants, exhibit a 
 close general agreement in the composition of their ashes, 
 while plants which are unlike in their botanical characters 
 are also unlike in the proportions of their fixed ingredients." 
 
 Certain marked varieties of plants appear to be peculiar 
 to and developed by certain soils, as the violet, var. calami- 
 naris, and the penny cress, in zinc soils. 4 In the leaves of the 
 latter plant thirteen per cent, of zinc oxide was found, and I 
 have found manganese in the different portions of Yucca 
 angustijolia 5 grown near Lake Valley, New Mexico. 
 
 Plants may absorb from the soil mineral matters independ- 
 ently of their use or harmfulness to the plant, but the ab- 
 sorption of essential inorganic constituents will depend upon 
 their relation to the changes in the vegetable cell. 
 
 The ash-constituents of a plant increase from the roots 
 upward to the leaves, the largest percentage being found in 
 the younger portions of the growing plant, and I have ob- 
 served this same principle on a more general scale running 
 
 Lange, Ber. d. Deut. Chem. Ges., xi. 
 
 Wolff, Aschenanalysen, 1871. 
 
 How Crops Grow, by S. W. Johnson, London, p. 145. 
 
 A. Braum and Risse, Sachs, Exp. Physiologic, p. 153. 
 
 Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans., H. C. De S. Abbott. See ante, p. 126. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 263 
 
 through the entire plant kingdom, for the largest ash-percent- 
 ages are found among those plants lower in the evolutionary 
 scale, which would correspond to the larger ash-percentage 
 of younger, or formative, parts of the growing plants. Some 
 of these lower groups, as the diatoms of the Algae and the vas- 
 cular cryptogams, 1 contain enormously large ash-percentages; 
 in the Horse-Tail, Equisetum, 2 60 per cent, alone of silicic 
 acid. The Lycopodium, 3 in addition to 14 per cent, of silicic 
 acid, contains 27 per cent, of alumina and 2.5 per cent, of 
 manganese. Among comparatively lower plants the willow 
 and poplar 4 are rich in ash-constituents; the former 5 con- 
 tains 1.53 per cent, of manganese. Members of the sedge order 
 and grasses contain large quantities of silica; the rice-hull, 98 
 per cent. Various species of apetalous plants on the same 
 evolutionary plane with these groups also contain a large 
 percentage of ash-constituents, as the Salicornia, Salsola, 
 Cheno podium, and A triplex, also the sugar beet. 
 
 I have stated what chemical elements are essential for the 
 life of the lower as well as the higher plants; also those 
 which may occur in certain plants; and I have spoken of the 
 two general classes of compounds of which plants are built 
 as the volatile and ash constituents. The four elements, car- 
 bon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, enter into the composi- 
 tion of the first class of compounds, and the grouping of these 
 elements with each other and with the ash-elements, constitutes 
 what is called plant chemistry. 
 
 As certain chemical elements are always present in plants, 
 so certain changes occur, and compounds are found gener- 
 ally, more especially among the albuminous constituents. 
 However, even this statement should be restricted to saying 
 that the first chemical reactions between these elements are 
 probably identical at the start, the subsequent compounds 
 formed depending upon the evolutionary stage. 
 
 The infinite variety of these compounds is only equalled by 
 
 1 Die Pflanzensenstoffe, p. 323; W. Lange, Bil. Ver., xi. 822. 
 
 2 Ann. Chim. Phys., xi, 62, 208; Ann. Chim. Pharm., 77, 295. 
 
 3 Fliickiger, Pharmacognosie; Kamp, Ann. Chim. Pharm., 100, 300. 
 
 4 Durocher and Lalaguti, Liebig's Agric. Chemie, 8. Aufl., 371. 
 
 5 E. Riechardt, Chem. pharm. Centralbl., 268, 567. 
 
264 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 the numerous genera and species of the vegetable kingdom; 
 though certain compounds frequently occur, as starch, sugar, 
 tannin, and other bodies, correlated in special groups of plants 
 with special and distinct properties. For example, the true 
 starch of the cryptogams will be found gelatinous in Algae, 
 replaced in Fungi as glycogen, and only in the lowest of the 
 flowering plants does it occur in the simplest stratified form; 
 from this stage to the highest of plants, the Composite, in 
 which it occurs as a crystalline substance called inulin, it may 
 be traced from plane to plane of plant-group development in 
 a succession of stratification until it reaches its highest point 
 in our most evolved plants. So strongly marked are these 
 varieties of starch-forms that some investigators, notably 
 Nageli, have proposed this means for the identification of 
 many plant families. 
 
 The many kinds of vegetable sugars known to chemists also 
 have their locations, not only during different stages of the 
 individual plant-growth and in different parts of the plant, 
 as synanthrose, 1 the especial sugar of the unripe grain of rye 
 and wheat, but also in certain families, some one kind of sugar 
 will predominate in many of the individuals. The tannins of 
 the oak, beech, and poplar are not those of the higher plants. 
 
 At a certain stage of plant evolution, glucosides, substances 
 capable of splitting up and yielding, among other products, 
 sugar, appear. I have observed in those plants where large 
 percentages of such substances are found, a diminished pro- 
 portion of starch and sugar, 2 or their absence, notably in soap- 
 bark and species of the Yucca. 
 
 The waxes, oils, camphors, resins, acids, and other classes 
 of vegetable compounds might be similarly cited as offering 
 characteristic properties in various plants in which they appear, 
 but the examples given are ample to illustrate my point, that 
 the chemical compounds of plants should be considered from 
 three sides, viz. : 
 
 i. In their own development through many plant groups, 
 
 1 " Ripening of Seeds," by A. Muntz, Ann. Agronom., xii, 399-400; Jour. 
 Chem. Soc., February, 1887, p. 173. 
 
 2 Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., "Yucca Angustifolia." See ante, p. 126. 
 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 265 
 
 from a gelatinous or undifTerentiated compound to a polymer, 
 or a substance of the same chemical formula, having a solid 
 or crystalline form. 
 
 2. In their succession of changes, which may be observed 
 during the different stages of the individual plant's growth, 
 and the relation of these chemical changes to other com- 
 pounds present in the plant. 
 
 3. The location as predominant of some one or associated 
 compounds only in certain plants on similar evolutionary 
 planes. 
 
 These three conditions correspond to what was stated at 
 the beginning, that a law of universal progression may be 
 traced wherever matter or force exists. 
 
 There is no absolutely certain knowledge of the precise 
 character of the chemical changes which these plant compounds 
 undergo, though we have some information about them. In- 
 vestigations are being vigorously pushed in this department 
 of plant life, and it may be reasonably inferred that definite 
 facts will be obtained on many of these subjects. 
 
 It would seem from the latest researches that the albumi- 
 nous or proteid compounds to which life is essentially linked 
 are formed from a compound containing nitrogen, called an 
 amide, and some carbohydrate; its sulphur and phosphorus 
 supply being derived from inorganic sources. This amide is 
 probably asparagine or a related body. Various suggestions 
 have been offered to explain its formation in the plant, from 
 the breaking down of protoplasm to its construction from 
 simple nitrogenous and carbon compounds, and among the 
 latest investigations 1 the results show that the formation of 
 asparagine is independent of carbohydrates, and that the 
 amide formed is not a by-product of the interchange of mat- 
 ter within the plant. The author of these experiments con- 
 siders that asparagine is formed by the union of inorganic 
 nitrogen compounds and malic acid within the plant, the acid 
 being derived from the carbohydrates. 
 
 Other nitrogenous compounds, as the alkaloids, for example, 
 
 1 O. Miiller, "Landw. Versuch. Stat.," 1886, 326-335; Jour. Chem. Soc., p. 
 70, January, 1887. 
 
266 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 are probably formed from the complex albuminoids, and in 
 fungus plants, which are especially rich in nitrogenous com- 
 pounds, alkaloids are common. 
 
 It has been generally held that alkaloids, with resins and 
 some other compounds occurring in plants, are waste products, 
 but this cannot be accepted as final. The researches l of Selmi, 
 Gautier, Etard, Brieger, and others have broken down an 
 imaginary distinction between plants and animals, which is of 
 interest in this connection. They show that the production of 
 alkaloids is a general function common to all living cells, 
 whether they be bacteria or the cells of living animals. 
 
 In the animals, with their excretory functions, these poisonous 
 substances would be readily eliminated from the system; but it 
 seems to me that in the absence of homologous organs in plants 
 these compounds might be used again for the building up of 
 tissue and prevent the accumulation of products detrimental to 
 plants, and the recent investigations of Kellner 2 on the com- 
 position of tea-leaves show that this view is not unlikely, for he 
 states that the non- albuminoid nitrogen is almost wholly absent 
 during the latter stages of growth, being found as theine; in the 
 seeds the albumen has increased, but no theine is found; thus 
 the author believes that positive proof is afforded that the alka- 
 loids are a decomposition product of albumen, and capable of 
 again forming albumen-like asparagine and glutamine. 
 
 It will not be possible in this place to enter more fully into 
 the details of the chemical changes going on within the plant. 
 My time will not allow a discussion of the changes of starch 
 into sugar, and conversely, nor a review of the many steps in 
 the transformation of protoplasm into the simpler products of 
 cellulose, chlorophyll, and other substances; and it may be 
 well to say that the ideas of physiologists in regard to these 
 changes are unstable, since the acquisition of new facts seems 
 to unsettle former opinions. But, to illustrate the revolution 
 within the last few years from former views held in plant 
 
 1 "Les Alcaloides d'Origine Animale," par Dr. L. Huhouneng, Paris. 
 Chem. News, December 10, 1886. 
 
 2 " Landw. Versuch. Stat.," 1886, 370, 380; Jour. Chem. Soc., January, 
 1887, p. 73. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 267 
 
 chemistry, I will mention that sugar is not, in all plants, a 
 reserve or plastic body, and in some few (for example, the 
 sorghum cane *) it must be regarded rather as a waste pro- 
 duct, and its advent in larger percentage after the maturity of 
 growth marks the decay of the plant and attends its euthanasia. 
 
 I have desired, by entering into all of the above particulars, 
 to prepare for a consideration of the compounds which are 
 formed by these chemical successions and occur through the 
 plant kingdom. In treating of this subject I shall have so fre- 
 quent occasion to speak of the different plant families that, for 
 convenience, I shall use the order of evolution for flowering 
 plants^ proposed by M. fidouard Heckel, 2 and which is repre- 
 sented in the table. 
 
 The author classes all these plants under three main parallel 
 divisions, from the lowest of the apetalous, 3 mono- and di-coty- 
 ledonous groups to their respective highest plants. These three 
 main columns are divided at the same point into three general 
 planes. On plane i are all plants of simplicity of floral elements 
 or parts; for example, the black walnut with the simple flower 
 contained in a catkin. On plane 2 are plants of multiplicity of 
 floral elements, as the many petals and stamens of the rose; 
 and, finally, the higher plants, as the orchids among the mo- 
 nocotyledons, and the Composite among the dicotyledonous 
 plants, come upon the third plane, or the division of conden- 
 sation of floral parts. 
 
 These three characteristics, simplicity, multiplicity, and con- 
 densation of floral elements, are correspondingly repeated in 
 
 " On the Variations of Sucrose in Sorghum Saccharatum," by H. W. Wiley, 
 Botanical Gazette, vol. xii, March, 1887. 
 
 2 Revue Scientifique, March 13, 1886. 
 
 3 Heckel's division of apetalous plants from mono- and di-cotyledonous 
 groups has been criticised by some botanists as an artificial method of classi- 
 fication. Since all botanical classifications have been declared, on botanical 
 authority, in a measure artificial, the author does not feel called upon to 
 apologize for introducing M. Heckel. She has found his scheme to answer 
 her purposes, provisionally, more fully than other classifications, and she is 
 indebted to him for a means of presenting her subject which would be other- 
 wise impracticable. Further than this she is not responsible for advocating 
 the classification. M. Heckel's table is published with his paper, "Les Plantes 
 et la Theorie de FE volution," in the Revue Scientifique, March 13, 1886. 
 
268 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
SL 8. 
 
 o O 
 
 C 3 
 
 (A ft 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 in 
 
 in 
 
 a 
 
 TO 
 
 a 
 ? 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 269 
 
 each of the three horizontal planes, and even in individual orders, 
 in their lowest and highest plants. 1 To facilitate the compre- 
 hension of this classification I have assembled a sufficient 
 number of the plants themselves, so arranged as to place be- 
 fore you a living representation of this complicated diagram. 
 
 The laws controlling the chemical evolution of plant -con- 
 stituents are too little comprehended to formulate, but before 
 reaching a position ever to do this, it will be necessary to study 
 carefully the facts from extended researches, to ascertain how 
 these chemical constituents occur, under what conditions, and 
 if these conditions are constant or variable, and to what may 
 be ascribed the variability. 
 
 In speaking of chemical compounds I will describe them as 
 occurring according to the botanical disposition of Heckel's 
 table, which I use provisionally, since it is not probable that 
 this presentation will be the ultimate or best way to introduce 
 the subject. But I am not prepared as yet to offer any other 
 arrangement on a purely chemical basis; since the application 
 of the chemical side of plant life as one more evidence in favor 
 of the hypothesis of evolution is still too new to possess a litera- 
 ture of its own. 
 
 I have already referred to the protoplasm and starch, also to 
 the large ash-percentages of some of the lower groups, and 
 among the compounds commonly found in many plants, tannin 
 appears first, according to the evolutionary order, in liverworts. 
 
 Chlorophyll is one of the earliest compounds to appear, and 
 its presence in Algae and its absence in Fungi is a distinction 
 between the two divisions of the Thallophyta group. Besides 
 this green coloring-matter, which is, with few exceptions, com- 
 mon to all plants, other brilliant coloring-matters occur in some 
 of these lower plant forms which are peculiar to whole fami- 
 lies and correlated with special physiological functions. 
 
 The general distribution of chlorophyll, with few exceptions, 
 in all plant groups is only second to the proteid compounds; 
 however, the color of this compound is not the same tint in all 
 plants, and the evergreens and many other plants when com- 
 
 1 Plate I illustrates this principle for the three horizontal planes, which is 
 also applicable to the orders. 
 
270 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 pared will be found in this respect distinct. The gradual change 
 from the bright greens of the early spring foliage to the duller 
 greens of late summer illustrates the transmutation of color 
 which may be observed in plants, and I would suggest that this 
 same gradation may be seen on the large evolutionary planes 
 of all plant groups, chlorophyll, like the plants, being at differ- 
 ent evolutionary stages; for example, in many Algae and lower 
 plants it appears as light bright greens, and finally in the darker 
 greens of the higher plants. 
 
 Considering in general the chemical compounds of flower- 
 ing plants among the apetals and monocotyledons on the first 
 evolutionary plane, where the plant elements are simple, tan- 
 nin, wax, starch, aromatic or acrid principles, and the oils and 
 sugar of the palm are the most conspicuous substances. These 
 compounds are found in the same or in neighboring plants, 
 and their association is doubtless of evolutionary significance. 
 Glucosides or alkaloids, though occurring in some few of these 
 plants, are not characteristic of this stage of evolution. 
 
 Tannin is a general name for a class of substances which 
 presents many aspects in different plants. It first appears, as 
 was stated, in the liverworts, combined with large quantities 
 of starch and wax; then in ferns. Among the amental apetal- 
 ous groups it is one of the conspicuous compounds, also asso- 
 ciated with starch; the casuarina, willow, poplar, hazel, oak, 
 beech, chestnut, alder, and birch containing large quantities. 
 Tannin is widely distributed, though especially in the leaves, 
 barks, 1 seeds, and rinds of fruits, and in other plants in con- 
 siderable quantities, as the maple, sumach, tea, in many ber- 
 ries, the holly, and the seeds and stalks of the grape-vine. 
 
 Tormentilla erecta, 2 Rosaceae, yields from six to twenty per 
 cent, tannin, and, although this compound is present in mono- 
 and di-cotyledonous plants, it seems to be more prominent in 
 the apetalous on the first evolutionary plane, and to occur less, 
 if at all, in the highest plants. When it is remembered that 
 tannin is found in greater abundance in lower plants, which I 
 
 1 "Repartition du Tannin dans les Diverses Regions du Bois de Chene," 
 Ann. de la Science Agr. 
 
 2 Fraas, Ergebnisse, Landw. Versuche, Miinchen, 1861. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 271 
 
 have compared as formative to the formed or higher evolution- 
 ary groups, it is a still further illustration of what was stated 
 about the higher percentage of ash- constituents in lower plants. 
 
 Physiologists differ as to the tannin functions in plants. It 
 probably serves several purposes; according to Schell, as a 
 plastic material for the building up of tissues, especially where 
 starch or fats are absent; or it exists as a subordinate product. 
 It is certainly true that some tannins play a distinct role as the 
 source of many vegetable colors, the reds and blues of flowers, 
 the brown of tree- barks, and the colors of changing leaves owing 
 their origin to this source. 
 
 The large quantity of starch in most tannin plants is remark- 
 able; and Sachs believes it, or a fixed oil, to be the mother-sub- 
 stance of tannin. 
 
 Datiscin, 1 a kind of starch, is found in the Datisca order, 
 and, among the monocotyledons, the palms occur on the same 
 plane, and in most of their genera contain large quantities of 
 starch, eight hundred pounds of sago having been obtained from 
 one plant of Metroxylon, or the sago-palm species. The Arum 
 pandanus (screw-pine) and bulrush orders yield much starch; 
 of the latter plants, 12.5 per cent from Typha lalifolia (Lecoq). 
 
 Large quantities of wax are found in species of the myrtle, 
 and also of the palm. 
 
 On the second plane, or multiplicity of floral parts, the chem- 
 ical constituents become much more numerous at this stage. 
 Under the apetalous and monocotyledonous groups, volatile, 
 pungent, and aromatic principles, alkaloids, sugars, coloring- 
 matters, camphors, resins, starch, and glucosides appear promi- 
 nently. The lower dicotyledonous plants reproduce many of 
 the compounds of the other two classes, for the Rosaceae con- 
 tain the tannins of the lower apetalous plants and parallel 
 groups, and the glucosides of the higher monocotyledons. 
 
 Cane sugar is a prominent compound here. If a horizontal 
 line be drawn from a given point of Heckel's scheme it passes 
 through the apetalous, mono- and di-cotyledonous groups, which 
 contain this substance most abundantly, namely, the sugar 
 
 1 According to Stenhouse, datiscin is a crystalline glucosidal bitter sub- 
 stance. 
 
272 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 beet, sugar-cane, sorghum, the fruit groups of the Rosaceae, 1 
 and the sugar maple. 
 
 The sugar of the palms, among the highest of plants with 
 simplicity of floral elements, is very like that of the cane. Since 
 the grasses are the lower of monocotyledons with multiplicity 
 of parts, it is notable that at the meeting-ground between these 
 groups, or at the transition-stage into multiplicity, sugar should 
 occur. The sugar of the palm is very little above the sugar line; 
 it may be considered, in an evolutionary sense, as passing to the 
 cane sugar of these other groups, and as forming the apex of a 
 low triangle, the base being the sugar line already described. 
 The large percentage of grape-sugar in the fig, Ficus carica, 
 occurs in a class very nearly on a line with these cane-sugar 
 plants. 
 
 Glucosides are more especially the compounds of the middle 
 plane of plant development, and are found in the higher mono- 
 cotyledons of this stage, in the lower and some of the higher 
 dicotyledons, and less frequently in the highest of all plants, or 
 under cephalization. The first appearance of a glucoside occurs 
 in the apetalous groups of flowering plants, as quercitrin in 
 Gary a tomentosa, Juglandaceas, or in other hickory varieties; 
 then in the next following orders, as salicin and populin, of 
 the willow and poplar; antiarin, of the Ants jar, or Upas-tree 
 (Antiaris toxicaria] ; acorin, of the Arum, and coniferin, of the 
 Coniferae. Among the Lirioideae groups many glucosides occur, 
 especially saponin, and I have found this compound in species 
 of the yucca, agave, and among dicotyledons in leguminous 
 plants; besides, it is found in Rosaceae and other parallel 
 groups. 
 
 Saponin is also found in Smilax, a genus partaking somewhat 
 of the nature of endogens and exogens, and serves to unite all 
 the saponin groups; 1 and although this compound is widely 
 distributed in plants, it is a significant fact that all the groups 
 containing it belong to this middle evolutionary division. 
 
 Rosoll 2 has found saponin in the cell-sap of living roots of 
 Saponaria and Gysophila, and I have elsewhere called attention 
 
 1 "Chemical Basis of Plant Forms." See p. 232. 
 
 2 Monats. Chem., v, 94; Jahresb. d. Chem., 1884. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 273 
 
 to the solvent action of saponin on resins, 1 also on calcium 
 oxalate. This property is of value to the plant not only by act- 
 ing as a solvent of insoluble or slightly soluble compounds, and 
 thus assisting it in obtaining food otherwise difficult of access, 
 but also resins are found in nearly all the Lirioideae, and the 
 presence of this chemical class associated with saponin shows 
 a physiological adaptation of importance to the plant. It may 
 be recalled that the pink family is remarkable for its proportion 
 of lime, and this element is frequently found in large quantities, 
 as well as resins, in other saponin orders. Saponin may thus be 
 called a constructive element in developing the plant from the 
 multiplicity of floral elements to cephalization of these organs. 
 
 Among the members of the higher groups of plants many of 
 the preceding stages of chemical evolution are represented up to 
 a certain point, when the plants acquire other chemical charac- 
 teristics, i.e., indigo, haematoxylin, and other coloring-mat- 
 ters of the leguminous groups, and the dyes of the madder plant, 
 give way to the alkaloids of the cinchona, the coffee, the atropa, 
 and the strychnos orders, and to the organic acids of the vale- 
 rian order, and the aromatic and volatile compounds of the 
 Compositae. 
 
 Alkaloids, though so widely distributed, are not found in the 
 very lowest or the highest plants. Their occurrence in fungi 
 has been already noted. In flowering plants, among the lower 
 apetals, piperin, the alkaloid of Piperaceae, occurs; also, alka- 
 loids are found in the monimia, hemp, laurel, and amaryUis 
 orders, and in colchicum; but they are exceptional in these 
 lower groups, and belong properly to dicotyledons, where they 
 are found in many orders. 
 
 Besides the occurrence of compounds peculiar to distinct 
 plants, or whole plant groups, another class is found, and the 
 substances of this class may be scattered quite generally through 
 the plant kingdom, but always associated with some other com- 
 pound. 
 
 Coumarin, the odorous principle of tonka-bean and vernal 
 grass, is one illustration; its occurrence is limited to those plants 
 
 1 "Yucca Angustifolia," Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., see p. 126; "Chemical 
 Basis of Plant Forms," Journal Franklin Institute. See p. 232. 
 
274 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 containing oils, and since, in many genera in which this sub- 
 stance has been found, certain fixed or ethereal oils also occur, 
 it may be inferred that this constancy relates to their chemical 
 evolution. The palms are the lowest plants which contain cou- 
 marin; then it occurs in the grass and rose families on the same 
 evolutionary plane, also among the leguminous, madder, rue, 
 and portulaca orders, and in orchids and Composite. These 
 plants are characterized by their aromatic and volatile oily pro- 
 ducts; and vanillin, the fragrant principle of vanilla, also oc- 
 curs among orchids. It may be noted that oils are formed abun- 
 dantly in the highest plants. 
 
 A knowledge of the chemical compounds, as they are found 
 grouped in plants, is a first step towards the study of their 
 evolution, and acquaintance with the conditions which control 
 their synthesis and gradual formation in the plant can only be 
 had by patient research. The simpler compounds of which any 
 complex substance is built, if located as compounds of lower 
 plants, would indicate the lines of progression from the lower 
 to the higher groups. 
 
 It has been already said that every plant contains compounds 
 peculiar to it, but certain compounds seem x to play a special 
 part in plant evolution, since the wax and tannin of the vascu- 
 lar cryptogams lead to the tannin and wax groups of the apet- 
 alous plants, and the starch of these lower plants to the great 
 starch groups of the monocotyledonous. It will not be out of 
 place to note here that the greatest accumulations of starch oc- 
 cur in plant orders just before they pass on to a higher plane of 
 evolution. This is seen, for example, in the palm and neigh- 
 boring orders of the first plane, and among the Lirioideae of the 
 second plane, since these plants are the richest in starch con- 
 stituents, and it seems as if they were preparing by large reserve 
 of food-supply for their higher position, represented by more 
 evolved groups, where the demands for nutrition are greater. 
 Again, the line of cane sugar indicates that sugar occurs promi- 
 nently in plants passing from simplicity to multiplicity of floral 
 elements, and the glucosides in their turn are found in the mid- 
 dle stage of plant development, assisting the plants to the high- 
 est plane of cephalization. 
 
I 
 
 pra/^sjp/?^ 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 TANNIN/ 
 
 WAX 
 
 STA 
 
 RCH 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 SUGAR 
 
 ^^, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 GLUCOSIDES 
 CAOUCHOUC 
 
 DYES 
 
 SAP 
 
 ONIN 
 ESINJ 
 
 l^v'V'v'VO 
 
 D 
 
 CAMPHOR 
 RESINS 
 
 YES 
 
 
 
 STARCH 
 
 
 
 Ol 
 
 LS 
 
 
 
 ALKALOIDS 
 
 
 
 
 ACIDS 
 
 OILS 
 
 
 
 
 PLATE II 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 275 
 
 Plate II is a chemical representation, drawn after Heckel's 
 botanical table, and, from what has preceded it, will be easily 
 comprehended. It is not to be inferred that all classes of chem- 
 ical compounds found in plants are represented, since only a 
 few have been used for illustration, nor that all of these given 
 compounds occur only in the designated plant groups, since 
 they may occur in traces, or varying quantities, elsewhere. 
 However, these compounds are conspicuous as being especially 
 typical of the plant groups which correspond to their location, 
 and where their presence is doubtless associated with the plant's 
 evolution. 
 
 The chemical compounds which may be said to be typical 
 of an order, species, or an individual member of a series would 
 be out of place in this general presentation. 
 
 Some plant groups, as the Proteaceae, orchids, and Compo- 
 sitae, develop in aesthetic beauty at the expense of their chemi- 
 cal constituents, all resources go to develop the perfection of 
 the flower, and the absence of numerous compounds in these 
 plants is a strong point in favor of chemical evolution favoring 
 plant development. These beautiful plants, being among the 
 highest of their series, may well be called the aristocrats of the 
 vegetable kingdom. 
 
 It is still impossible to demonstrate the full significance of 
 this chemical theory in plant development, but it will be evident 
 to any one who examines botanical and chemical facts that the 
 presence of certain chemical compounds is associated with cer- 
 tain botanical conditions, and where these conditions are va- 
 riable, is found a like variability of chemical composition. If it 
 can be proved that chemical and botanical morphology are not 
 one and the same, at least the two are very intimately corre- 
 lated. 
 
 It has been said that many of the constituents found in plants 
 are the result of destructive metabolism, and are of no further 
 use in the plant's economy, but our knowledge of what consti- 
 tute plastic and waste products is by no means settled, and even 
 should we be forced to accept the conclusion that some pro- 
 ducts are of no use to the plant, yet it is a significant fact that 
 certain cell-tissues or organs secrete or excrete chemical com- 
 
276 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 pounds peculiar to them, and found in only one family, or in 
 species closely allied to it. 
 
 Broadly speaking, the study of plant life cannot be confined 
 within the limits of the vegetable cells, since its radiations reach 
 to the domains of mineralogy and animal life. From a chem- 
 ical point alone it would be difficult to discriminate in every 
 case between the plant and animal cell. The series of animal 
 gums, carbohydrates, alkaloids, and coloring-matters find 
 their analogous series in plants. By the study of embryology 
 it is found that alantoin occurs in animal and plant life, also 
 glycogen and inosite are found in both kingdoms, and the se- 
 cretion of some plant-leaves is a fluid chemically like the ani- 
 mal gastric juice. 
 
 M. Leo Errera, 1 in a recent paper on a fundamental condi- 
 tion of equilibrium of living cells, calls attention to the thin and 
 plastic condition of plant as well as animal cells at the moment 
 of their formation, and their tendency to assume a form which, 
 under the same conditions, an imponderable lamina of liquid 
 would take, and he attributes to this fact their adaptability and 
 the facility with which they change. He believes that we can 
 trace to this cause the great number of organic forms, and for 
 the first time unite the architecture of the cell to molecular 
 physics. Only with age the cell-membrane becomes thick and 
 offers a considerable resistance. 
 
 It may be suggested that this fact is further exhibited when 
 applied to the conditions obtained when plants pass from their 
 younger to older stages; again, it is seen on comparing the lower 
 plastic protoplasmic plants with the rigidity and firmness of the 
 tissues of the higher plants, and in the change from the semi- 
 fluid to the formed and fixed states of chemical compounds. 
 
 The law of progression is one that regards the general good 
 to the disregard of the individual; since in the death or fixation 
 and crystallization of individuals the vegetable kingdom, on the 
 whole, has ascended to its highest present living form, and many 
 of its constituent chemical parts had long ago reached their 
 pinnacle in the cycle of evolution. This concerns equally the 
 changes in the vegetable-cell, and its complex molecule of pro- 
 
 1 Comp. Rend., t. xiii, 1886, p. 822. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 277 
 
 teid is built from simple substances, which in turn break down 
 into less complex bodies, and are again reconstructed into pro- 
 teids, or, as cellulose and other compounds, remain as the com- 
 ponent parts of tissue in higher plants, thus serving the mechan- 
 ical and physiological needs of the organism. 
 
 Aside from the practical application of plant products to 
 dietetics, pharmacy, and the industries, it is eminently for pur- 
 poses of scientific investigation that the field of plant chemistry 
 is most promising. 
 
 It has been suggested to me, from botanical sources, that time 
 will be unwisely expended over a detailed study of the chemical 
 compounds of plants; in this, as in mineralogy, its use as a 
 means of classification will depend upon the convictions of the 
 investigator, although it seems to me that many of the vexed 
 questions of plant development can be solved only by a full 
 comprehension of vegetable chemistry. 
 
 It is not to be inferred that " botanists," the knights of mor- 
 phology and systematic classification, will thereby be deprived, 
 by chemists, from tilting over the floral tournament courts. 
 Perhaps in such pleasant pastimes of contest for disputed plant 
 groups this veteran army of knights- errant may at least become 
 weary, and willingly exchange the lance for the balance. 
 
 The vegetable kingdom is so vast that the botanico- chemical 
 facts at our disposal are meagre in comparison to the data re- 
 quired, and in consequence many of the explanatory statements 
 advanced can only be considered in the light of speculation. 
 Vistas have opened most promisingly but to be cut off suddenly 
 by a limitation of these details, and I cannot urge too strongly 
 the very great importance of minute chemical research at least 
 in certain typical members of botanical groups. Without such 
 investigation a great deal of our present knowledge is worthless. 
 The changes of the chemical compounds within the cell, the 
 simultaneous appearance of two or more compounds always in 
 association, and the predominance of some one compound in 
 certain plant groups, should be seriously considered before the 
 evolution of plant chemistry be definitely approved or con- 
 demned. These facts suggest questions which must be answered 
 before a further advance can be made in plant biology. 
 
2 y8 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 The practical application of a theory which advocates that 
 the morphology of a plant is the outcome of its chemistry, will 
 be used by the chemist to direct him to certain plant groups for 
 any compound which experience proves to be present with 
 similar morphological characters in other groups. 
 
 It has been recently suggested * that many of the chemical 
 compounds may serve the plant as means of defense against 
 animals, and when we camphorize our furniture and poison our 
 flower-beds, . we are only imitating and reinventing what the 
 plants practiced before the existence of man; and I may add 
 that the cinchona- trees of malarial countries proclaimed long 
 since their subtle therapeutical skill in securing for themselves 
 a corner in quinine manufacture, independent of contempo- 
 rary sources. 
 
 A full acquaintance with the chemical compounds of living 
 plant orders may even lead to a chemistry of paleo-botany, and 
 where the fossil forms resemble modern groups, as in some of 
 the well-preserved remains lately discovered in France, 2 the 
 same chemical compounds might have existed as are now found 
 in similar groups. From the knowledge which will one day be 
 ours, of the morphology and evolution of chemical substances, 
 a flora may be reconstructed reaching far back into the recesses 
 of time. 
 
 In minerals, plants, and animals the same principles recur, 
 though, at each higher plane, under more complicated condi- 
 tions; and any one who, on visiting the Hot Springs of the 
 Yellowstone National Park, has seen the non-carboniferous 
 gelatinous masses assuming the forms of organized life, will 
 ask himself if silica, under some conditions, may not replace 
 carbon and become living matter. Since Confervas do live in 
 these springs at high temperature, perhaps some such locality 
 as the Yellowstone may have been the birthplace of "a pro- 
 toplasmic primordial atomic globule." 
 
 The impulse which directs minerals to masquerade as living 
 plants and animals often manifests itself, for example, in the 
 ferns called stag-horns; and orchids, disguised like insects, pre- 
 
 1 M. Leo Errera, Royal Bot. Soc. of Belgium, Revise Scien., 2gth Jan., 1887, 
 
 2 M. Louis Crie, Comp. Rend., t. ciii, p. 1143. 
 
HIGHER AND LOWER PLANTS 279 
 
 tend to be what they are not. When will all of these intricacies 
 of nature's secrets belong to commonplace facts ? The day is 
 distant. And in the meantime my hour is drawing to a close; 
 and, to return to my first statement of the evolution of the chem- 
 ical elements, I would say that the studies * of Lecoq de Bois- 
 baudron, Auer, Demarcay, and Crookes on didymium, and the 
 latter' s researches on yttria, and more recently on the crimson 
 line of phosphorescent alumina, 2 go to show that the mole- 
 cules of these so-called elements are compound, and if I have 
 dwelt at all upon this subject, in connection with plant life, it 
 is on account of the indisputably serious nature of the inves- 
 tigations in this field. The following concluding remarks of 
 Professor Crookes' s address 3 show that the theory of the 
 chemical evolution of plant compounds has an able ally. He 
 says, " We cannot venture to assert positively that our so-called 
 elements have been evolved from one primordial matter, but we 
 may contend that the balance of evidence . . . fairly weighs 
 in favor of this speculation. . . . The doctrine of evolution, as 
 you well know, has thrown a new light upon and given a new 
 impulse to every department of biology, leading us, may we 
 not hope, to anticipate a corresponding wakening light in the 
 domain of chemistry. I would ask investigators not neces- 
 sarily either to accept or reject the hypothesis of chemical 
 evolution, but to treat it as a provisional hypothesis; to keep 
 it in view in their researches, to inquire how far it lends 
 itself to the interpretation of the phenomena observed, and to 
 test experimentally every line of thought which points in this 
 direction." 
 
 From the above sketch I have attempted to show that the 
 hypothesis of evolution may also apply to the chemistry of plant 
 compounds, and that plant chemistry will be found, like any 
 special study, to include many others. It is, however, excep- 
 tional in its broad range, and the variety of its topics, like the 
 variations of flower-species, may be cultivated to suit the taste 
 of the investigator. 
 
 1 Comp. Rend., t. civ, 1887, p. 165, M. Henri Besquerel. 
 
 2 Chem. News, Jan. 21, 1887. 
 
 8 Delivered before the British A. A. S., 1886. 
 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SOLID HYDROCAR- 
 BONS IN PLANTS 1 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF THE PHILADEL- 
 PHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY 
 
 [At a stated meeting of the American Philosophical Society, 
 Philadelphia, March 16, 1888, Miss Helen C. De S. Abbott 
 made the following remarks on the Occurrence of a Series of 
 New Crystalline Compounds in Higher Plants. 
 
 "In many plants, especially those which belong to the natu- 
 ral orders Simarubacese, Polemoniaceae, Rubiaceae, Ebenaceae, 
 Rhodoraceae, and Compositae occur, respectively, a class of com- 
 pounds which present definite crystalline forms. They are ex- 
 tracted from the plants most readily by a light petroleum- ether. 
 Boiling absolute alcohol was used to purify these compounds 
 from fats, wax, and coloring-matter, and by fractional crystalli- 
 zation three distinct forms of crystals were obtained which in 
 ultimate analysis represented compounds of different chemical 
 constitution. 
 
 "These bodies are characterized by containing a high per- 
 centage of carbon. They are indifferent to alkalies and have 
 high melting-points. The discovery of one of these compounds 
 in Cascara amarga was made by me in 1884, and announced 
 at the Buffalo Meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science. Since that time my investigations are 
 continuing, and from those studies I am able to announce, as 
 derived from plant sources, compounds which until now have 
 not been observed. Lately, from independent investigations, 
 Professor Henry Trimble has also discovered similar com- 
 
 1 Printed in the American Journal of Chemistry, Philadelphia, July, 1888. 
 Noticed in American Chemical Journal, vol. x, p. 439; also in Berichte d. 
 Deutschen Chem, Ges., vol. xx, p. 202. In this investigation and report Mr. 
 Trimble was associated with Miss Abbott. 
 
SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS 281 
 
 pounds in various plants. Our eventual results will form the 
 substance of a future communication." 
 
 The results of the investigations referred to in the above pre- 
 liminary announcement appear in the following paper, entitled 
 "On the Occurrence of Solid Hydrocarbons in Plants," by 
 Helen C. De S. Abbott and Henry Trimble.] 
 
 WHEN many plants of the higher botanical orders are ex- 
 hausted with petroleum-ether, crystalline compounds may be 
 separated from the extracts which have not been noticed previ- 
 ously to these investigations. These compounds are also obtained 
 when alcohol or ether is used as a solvent ; but it is preferable, 
 on account of the greater number of constituents extracted by 
 these menstrua, to employ petroleum- ether, and thus avoid 
 certain difficulties of separation. Among the plants in which 
 up to this time these compounds have been discovered may 
 be mentioned Cascara amarga, Phlox Carolina, and the Phlox 
 species, Anthemis nobilis, and in different species of the follow- 
 ing natural orders : Rubiaceae, Rhodoraceae, Eupatoriaceae, and 
 others among the Compositae. 
 
 - The crystals from these petroleum-ether extracts first at- 
 tracted attention in the winter of 1884. Samples of " chichi- 
 pate" bark which yielded, on powdering, about two hundred 
 grams, were then obtained and submitted to chemical ex- 
 amination. This bark was subsequently, from chemical analy- 
 sis, identified as Cascara amarga. 1 
 
 Other investigations prevented the announcement of this 
 work until some time later, under the title of "Preliminary 
 Analysis of a Honduras Plant named ' Chichipate.' " 2 In this 
 paper a new crystalline compound was described and identified 
 by its physical and chemical properties as a "camphor-like 
 body." Its analysis gave the following results : 
 
 I. II. 
 
 C. 80.84 80.90 
 
 H. 10.13 io.li 
 
 1 Journal Franklin Institute, vol. cxxiv, p. i, Abbott. 
 
 2 By Helen C. De S. Abbott. Amer. Assoc. Adv. of Science, Buffalo, Aug., 
 1886. 
 
 
282 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 A compound resembling the one from chichipate was also 
 discovered later in Phlox Carolina, 1 and the account of it was 
 read before a meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Asso- 
 ciation at Providence, R. L, September, 1886. The combus- 
 tions of this camphor-like substance gave the following: 
 
 I. II. 
 
 C. 82.49 82.57 
 
 H. ii. ii 11.23 
 
 From subsequent study, we were led to believe that the above 
 results were based upon a mixture of compounds. Because of 
 the small amounts of crude material then at our disposal we 
 were not able to overcome the difficulties inherent in purifying 
 and separating these substances. However, from the prelimi- 
 nary investigations we were induced to think that these com- 
 pounds presented features of unusual interest and novelty. 
 
 Recently we began anew our studies upon twenty-five and 
 twenty kilos of Cascara amarga 2 and Phlox Carolina respec- 
 tively. 
 
 The drugs were very thoroughly exhausted with a light pe- 
 troleum-ether, boiling-point under 45 C. The total solids ex- 
 tracted from Cascara amarga were 2.015 P er cent. ; of this about 
 o.i per cent, were fats. The yield from Phlox Carolina was i.oo 
 per cent., including traces of coloring- matter. On heating to 
 110 C., there was no appreciable loss of weight in Cascara. 
 The Phlox contained small quantities of volatile oil. 
 
 The extracts, on evaporating spontaneously, deposited upon 
 the sides of a dish or beaker glittering, white, feather-like crys- 
 tals, often several centimeters in length. At the bottom of the 
 glass were stellate groups of brilliant acicular crystals. Fats, 
 wax, and in Phlox a red coloring-matter accompanied the 
 crystalline principle, and rendered the subsequent purification 
 tedious and difficult. 
 
 The method finally adopted to purify, upon freeing the 
 petroleum-ether residue from fats and coloring-matter, was to 
 
 1 " On the Underground Portion of Phlox Carolina." By Henry Trimble. 
 Amer. Jour. Pharm., vol. Iviii, p. 479. 
 
 2 By Helen C. De S. Abbott, New York, August, 1887. 
 
SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS 283 
 
 treat it with boiling absolute alcohol, filter out the wax, 
 which separated on cooling, and allow the filtrate to evaporate 
 at the ordinary temperature. By fractional crystallization at 
 least three substances of different and definite crystalline forms 
 have been separated. We have, at present, examined only one 
 of these constituent compounds; whether the others are the 
 result of oxidation during the separating and purifying pro- 
 cesses or exist as such in the plants, we are now unable to 
 state. 
 
 The subject of our communication is the compound the least 
 soluble in alcohol of the three obtained by fractionation. It 
 formed silky, acicular crystals, often two to four centimeters 
 in length, which, under polarized light, gave a play of colors. 
 It also exhibited decidedly electrical properties. To determine 
 the melting-point, about 0.5 of a gram of the crystals were 
 placed directly in the inner tube of an apparatus devised by 
 Roth, for the determination of melting-points. The substance 
 melted at 196.2 C. to 196.4 C., leaving a clear, amber-colored 
 mass. On heating to a higher temperature, the substance de- 
 composed and vapor was driven off in dense clouds. It had an 
 odor very like sandal wood; when condensed upon a cool sur- 
 face, the sublimate consisted of fluffy crystals of a lower melt- 
 ing-point. 
 
 The silky, acicular crystals were soluble in petroleum-ether, 
 ethylic and acetic ethers, benzole, chloroform, hot alcohol, gla- 
 cial acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and linseed oil. The addition 
 of water to the acetic anhydride reprecipitated the substance, 
 in white, flaky masses. The crystals were insoluble in hot, 
 cold, or acidulated water, or in the alkalies or other hydrate 
 solutions ; insoluble in amyl alcohol and alcoholic soda. Nitric 
 and sulphuric acids dissolved the crystals ; sulphuric acid gave 
 a reddish-brown coloration. 
 
 The first ultimate analyses of this purified product from 
 Cascara amarga gave the following results: 
 
 i. ii. m. 
 
 C. 86.30 86.29 86.33 
 
 H. 12.96 12.96 12.83 
 
284 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 While the mean percentage obtained from these combustions 
 indicated oxidation or the presence of adherent impurities, they 
 also pointed strongly to the conclusion that the compound was 
 a solid hydrocarbon. 
 
 The announcement of this discovery was reserved until it 
 should be confirmed by further study. But a paper describing 
 generally the occurrence of crystalline compounds rich in car- 
 bon was read, by title, last summer before the American Asso- 
 ciation for the Advancement of Science. 1 This inference has 
 been put beyond doubt by the further study of the compound. 
 
 Twenty-five kilos of Cascara amarga were extracted and 
 the residue purified by often repeated fractional crystalliza- 
 tions, from which the following results were obtained :- 
 
 0.1058 grms. gave 0.3413 CO 2 and 0.1133 H 2 O. 
 
 0.1113 grms. gave 0.3588 CO 2 and 0.1193 H 2 O. 
 
 I. II. 
 
 C. 87.97 87.89 
 
 H. 11.89 II -9 
 
 99.86 99.79 
 
 From the plants mentioned at the beginning of this paper 
 in which this crystalline principle exists, the Phlox Carolina 
 was also selected as the one to confirm still further the pre- 
 sence and identity of this principle and its chemical compo- 
 sition. 
 
 Recently about 15 kilos of this drug were exhausted and the 
 compound separated and repeatedly purified. Its ultimate 
 analyses gave the following: 
 
 0.1117 grms. gave 0.3600 CO 2 and 0.1208 H 2 O. 
 0.1314 grms. gave 0.4228 CO 2 and 0.1421 H 2 O. 
 
 I. II. Theory for (C n H 18 ) x 
 
 C. 87.90 87.76 88.00 
 
 H. 12.02 12.02 12.00 
 
 99.92 99-78 100.00 
 
 The above results indicate that this compound is an unsat- 
 urated hydrocarbon, and we intend to make it the subject of 
 
 1 By Helen C. De S. Abbott, New York, August, 1887. 
 
SOLID HYDROCARBONS IN PLANTS 285 
 
 a thorough chemical investigation with a view of ascertaining 
 its chemical constitution. 
 
 Whilst the discovery of the hydrocarbon resulted from in- 
 dependent investigations on different plants, we are agreed 
 that the identity of the compounds justifies us in publishing 
 together these results of our studies. 
 
UBER EINE NEUE BILDUNGSWEISE VON ARO- 
 MATISCHEN NITRILEN * 
 
 BEKANNTLICH ist die Condensation von Aldehyden und Keton- 
 sauren mit aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen als das End- 
 resultat zweier Vorgange aufgefasst worden, indem das erste 
 Stadium dieser Reaction eine der Aldolbildung entsprechende 
 Polymerisation darstellt, wobei ein secundares Carbinol ent- 
 steht, und nun das Condensationsmittel auf die entstandene 
 Verbindung und den Kohlenwasserstoff unter Wasserentzie- 
 hung einwirkt. Diese Auffassung ist durch die schon von V. 
 B a e y e r 2 beobachtete Wasserentziehung aus Gemischen von 
 Carbinolen und aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen unter- 
 stiitzt worden, sowie dadurch, dass spater V. Meyer und Wurs- 
 ter 3 aus Benzylalkohol und Benzol das Diphenylmethan, 
 und Hemilian 4 aus Diphenylcarbinol und Benzol das Tri- 
 phenylmethan darstellten, und namentlich dass man in gewis- 
 sen Fallen die Bildung von solchen intermediaren Zwischen- 
 producten constatirt hat. Es schien uns moglich auch die durch 
 Addition von Blausaure auf Aldehyde und Ketone entstehende 
 Hydroxynitrile, welche als Carbinolderivate aufgefasst werden 
 konnen, mit aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen zu conden- 
 siren, wodurch man zu einer neuen Synthese von aromatischen 
 Nitrilen gelangen wiirde. Die folgenden Versuche mit Man- 
 delsaurenitril und verschiedenen aromatischen Kohlenwas- 
 serstoffen zeigen, dass in der That diese Synthese mit Leichtig- 
 keit ausfiihrbar ist. 
 
 Es wurde zuerst versucht, das Diphenylacetonitril darzu- 
 
 1 Printed in the Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, XXV, 
 1615; also in pamphlet form, Berlin, 1892. With Mrs. Michael was associated 
 John Jeanpretre. 
 
 2 Diese Berichte VT, 221. * Diese Berichte VI, 963. 
 4 Diese Berichte VII, 1203. 
 
VON AROMATISCHEN NITRILEN 287 
 
 stellen und zu diesem Zwecke haben wir zu einem Gemisch 
 von einer Losung von einem Theile Mandelsaurenitril und 
 zwei Theilen Benzol etwa ein Theil Phosphorpentoxyd zuge- 
 setzt ; und, nachdem in der Kalte keine Einwirkung stattf and, 
 auf dem Wasserbade wahrend fiinf Stunden erwarmt. Die 
 Reactionsmasse wurde mit Wasser gewaschen, behufs Entfer- 
 nung der Phosphorsaure, und mehrmals mit Benzol ausgezo- 
 gen. Eine bedeutende Menge, durch Einwirkung von Phos- 
 phorpentoxyd auf Mandelsaurenitril allein entstandener Ver- 
 bindungen blieben als in Benzol unlosliche stark gefarbte Harze 
 zuriick, wahrend der Destillationsriickstand der filtrirten 
 Benzollosung durch Destination im Vacuum etwa ein Drittheil 
 der angewandten Menge Mandelsaurenitrils an einem gelb- 
 lichen 6le lieferte, das bald nachher erstarrte. Unter 45 mm 
 ging die Verbindung gegen 200 iiber und schmolz nach ein- 
 igen Krystallisationen aus Ligroi'n bei 72. Anschiitz und 
 Romig 1 haben durch Erhitzen von Cyanquecksilber mit 
 Diphenylbromathan ebenfalls das Diphenylessigsaurenitril 
 dargestellt und denselben Schmelzpunkt beobachtet. 
 
 Unter ganz ahnlichen Bedingungen wurde der Versuch mit 
 einem Gemisch von Mandelsaurenitril und Toluol ausgefiihrt 
 und er nahm auch einen entsprechenden Verlauf . Nach Ent- 
 fernung des Toluols destillirte bei 40 mm Druck gegen 240 
 eine gelbliche Fliissigkeit die ebenfalls bald erstarrte und durch 
 Krystallisation aus verdunntem Alkohol seidenglanzende 
 Nadeln vom Schmelzpunkt 61 lieferte, die in absolutem Al- 
 kohol und Ather sehr leicht loslich sind. 
 
 Eine Verbrennung ergab folgende fur Tolylphenylaceto- 
 nitril stimmende Zahlen. 
 
 I. 0.2096 g gab 0.6697 g Kohlensaure und 0.1294 g Wasser. 
 II. 0.2819 g Substanz lieferte 16.5 cc Stickstoff bei 12 und 754 mm 
 Druck. 
 
 CN Gefunden 
 
 Ber.furC,H s .< CsH4 . CH] I. II. 
 
 C 86.95 86.90 pCt. 
 
 H 6.28 6.84 " 
 
 N 6.77 6.90 " 
 
 1 Ann. Chem. Pharm. 233, 349. 
 
288 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Dieselbe Verbindung ist schon von Neure l auf eine um- 
 standliche Weise gewonnen worden, indem er Chlorphosphor 
 auf Paraphenyltolylessigsaureamid einwirken liess, mit dem 
 Unterschied, dass der Schmelzpunkt derselben von ihm zu 59 
 angegeben wurde. 
 
 Um die bedeutende Verharzung, die sich bei den beschrie- 
 benen Condensationen zeigt zu verringern, haben wir als was- 
 serentziehendes Mittel Zinntetrachlorid benutzt, und auf diese 
 Weise kann man in der That eine bedeutend bessere Ausbeute 
 erzielen. Zu einer Losung von Mandelsaurenitril in Toluol, 
 in molecularen Verhaltnissen, wurde die Halfte am Gewichte 
 von Zinntetrachlorid zugesetzt und das Gemisch farbte sich 
 schon bei gewohnlicher Temperatur stark dunkel; die Re- 
 action wurde aber durch zweistiindiges Erwarmen auf dem 
 Wasserbade beendigt, wobei sich nur eine ganz geringe Ent- 
 wicklung von Blausaure bemerkbar machte. Das Ganze 
 wurde in Wasser gegossen und nach Zusatz von etwas Ather 
 getrennt. Durch Destination des Atherriickstandes im Va- 
 cuum wurden neben unverandertem Toluol und etwas Ben- 
 zaldehyd etwa 30 pCt. der theoretischen Ausbeute von To- 
 lylphenylacetonitril als schwach gefarbtes, bald erstarrendes Ol 
 gewonnen. 
 
 Zur Bereitung der Saure haben wir das Nitril mit concen- 
 trirter Salzsaure im Rohr auf 100 erhitzt, wobei aber nach 12 
 Stunden noch keine Verseifung stattgefunden hatte. Letztere 
 Operation gelingt, wenn das Nitril wahrend sechs Stunden mit 
 einer concentrirten alkoholischen Kalilosung am Riickfluss- 
 kiihler erwarmt wird. Nach Entfernung des Alkohols und Zu- 
 satz von Wasser fallt beim Ansauern ein roth gefarbtes Ol 
 aus, welches wir zur Reinigung in Ammoniak losten und durch 
 Zusatz von Chlorbaryum in das fast unlosliche Baryumsalz per 
 Tolylphenylessigsaure verwandelten. Durch Krystallisation 
 aus Alkohol kann es, wie Zincke 2 beschreibt, leicht ge- 
 reinigt werden; eine Krystallwasserbestimmung, die 2 Mol. 
 Krystallwasser ergab, stimmt mit den Angaben von Zincke 
 uberein. 
 
 1 Ann. Chem. Pharm. 250, 149. 
 
 2 Diese Berichte X, 997. 
 
VON AROMATISCHEN NITRILEN 289 
 
 0.2203 g Substanz gaben 0.0145 g Wasser. 
 
 Ber. fur C 28 H 24 O 4 Ca 2H 2 O Gefunden 
 
 H 2 O 6.84 6.59 pCt. 
 
 Durch Zersetzen dieses Salzes mit verdiinnter Salzusare ge- 
 winnt man die entsprechende Saure von Neuem als Ol, das 
 in kurzer Zeit fast vollstandig fest wird. Nach einigen Krys- 
 tallisationen aus Alkohol erhielten wir die Verbindung rein 
 mit dem schon von Zincke gefundenen Schmelzpunkt 
 
 "5 : 
 
 Wir versuchten ferner Mandelsaurenitril mit Mesitylen 'zu 
 
 condensiren und zwar so, dass auf 3 Theile Nitril 2 Theile 
 Mesitylen und ein Theil Zinntetrachlorid, wahrend sechs 
 Stundun auf Wasserbadtemperatur erhitzt wurden. Durch 
 Behandeln der Reactionsmasse mit Wasserdampf wurde un- 
 verandertes Mesitylen entfernt, das aus dem Riickstand 
 gewonnene Ol, etwa 40 pCt. der theoretischen Menge, wurde 
 bei 40 mm Druck zwischen 220 und 230 destillat. Das De- 
 stillat erstarrt sogleich und wurde durch wiederholte Krys- 
 tallisation aus Ligroi'n und verdiinntem Alkohol in schwach 
 gelblichen Prismen erhalten, die constant bei 91 schmolzen. 
 
 Die folgende Verbrennung stimmt mit Phenyltrimethyl- 
 phenylacetonitril iiberein. 
 
 PNT 
 Ber. fur C 6 H 5 CH < JrJ, ,- N o f j 
 
 C 6 H 2 . (CH 3 ) 3 Gefunden 
 
 k C 86.80 86.57 PCt. 
 
 H 7.23 7.48 pCt. 
 
 Mit Naphtalin und Mandelsaurenitril geht die Condensa- 
 tion viel leichter vor sich als mit Benzol oder Toluol. Um das 
 Phenylnaphtylacetonitril darzustellen, haben wir zuerst Phos- 
 phorpentoxyd auf das blosse Gemisch der beiden Korper ein- 
 wirken lassen, aber es fand eine starke Blausaure-Entwickel- 
 ung unter tiefgehender Verharzung statt. Wirh aben daher 
 das Nitril wie das Naphtalin in Chloroform gelost und nach 
 Zusatz des Phosphorpentoxyds wahrend sechs Stunden auf 
 dem Wasserbade erwarmt. Die sehr dunkel gefarbte Fliissig- 
 keit wurde alsdann mit Wasser behandelt und zur Trennung 
 von den harzigen Nebenproducten mit Ather ausgeschiittelt ; 
 
2 9 o PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 der Riickstand, der nach dem Abdestilliren des Athers hin- 
 terblieb, wurde im Vacuum rectificirt, wo, nachdem unveran- 
 dertes Naphtalin iibergegangen war, unter 45 mm Druck ein 
 gelbes dickfliissiges 6l bei 280 ohne Zersetzung destillirte. 
 Im Exsiccator erstarrte das ganze Destillat nach kurzer Zeit 
 und die Masse wurde zur Reingewinnung aus Alkohol um- 
 krystallisirt. Wir erhielten das neue Nitril auf diese Weise in 
 schonen farblosen Prismen, die bei 97 schmolzen. Sie sind 
 ziemlich loslich in Alkohol und Chloroform, weniger loslich in 
 Ather und fast unloslich in Ligroin und Wasser. Durch fol- 
 gende Verbrennung wird die Zusammensetzung als Naphtyl- 
 phenylacetonitril bestatigt. 
 
 0.2295 & g a ben 0.7481 g Kohlensaure und 0.1175 g Wasser. 
 Ber. fur C 6 H 5 . CH < Gefunden 
 
 C 88.88 89.33 pCt. 
 
 H 5.76 5.69 pCt. 
 
 Selbst unter diesen Bedingungen ist die Ausbeute immer 
 noch gering und geht nicht liber 10 bis 12 pCt. der Theorie. 
 Wurde dagegen Zinntetrachlorid als Condensationsmittel in 
 Anwendung gebracht, so gelangten wir zu weit giinstigeren 
 Resultaten. Das Naphtalin wurde in Chloroform gelost, die- 
 selbe Menge Mandelsaurenitril zugefugt und mit der Halfte 
 des Gewichtes Zinntetrachlorid versetzt. Das Ganze erwarmte 
 man wahrend zehn Stunden auf dem Wasserbade, behandelte 
 dann behufs Entfernung unveranderten Naphtalins und etwas 
 gebildeten Benzaldehyds mit Wasserdampf und zog den Riick- 
 stand mit Ather aus. Wir gewannen auf diesem Wege 40 
 bis 45 pCt. der Theorie eines rothbraunen sehr dicken Oles, 
 das unter 38 mm Druck fast vollstandig zwischen 271 bis 274 
 als gelbliche, schon griinfluorescirende Fliissigkeit iiberging; 
 sobald alles fest geworden war, reinigten wir das Product wie 
 oben angegeben, durch Krystallisation aus Alkohol. 
 
 Die Verseifung dieses Naphtylphenylacetonitrils gelingt 
 durch zweistiindiges Erhitzen mit alkoholischem Kali, und 
 zwar kamen auf einen Theil Nitril zwei Theile Kalihydrat in 
 Anwendung. Versetzt man die noch heisse Losung mit dem 
 
VON AROMATISCHEN NITRILEN 291 
 
 gleichen Volumen Wasser, so krystallisirt beim Erkalten das 
 Kaliumsalz der Saure in perlmutterglanzenden Blattchen aus. 
 Aus der wassrigen Losung des Salzes fallt beim Ansauern rein 
 weisse Naphtylphenylessigsaure nieder, die nach Krystallisa- 
 tion aus Alkohol constant bei 141 schmilzt. Die Verbrennung 
 dieser Saure gab folgende Zahlen: 
 
 0.1605 g Substanz gaben 0.4830 g Kohlensaure und 0.0770 g Wasser. 
 
 Ber. fur C 6 H 5 . CH< H Gefunden 
 
 don? 
 C 82.44 82.05 pCt. 
 
 H 5-33 5-34 " 
 
 Diese Saure bildet prismatische Saulen, welche in Alkohol, 
 Ather, Chloroform und Schwefelkohlenstoff loslich sind, weni- 
 ger leicht in Benzol und gar nicht in Wasser. 
 
 Die hier mitgetheilte Synthese von aromatischen Nitrilen 
 besitzt ein zweifaches Interesse, da sie gestattet, sonst sehr 
 schwierig darstellbare Kb'rper leicht in jeder Quantitat zu er- 
 halten und sie ermoglicht deshalb das Verhalten soldier Ni- 
 trile 1 gegen Natrium leichter zu studiren. 
 
 Wir beabsichtigen die neuen Nitrile in dieser Beziehung zu 
 untersuchen, sowie Versuche iiber die Condensation von an- 
 deren aromatischen, sowie auch fetten Hydroxynitrilen mit 
 aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen anzustellen, und mochten 
 uns die weitere Ausarbeitung dieses Themas vorbehalten. 
 
 1 V- Meyer, Ann. Chem. Pharm. 250, 118. 
 
ZUR KENNTNISS DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES 
 
 NITRILS 1 
 
 NACHDEM VON MEYER* gezeigt hat, dass Phenylacetonitril 
 ein Natriumderivat lieferte, welches zur Darstellung von ho- 
 mologen Nitrilen benutzt werden kann, war es wahrscheinlich 
 dass Phenylathoxyacetonitril gegen Natrium in ahnlicher Weise 
 sich verhalten wiirde. Die Ausbildung einer solchen Methode 
 ware insofern von Interesse, da man durch Einwirkung von 
 Alkyljodiden und Erhitzen der alkylirten Verbindungen mit 
 Salzsaure zur Synthese von der Atropasaure und Homologen 
 derselben gelangen konnte. 
 
 Leider sind wir bei der Darstellung von Phenylathoxyace- 
 tonitril auf unerwartete Schwierigkeiten gestossen, und es ist 
 uns bis jetzt nicht gelungen, dessen habhaft zu werden, aber 
 die dahin zielenden Versuche haben einige interessante That- 
 sachen kennen gelehrt, die wir hier mittheilen mochten, sowie 
 auch einige Versuche tiber das Amid und den Athylather der 
 Mandelsaure. In Betreff der letztgenannten Verbindungen ex- 
 istiren Angaben in der Literatur, wonach beide Verbindungen 
 in zweifachen Formen existiren sollen und es schien von Wich- 
 tigkeit diesen Gegenstand naher zu untersuchen. 
 
 Wir haben zuerst das Natriumderivat des Mandelsaureni- 
 trils darzustellen versucht, um darauf durch Einwirkung von 
 Athyljodid das gesuchte Phenylathoxyacetonitril darzustellen. 
 
 Die Auflosung des Natriums in absolutem Alkohol wurde 
 langsam mit der entsprechenden Menge des Nitrils versetzt, 
 wobei nur eine leichte Triibung entstand. Sodann wurde die 
 aquivalente Menge Jodathyl hinzugefugt und auf dem Was- 
 
 1 Printed in Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, XXV, 1678; 
 also in pamphlet form, Berlin, 1892. With Mrs. Michael was associated John 
 Jeanpretre. 
 
 2 Ann. Chem. Pharm. 250, 123. 
 
DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES NITRILS 293 
 
 serbade wahrend einiger Stunden erwarmt. Wir haben aber 
 nur Benzoin und Benzaldehyd aus dem Reactionsproduct 
 gewinnen konnen. Es wurde nun die Einwirkung von Natrium 
 allein auf Mandelsaurenitril in atherischer Losung untersucht. 
 Es fand eine Einwirkung unter Wasserstoffentwicklung statt, 
 aber das zuerst entstandene Natriumderivat hatte sich in Cyan- 
 natrium und Benzaldehyd zersetzt. 
 
 Wir haben nun das Phenylathoxyacetonitril durch Darstel- 
 lung des Phenylchloracetonitrils und Behandlung derselben 
 mit Natriumathylat darzustellen gesucht. Es wurde das Man- 
 delsaurenitril tropfenweise zu einer Mischung von Phosphor- 
 pentachlorid mit dem dreifachen Gewichte Benzol gefugt, 
 unter guter Abkiihlung von aussen. Sobald die anfangs ziem- 
 lich heftige Reaction nachliess, wurde langsam auf dem Was- 
 serbade erwarmt, bis alles Chlorid verschwunden ist. Nach 
 Abktihlung wurde das Einwirkungsproduct vorsichtig auf 
 zerkleinertes Eis gegossen, und nach vollstandiger Zersetzung 
 des Phosphoroxychlorids die Benzolschicht abgehoben. 
 
 Beim Abdestilliren des Benzols hinterblieb ein starkge- 
 farbtes Ol, das im luftverdiinnten Raume rectificirt wurde, 
 und nach wiederholter Destination ging die Hauptmenge zwi- 
 schen 131 und 133 iiber: 
 
 0.1957 g Substanz gaben nach Carius 0.1856 g Chlorsilber. 
 0.1998 g Substanz lieferten 15.2 ccm StickstofF bei 754 mm Druck und 7. 
 Berechnet fur C 8 H 6 NC1 Gefunden 
 
 Cl 23.43 23.45 pCt. 
 
 N 9.24 9.16 
 
 Das Phenylchloracetonitril bildet eine farblose, stark licht- 
 brechende Flussigkeit, deren Dampfe auf Augen und Respira- 
 tionsorgane einen ausserordentlich heftigen Reiz austiben. 
 
 Wird dieses Nitril mit einem Uberschuss von concentrirter 
 Salzsaure im Rohr auf 100 erhitzt, so findet vollstandige Ver- 
 seifung statt. Die gebildete farblose Krystallmasse wurde ab- 
 gesaugt und mit einer concentrirten Losung von Natriumcar- 
 bonat behandelt. Die filtrirte alkalische Losung schied beim 
 Ansauern ein gelbliches Ol aus, das beim Stehen bald erstarrte. 
 Durch Krystallisation aus Alkohol erhielten wir die Saure in 
 
2 9 4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 farblosen Nadeln vom Schmelzpunkt 78, in Ubereinstim- 
 mung mit den Angaben von R. Meyer 1 fiir die Phenylchlo- 
 ressigsaure, was durch die folgende Chlorbestimmung noch 
 bestatigt wurde. 
 
 0.1804 g lieferten nach Carius 0.1478 g Chlorsilber. 
 
 Berechnet fur C 8 H 7 O 2 C1 Gefunden 
 
 Cl 20.50 20.30 pCt. 
 
 Den in Natriumcarbonat unloslichen Theil krystallisirten 
 wir mehrere Male aus heissem Benzol um. Die farblosen, in 
 Alkohol und Ather leicht loslichen Nadeln schmolzen ohne 
 Zersetzung bei 116. 
 
 Diese Substanz ist das Amid der Phenylchloressigsaure : 
 
 0.1404 g gaben 10.6 ccm Stickstoff bei 13 und 755 mm Druck. 
 Ber. fur C 8 H 8 ONC1 Gefunden 
 
 N 8.86 8.26 pCt. 
 
 Die Einwirkung von Natriumathylat auf das Chlornitril er- 
 gab ein unerwartetes Resultat. Bringt man das Nitril in eine 
 alkoholische Losung von Natriumathylat, so entsteht augen- 
 blicklich ein Niederschlag, wahrend die Losung eine blaugriine, 
 dann gelbliche Farbung annimmt. Nach mehrstlindigem Stehen 
 wurde filtrirt und der Niederschlag mit Chloroform extrahirt, 
 und von unloslichem Salz abfiltrirt. Das Filtrat wurde verdun- 
 stet und der schwach gefarbte Riickstand, einmal aus Alkohol 
 krystallisirt, schmolz bei 158. Die aus einer Stickstoffbestim- 
 mung, sowie dem Schmelzpunkt gezogene Annahme dass der 
 Korper Dicyanstilben sei, wurde durch Uberfiihren in das 
 Anhydrid der entsprechenden Saure vollkommen bestatigt. 
 
 Die Reaction ware demnach folgendermaasen vor sich ge- 
 gangen: 
 
 2 C 6 H 5 -CHCl+2NaOC 2 H 3 
 
 I 
 CN 
 
 C 5 H 5 -C-CN 
 = 2 NaCl+2C 2 H 5 OH+ 
 
 C 6 H 5 -C-CN 
 
 1 Ann. Chem. Pharm. 220, 43. 
 
DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES NITRILS 295 
 
 Zu einem ganz gleichen Resultate gelangten wir, als trocknes 
 in Benzol suspendirtes Natriumalkoholat angewandt wurde. 
 
 Um die Bildung des Dicyanstilbens zu erklaren, kann man 
 annehmen, dass zuerst ein unstabiles Natriumderivat des 
 Phenylchloracetonitrils sich bildet, welches zugleich, unter Ab- 
 spaltung von Salz, unter Polymerisation, oder auch dass zwei 
 Molekiile desselben auf einander einwirken, um Dicyanstilben 
 zu bilden. 
 
 Die beschriebenen Reactionen bieten eine vorzugliche Me- 
 thode zur Darstellung vom Dicyanstilben, da das Chloronitril 
 leicht in jeder Quantitat darzustellen ist und die Ausbeute an 
 Dicyanstilben bedeutend giinstiger ist, als bei Anwendung des 
 Verfahrens von R e i m e r. 1 
 
 Fiigt man zu einer atherischen Losung von Phenylchlora- 
 cetonitril das Doppelte der aquivalenten Menge Anilin und 
 erwarmt langsam auf dem Wasserbade, so scheidet sich salz- 
 saures Anilin aus. Der Atherruckstand wurde mit Wasser 
 behandelt und sodann wiederholt aus Alkohol umkrystallisirt, 
 wobei farblose Nadeln vom Schmelzpunkt 85 erhalten wurden, 
 was, wie das Ergebniss folgender Stickstoffbestimmung mit 
 den Angaben fur Phenylanilidoessigsaurenitril von C. O. 
 Cech. 2 und Tiemann und Piest 3 vollkommen liber- 
 einstimmt. 
 
 0.1572 g Substanz lieferten 19 ccm Stickstoff bei 13 und 753 mm Druck . 
 Ber. fur C 14 H 12 N 3 Gefunden 
 
 N 14.19 14.15 pCt 
 
 Wird Mandelsaurenitril mit Essigsaureanhydrid in molecu- 
 larer Menge wahrend 3 Stunden am Ruckflusskuhler zum Sie- 
 den erwarmt, so bildet sich fast quantitativ die Acetylverbind- 
 ung. Durch Destination im Vacuum wurde sie als farbloses 
 dickfliissiges Ol erhalten, das unter 25 mm Druck bei 152 
 (Bad 170) siedet. 
 
 Die Verbrennung dieser Verbindung lieferte entsprechende 
 Zahlen: 
 
 1 Diese Berichte XIV, 1798. 
 
 2 Diese Berichte XI, 246. 
 
 3 Diese Berichte XV, 2028. 
 
296 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 0.1998 g Substanz gaben 0.4995 g Kohlensaure und 0.0988 g Wasser. 
 Ber. fiir C 10 H 10 O 3 N Gefunden 
 
 C 68.57 68-37 pCt. 
 
 H 5-15 5.48 " 
 
 Das Acetylmandelsaurenitril, das man mit dem gleichen 
 Volumen Ather yerdiinnt hat, wurde langsam zu einem Uber- 
 schusse von in Ather suspendirtem Natrium gefiigt, worauf 
 sich unter nur sparlicher Wasserstoffentwickelung ein gelb- 
 licher Niederschlag bildet. Zur Vollendung der Reaction 
 wurde auf dem Wasserbade wahrend zwei Stunden erwarmt. 
 Der Niederschlag besteht theilweise aus einer natriumhaltigen 
 Verbindung und wurde mit verdiinnter Schwefelsaure behand- 
 elt. Der unlosliche Riickstand liefert aus Alkohol krystalli- 
 sirt, prismatische Nadeln von constantem Schmelzpunkt bei 
 134. Das saure Filtrat enthielt Blausaure und Essigsaure und 
 setzte nach einiger Zeit sehr wenige tafelformige Krystalle vom 
 Schmelzpunkt 115 ab, deren Zusammensetzung aber nicht 
 ermittelt werden konnte. 
 
 Als Hauptproduct wurde die bei 134 schmelzende Verbind- 
 ung gewonnen. Die bei der Verbrennung erhaltenen Zahlen 
 stimmen annahernd auf Benzoin, obgleich durch wiederholte 
 Krystallisation der Schmelzpunkt nicht erhoht werden konnte. 
 
 Gefunden 
 
 Ber. fiir C U H 12 O 2 I. II. III. 
 
 C 79.2 78.55 78.76 79.34 pCt. 
 
 H 5.66 5.93 6.04 6.14 " 
 
 Wie Fischer 1 fiir das Benzoin angiebt, reducirt auch 
 dieses Product Fehling'sche Losung in der Kalte, und es 
 mag die Differenz in dem Schmelzpunkt wie auch den Ver- 
 brennungen von einer nicht zu entfernenden Verunreinigung 
 herriihren. 
 
 Uber die Amide der Mandelsaure existiren folgende An- 
 gaben : 
 
 Z i n i n 2 hat zuerst durch Einwirkung starker Sauren auf 
 blausaurehaltiges Bittermandelol eine krystallisirende, stick- 
 stoffhaltige, bei 194 schmelzende Verbindung erhalten, der er 
 
 1 Ann. Chem. Pharm. 211, 215. 2 Jahresber. 1868, 626. 
 
DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES NITRILS 297 
 
 die Zusammensetzung 2(C 6 H 5 . COH)HCN zuschrieb. Als er 
 diesen Korper mit Wasser auf 180 erhitzte, gewann er das von 
 ihm zum ersten Male beschriebene Amid der Mandelsaure vom 
 Schmelzpunkt 132. Spater liessen Tiemann und Fried- 
 lander 1 rauchende Salzsaure auf reines Mandelsaurenitril 
 einwirken und gelangten zu einem Producte, das sie bei 190 
 schmelzend beschrieben. Eine beigegebene Verbrennung wies 
 in vollkommener Ubereinstimmung auf das Mandelsaure- 
 amid hin. 
 
 C. Beyer 2 st elite dann durch Erhitzen von salzsaurem 
 Phenyloxyacetimidoather ein Mandelsaureamid dar, das bei 
 132 schmolz. Indem er auf die Arbeit von Tiemann und 
 Friedlander 3 zurtickkommt, vermuthet er in dieser Ab- 
 weichung einen Fall von Polymeric. 
 
 In letzter Zeit ist von J. Biedermann 4 eine Mittheil- 
 ung erschienen, wo das angebliche a-Lacton der Mandelsaure 
 mit Ammoniak behandelt wird und auf diese Weise, wie die 
 Analysen zeigten, das Amid der Mandelsaure erhalten wurde, 
 welches aber bei 190 schmolz. 
 
 Um diese Abweichungen etwas eingehender zu studiren, 
 haben wir die angefiihrten Versuche theilweise wiederholt. 
 
 Als wir nach den Angaben von Tiemann und Fried- 
 lander Mandelsaurenitril mit rauchender Salzsaure stehen 
 liessen, fanden wir den gebildeten Kuchen aus zwei verschied- 
 enen, krystallisirten Verbindungen bestehend. Durch Krystal- 
 lisation aus Alkohol gewinnt man sogleich farblose Nadeln 
 vom Schmelzpunkt 194, wahrend aus der Mutterlauge eine 
 bedeutend leichter losliche Verbindung in rhombischen Tafeln 
 erhalten wurde, die nach mehrmaliger Reinigung aus Alkohol 
 constant bei 132 schmolzen und deren Menge mit der Starke 
 der Salzsaure zunahm. 
 
 Die hoher schmelzende Verbindung ist in kaltem wie in heis- 
 sem Wasser, Ather und kaltem Alkohol fast unloslich, leicht 
 loslich in heissem Alkohol. Eine Verbrennung ergab folgende 
 Resultate, die fur die von Zinin gegebene Zusammensetzung 
 sprachen. 
 
 1 Diese Berichte XIV, 1967. 2 Journ. fur prakt. Chem. 1885, 385. 
 
 3 Loc. cit. 4 Diese Berichte XXIV, 4083. 
 
298 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 0.2394 g Substanz gaben 0.6595 g Kohlensaure und 0.1273 g Wasser. 
 0.4095 g Substanz gaben 22 ccm Stickstoff bei 763 mm Druck. 
 Berechnet fur 
 
 C 6 H 5 .CHOH 
 
 C 15 H 13 2 N | Gefunden 
 
 CO.NH 2 
 
 C 75-3i 63.57 75.13 P Ct. 
 
 H 5.40 5.96 5.90 " 
 
 N 5.90 9.47 6.18 " 
 
 Wir haben nun das bei 190 schmelzende Amid nach den 
 Angaben von Biedermann darzustellen versucht. Der 
 schwach gefarbte Krystallbrei wurde in kochendem Alkohol 
 gelost, woraus sich beim Erkalten als einzelnes Product kleine 
 rhombische Tafeln ausschieden, deren Schmelzpunkt zu 132 
 statt, wie Biedermann angiebt, zu 190 gefunden wurde. 
 
 Um die Zusammensetzung des dei 194 schmelzenden Kor- 
 pers zu beweisen, haben wir denselben auf folgendem indirek- 
 ten Wege dargestellt. Das Mandelsaureamid wurde mit einer 
 molecularen Menge von Benzaldehyd wahrend zwei Stunden 
 auf 130 erwarmt. Nach dem Erkalten wurde durch Waschen 
 mit Ather etwas unveranderter Benzaldehyd entfernt, und 
 die farblose Masse aus heissem Alkohol mehrmals umkrystalli- 
 sirt, und erwies sich als identisch mit dem vom Zinin erhalt- 
 enen Korper. 
 
 Fiir diese Korper sind zwei Constitutionen moglich, namlich : 
 
 /^\ X OH 
 
 C 6 H 5 .CH^ ^CH.C 6 H 5 oder C 6 H 5 .CH( 
 
 X CO-NH X X CO.N: CH.C 6 H 5 . 
 
 Kommt ihm erstere Structur zu, so sollte er ein Nitrosoderivat- 
 liefern, wahrend eine Verbindung mit der letzten Constitution 
 leicht ein Acetylderivat bilden sollte. Die folgenden Versuche 
 sprechen entschieden fiir die zweite Auffassung. 
 
 Die pulverisirte Verbindung wurde in Eisessig suspendirt 
 und mit salpetriger Saure behandelt, es gelang jedoch in keinem 
 Falle die Bildung einer Nitrosoverbindung zu konstatiren 
 Wurde sie dagegen mit Essigsaureanhydrid am Riickflusskuh- 
 ler wahrend einiger Zeit erhitzt, so entstand eine aus Alkohol 
 in schongebildeten Prismen krystallisirende Verbindung, die 
 bei 123 schmilzt: 
 
DER MANDELSAURE UND IHRES NITRILS 299 
 
 0.2580 g Substanz gaben 0.6842 g Kohlensaure und 0.1315 g Wasser. 
 Ber. fur C 17 H 15 O 3 N Gefunden 
 
 C 72.59 72.32 pCt. 
 
 H 5-33 5-66 " 
 
 In der Literatur iiber Mandelsaure findet sich noch ein weit- 
 erer Punkt, den wir in Folgendem aufzuklaren gesucht haben. 
 
 Naquet und Louguinine 1 haben den Mandelsau- 
 reathylester durch Einwirkimg von Jodathylr auf das Silbersalz 
 dargestellt und als einen krystallinischen Korper vom Schmelz- 
 punkte 79 beschrieben. C. Beyer 2 hat denselben Ather 
 durch Spaltung von Phenoxyacetimidoather beim Erhitzen 
 mit Wasser erhalten und als eine farblose, in Kaltemischung 
 erstarrende Fliissigkeit beschrieben, die bei 250 unzersetzt 
 destillirt. Vor Allem handelte es sich darum, nach den Angaben 
 von Naquet und Louguinine die bei 79 schmelzende 
 Verbindung zu bereiten. Das im Vacuum getrocknete Silber- 
 salz erhitzten wir im geschlossenen Rohre bei 100 wahrend 12 
 Stunden mit einem geringen Ueberschuss von Jodathyl. Das 
 Reactionsproduct wurde mit Ather ausgezogen und der nach 
 dem Verdampfen des Athers bleibende gefarbte Riickstand 
 destillirt. Schon nach der zweiten Destination erhielten wir 
 ein vollkommen farbloses, stark lichtbrechendes, Ol, in 
 Ubereinstimmung mit den Angaben von Beyer. 
 
 Nach einiger Zeit aber erstarrte die ganze Masse krystal- 
 linisch. Durch Umkrystallisiren aus Petrolather wurden sehr 
 feine seidenglanzende Nadelchen erhalten, die bei 34 constant 
 schmolzen und deren Zusammensetzung durch folgende Ver- 
 brennung bestatigt wurde. 
 
 Ber. fur C 6 H 5 CH OH 
 
 | Gefunden 
 
 COO C 2 H 5 
 
 C 66.67 66.50 pCt. 
 
 H 6.67 6.73 " 
 
 Es gelang uns nich, eine Verbindung vom Schmelzpunkt 79 
 darzustellen, sodass es scheint, als ob N a q u e t und Lougui- 
 nine nicht den Mandelsaureather, sondern wohl ein anderes 
 Derivat der Saure in Handen gehabt haben. 
 
 1 Bull. Soc. Chim. 1866, 5, 255. 2 J. prakt. Chem. 1885, 389. 
 
ZUR KENNTNISS DER ADDITION VON BROM 
 UND CHLOR ZU FESTER CROTONSAURE * 
 
 NACHDEM J. WiSLiCENUS 2 die Configuration der a- 
 Brom und Chlorcrotonsaure vermittelst seiner Hypothese ent- 
 wickelt hatte, wurde von A. Michael 3 darauf hingewiesen, 
 dass bei der consequenten Anwendung dieser Annahme auf 
 bekannte Thatsachen nicht weniger als drei verschiedene Con- 
 figurationen fur jede dieser Sauren gleich berechtigt waren. In 
 seiner speciellen Arbeit liber die Crotonsauren 4 und seiner 
 ,,Antikritik" 5 kommt Wislicenus auf die discutirte Frage 
 zuriick, und sucht auf Grund ausgedehnter Versuchsreihen 
 iiber die Addition von Brom und Chlor zu fester Crotonsaure 
 unter verschiedenen Bedingungen und unter Aufstellung der 
 neuen, fur diesen Zweck ersonnenen Annahme der ,,unfer- 
 tigen" Molekiile 6 seine friiheren Erklarungen aufrecht zu 
 halten. Wollte man aber auch der neuen Hypothese zu- 
 stimmen, und die angefuhrten experimentellen Versuche als 
 zutreffend ansehen, so waren die Configurationen von W i s- 
 1 i c e n u s selbst dann nicht durchfuhrbar, denn er hat bei 
 seinen Betrachtungen iibersehen, dass es sich bei den betref- 
 fenden Reactionen nicht um freie Sauren, sondern um Salze 
 derselben handelt, und seine Annahmen standen direct im 
 Widerspruch mit sehr einfachen und bekannten Auffassungen 
 analoger Reactionen. 7 
 
 Nach Wislicenus sind die a-Brom- und die a- Chlorcro- 
 tonsaure ,,abnorme" Zersetzungsprodukte der a/?-Dibrom-, 
 resp. Dichlorbuttersaure, und verdanken ihre Entstehung 
 
 1 Printed in the Journal fur praktische Chemie, neue Folge, Band 46, 273 ; 
 also in pamphlet, Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Earth (n. d.). 
 
 2 Rauml. Anord. S. 41-45. 3 Dies. Journ. [2] 38, 7-11. 
 4 Ann. Chem. 248, 281. 5 Das. S. 344. 
 
 8 Das. S. 328. 7 A. Michael, dies. Journ. [2] 40, 30-34. 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 301 
 
 dem Einfluss der Warme, tmd er behauptete, dass rein a/?- 
 Dichlorbuttersaure in der Kalte ,,keine Spur" von a-Chlor- 
 crotonsaure liefert. Es ist aber oben bewiesen worden, dass 
 diese Dichlorbuttersaure eine betrachliche Menge von a-Chlor- 
 crotonsaure in der Kalte liefert, und dass das relative Bildungs- 
 verhaltniss derselben auch in der Warme das gleiche ist. Es 
 war kein Grund vorhanden, die W i s 1 i c e n u s' schen Ver- 
 suche liber die Addition bei erhohter Temperatur zu wieder- 
 holen, weil seinen, unter einander nicht iibereinstimmenden^ 
 Resultaten eigentlich keine Beweiskraft zukommt, und schon 
 die bedeutend grossere Chlorwasserstoffentwicklung, die unter 
 solchen Bedingungen vor sich geht, mahnte gegen das Heran- 
 ziehen solcher Versuche fur theoretische Schliisse. In Betreff 
 des vereinzelten Versuchs der Bromaddition ohne Abkiihlen 
 wird unten nachgewiesen, dass demselben kein Wert beizu- 
 legen ist. Dagegen war es von Interesse, auf die W i s 1 i- 
 c e n u s' schen Versuche iiber den Einfluss des mehr oder 
 weniger schnellen Zusatzes des Halogens auf die relative Men- 
 gen der gebildeten alloisomerischen a/?-Dihalogenbuttersauren 
 naher einzugehen. 
 
 Es wurden zuerst qualitative Versuche angestellt iiber die 
 Rolle welche das Licht bei der Bromaddition spielt, und in- 
 wiefern das olige Nebenprodukt, welches Wislicenus fur 
 allo-a/?-Dibrombuttersaure gehalten hat, hiermit in Verbin- 
 dung steht. 10 Grm. reine feste Crotonsaure wurden in zwan- 
 zigfacher Menge gereinigten SchwefelkohlenstofTs gelost, das 
 Gefass an einen dunkeln Ort gestellt, und tropfenweise die 
 theoretische Menge mit CS 2 verdiinnten Broms (18,6 Grm.) 
 zugesetzt. Gewohnlich, selbst im schwach zerstreuten Licht, 
 bemerkt man, dass ein nicht unbedeutender Antheil des Broms 
 sogleich beim Eintritt in die Losung sich entfarbt, aber bei 
 diesem Versuch war von einer Entfarbung nichts zu sehen; 
 nach Zusatz von wenigen Tropfen der Bromlosung hatte die 
 Crotonsaurelosung die Farbe des Broms angenommen. Nach- 
 dem alles Brom zugesetzt war, blieb die Losung mehrere Tage 
 an demselben Ort, und da beim Stehen die Farbe der Losung 
 nicht abnahm, so wurde das Losungsmittel verjagt und die 
 nach langerem Stehen abgeschiedenen Krystalle von dem 
 
302 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 dicken 6l getrennt. Sehr bemerkbar war die Bildung von 
 Bromwasserstoff, und zwar in bedeutender Menge, was auf 
 eine Substitutionswirkung des Halogens hindeutete. Die Kry- 
 stalle wogen 17 Grm. und bestanden aus bei 87 schmelzender 
 a/?-D ib r o mb u 1 1 e r sa u r e. Das Ol hatte einen sehr 
 iiblen, an Chlorschwefel erinnernden Geruch, und enthielt 
 noch a/?-Dibrombuttersaure, da durch Behandeln desselben 
 mit uberschiissigem Kali a-Bromcrotonsaure gewonnen wer- 
 den konnte. Die Addition von Brom zu Crotonsaure im halb 
 dunkeln Licht wurde mehrfach unter etwas abgeanderten Be- 
 dingungen wiederholt, und stets ein ahnliches Resultat erhalten. 
 Es wurden nun 5 Grm. Saure in CS 2 gelost und 1,9 Grm. Brom 
 (etwa ein Fiinftel der Theorie) auf eimnal zugesetzt, und die 
 Flasche in halb dunkles Licht gestellt. Nach zehnstiindigem 
 Stehen besass die Losung noch die Farbe des Broms, und sie 
 wurde nun in helles zerstreutes Licht gestellt, wobei sogleich 
 bemerkt wurde, dass eine Entfarbung der Losung, und zwar 
 zuerst am Boden der Flasche, anting. Nach kurzer Zeit war 
 die Losung ganz entfarbt, und es wurde nun jedesmal ein neues 
 Fiinftel Brom erst nach Entfarbung der Losung zugesetzt. 
 Bromwasserstoff hatte sich auch bei diesem Versuch gebildet, 
 aber in weit geringerer Menge, als bei den vorangehenden 
 Versuchen. Das Additionsprodukt wog 14,1 Grm. (Theorie 
 14,3 Grm.) und bestand zum weitaus grosstenTheil aus harten 
 Krystallen neben sehr wenig Ol. Bei einem anderen Versuch 
 wurde die Losung auf 17 abgekiihlt, dem hellen zerstreuten 
 Licht ausgesetzt und nun auf einmal die nothige Menge mit 
 CS 2 verdiinnten und ebenfalls abgekiihlten Broms hinzuge- 
 fiigt. Bei diesem Versuch wurden 14 Grm. einer harten Kry- 
 stallmasse erhalten, ohne dass selbst eine Spur des Ols ge- 
 bildet worden war. Ein weiterer Versuch wurde nun unter 
 Anwendung von reinem Tetrachlorkohlenstoff als Losungs- 
 mittel im hellen Licht und unter Abkiihlung ausgefuhrt, und 
 die theoretische Menge des Additionsprodukts, ohne Bildung 
 einer Spur des Ols, und nur von sehr wenig Bromwasserstoff, 
 erhalten. 
 
 Nachdem nun die Bedingungen zu einer glatten Addition 
 ermittelt waren, konnte ich zur quantitativen Unter- 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 303 
 
 suchung des Vorganges iibergehen. Die kaufliche Crotonsaure 
 ist stets etwas verunreinigt, und wird am leichtesten gereinigt 
 durch Umkrystallisiren aus heissem Ligroin und durch Destil- 
 lation der Krystalle, indem man die zwischen 180 181 
 siedende Fraction besonders auffangt. Dieser Antheil schmilzt 
 bei 72, obwohl er schon etwa ein Grad niedriger zu erweichen 
 anfangt. Um liberhaupt vergleichbare Resultate liber den 
 Einfluss des schnellen oder langsamen Zutritts des Broms zu 
 erhalten, muss man vor Allem dafiir sorgen, dass die zu ver- 
 gleichenden Produkte zur gleichen Zeit und unter ganz glei- 
 chen Bedingungen aufgearbeitet werden. Es wurde daher bei 
 jeder der fiinf Versuchsreihen der Versuch, wobei die ganze 
 Menge des Halogens auf einmal zugesetzt wurde, erst ange- 
 stellt, nachdem das letzte Fiinf tel des Broms bei dem Versuch 
 mit langsamem Bromzusatz zugefiigt war, und nach Entfar- 
 bung die Produkte der beiden Versuche gleichzeitig und unter 
 absolut gleichen Bedingungen aufgearbeitet. Die Verhaltnisse 
 der ersten Versuchsreihe werden eingehender beschrieben, 
 und zu den anderen nur dann Bemerkungen gemacht, wenn 
 abweichende Resultate bemerkt worden sind. 
 
 I. 3 Grm. Crotonsaure wurden in 45 Grin, reinem CC1 4 
 gelost, die Losung in Eis abgekiihlt, und auf einmal 5,6 Grm. 
 Brom (Theorie 5,58 Grm.) zugesetzt. Die Losung wurde nun 
 den directen Sonnenstrahlen ausgesetzt, wobei fast sogleich 
 die Bildung einer weissen Wolke von Bromwasserstofl im 
 obern Theil der Flasche zu bemerken war, die nach kurzem 
 Stehen verschwand. Die stets abgekuhlte Losung war in we- 
 niger als einer Stunde ganz entfarbt, und beim Offnen der 
 Flasche konnte man erst beim Ausgiessen der Fliissigkeit eine 
 Spur Bromwasserstoff bemerken. Der TetrachlorkohlenstofI 
 wurde unter etwa 15 Mm. Druck zuerst bei gewohnlicher Tem- 
 peratur abdestillirt, zuletzt kurze Zeit auf 35 erwarmt, und 
 die riickstandige, ganz feste sowie weisse, krystallinische 
 Masse mit reinem Ather in eine tarirte Krystallisirschale 
 gespiilt. Die Schale wurde im Vacuum iiber geschmolzenem 
 CaCl 2 und Paraffin urtter bestandigem Absaugen gelinde auf 
 und nieder bewegt, wobei der Ather in kurzer Zeit vertrieben 
 wurde, und die Krystallmasse iiber CaCl 2 und Paraffin, nicht 
 
304 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 liber H 2 SO 4 , da dadurch ein nicht unbebeutender Verlust an 
 Dibromsaure stattfindet, so lange in einem partiellen Vacuum 
 gelassen, bis nach zwolfsttindigem Stehen ein Verlust von nur 
 etwa 0,005 Grm. zu bemerken war. Das Produkt, eine ganz 
 harte Krystallmasse, wurde mit 10 Grm. Wasser iibergossen, 
 in Eiswasser gestellt und allmahlich so viel einer normalen 
 Kalilosung zugetropft, dass auf i Mol. der Saure 2 J Mol. KOH 
 kamen. Nach zwolfstiindigem Stehen in der Kalte wurde mit 
 20 procent. H 2 SO 4 stark angesauert, und fiinfmal mit reinem 
 Ather ausgezogen. Da Wislicenus nicht anfiihrt, ob er 
 bei seinen Versuchen den atherischen Auszug getrocknet hat, 
 so wurden bei dieser Versuchsreihe derselbe ohne Weiteres 
 gelinde erwarmt, bis der grosste Theil des Athers abdestillirt 
 war, der abdestillirte Ather aus einem anderen Siedekolben 
 nochmals uberdestillirt, da sehr wenig Bromcrotonsaure bei 
 dem ersten Abdestilliren mit iibergeht, und die atherische Lo- 
 sung, wie schon oben beschrieben worden ist, in das Vacuum 
 gestellt. Das feste Gemisch der a-Bromcrotonsauren wurde 
 in 100 Ccm. absoluten Alkohols gelost, und die Losung sof ort 
 mit einer alkoholischen Losung von Kalihydrat neutralisirt. 
 Nach zwolfstiindigem Stehen wurde von dem abgeschiedenen, 
 von Wislicenus als rein angenommenen a-bromcroton- 
 sauren Kalium abfiltrirt, der Niederschlag bei 100 getrocknet, 
 und das alkoholische Filtrat zur Trockne eingedampft und 
 ebenfalls bei 100 getrocknet. 
 
 Bei dem zweiten Versuch in dieser Reihe wurde das gleiche 
 Verhaltniss von Saure und Losungsmittel angewandt, die 
 Losung auf ungefahr 10 12 gehalten und nach jedem Tage 
 ein Fiinftel der Brommenge auf einmal zugesetzt. Die Flasche 
 wurde in so zerstreutes Licht gestellt, dass die Addition nur 
 langsam vor sich ging. Bis zur letzten Addition hat sich jedes- 
 mal die Losung ganz entfarbt, und eine fast farblose Losung 
 wurde auch zuletzt erhalten, als die Losung unter Abktihlung 
 J Stunde dem Sonnenlicht ausgesetzt wurde. Es wurde die 
 Bildung einer sehr kleinen Menge eines unloslichen 6ls be- 
 merkt, dessen Entstehung beim ersten Versuch ausblieb ; auch 
 hatte sich bedeutend mehr, obwohl nicht sehr viel, Brom- 
 wasserstoff gebildet. 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 305 
 
 II. Bei der zweiten Versuchsreihe wiederholten sich die- 
 selben Erscheinungen, und der einzige Unterschied in der 
 Bearbeitung der Additionsprodukte bestand darin, dass die 
 atherischen Losungen der Sauren, wie auch in den folgenden 
 Reihen, mit wasserfreiem Natriumsulfat getrocknet waren, 
 wobei zu bemerken ist, dass man das Salz mehrmals mit Ather 
 auswaschen muss, da kleine Mengen der Saure leicht zuriick- 
 gehalten werden. 
 
 III. Die dritte Reihe wurde bei sehr nebeligem Wetter aus- 
 geftihrt, und obwohl die Losung beim ersten Versuche direct 
 vor dem Fenster stand, und zwar bei etwa 10 12, vergingen 
 vier Tage, bevor die sonst in weniger als einer Stunde stattfind- 
 ende Entfarbung erfolgte. Dieselbe Erscheinung wurde beim 
 zweiten Versuch beobachtet; es war z. B. am dritten Tag die 
 Losung noch sehr stark von freiem Brom gefarbt, aber als dann 
 blauer Himmel sich zeigte, fand die Entfarbung in kurzer Zeit 
 statt. Bei diesen Versuchen schieden sich aus dem alkohol- 
 ischen, allo-bromcrotonsaures Natrium enthaltenden Filtrate 
 wurfelformige Krystalle aus, die aus Bromkalium bestanden, 
 eine Erscheinung, die ich in keiner anderen Reihe beobachtete; 
 wohl aber ist zu bemerken, dass das Gemisch der Bromcro- 
 tonsauren vor der ( Neutralisation durch einen Zufall vier 
 Stunden lang in alkoholischer Losung blieb. 
 
 IV. und V. Die vierte und die funfte Reihe verliefen ganz 
 wie schon beschrieben worden ist, es wurde stets ein ganz festes 
 Additionsprodukt erhalten. Bei alien diesen Versuchen zeigte 
 sich, dass die Addition am glattesten vor sich ging, wenn man 
 die stark abgekiihlte Losung direct in das Sonnenlicht stellte, 
 und sie bestatigten die friihere Beobachtung, dass, je schneller 
 dieselbe stattfand, desto weniger Bromwasserstoff gebildet wird. 
 
 
3 o6 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 TABELLE I. RESULTATE DER FUNF VERSUCHSREIHEN 
 
 Versuchsreihen. 
 
 A rt des Brom- 
 zusatzes. 
 
 Dibrom- 
 butter- 
 sduren. 
 
 Monobrom- 
 croton- 
 sdiiren. 
 
 odrrom- 
 croton- 
 saures 
 Kalium. 
 
 allo-a-brom- 
 croton- 
 saures 
 Kalium. 
 
 Ge- 
 
 sammt- 
 menge d. 
 Kalium- 
 salze. 
 
 Theorie 
 
 
 
 Grm. 
 8,5814 
 
 Grm. 
 5*7556 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 7,0814 
 
 1 1 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionsweise 
 
 8,4036 
 8,3555 
 
 5*6274 
 
 0,6741 
 
 6,1847 
 5*9 2 77 
 
 6,8224 
 6,6018 
 
 . { 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionsweise 
 
 8,5218 
 8,4072 
 
 5*559i 
 5>4448 
 
 0,4616 
 0,495! 
 
 6,3863 
 5*8176 
 
 6,9479 
 6,3122 
 
 III. 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionsweise 
 
 8,4878 
 
 sS 
 
 0,4160 
 0,4486 
 
 6,6301 
 6, 01 80 
 
 7*0347 
 6,4666 
 
 IV. { 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionsweise 
 
 8,4483 
 8,3815 
 
 5*6439 
 
 0,6660 
 0,4855 
 
 6,0875 
 6,0072 
 
 6,7538 
 6,4927 
 
 v - { 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionsweise 
 
 8,5408 
 8,3110 
 
 5,6086 
 5*5418 
 
 0,4983 
 0,5131 
 
 6,4186 
 6,3878 
 
 6,9169 
 6,9009 
 
 TABELLE II. BERECHNETE WERTE AUS OBIGEN RESULTATEN 
 
 Versuchs- 
 reihen. 
 
 
 Relative Verhdltnisse 
 
 
 
 des erhaltenen. 
 
 Verhdltnisse des 
 
 A ~4 Jar- 
 
 
 a.-bromcrotons. 
 
 ./i rt des 
 Bromzusatzes. 
 
 a.-brom- 
 crotons. 
 Kalium. 
 
 allo-a.-brom- 
 crotons. 
 Kalium. 
 
 Kalium 
 auf 100 Thle. 
 theoret.A usbeute. 
 
 I. 
 
 1 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 9,34 
 
 90,66 
 
 9,00 
 
 
 1 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 10,21 
 
 89,79 
 
 9,51 
 
 II. 
 
 \ 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 6,6 4 
 
 93,36 
 
 6,52 
 
 
 i 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 7,84 
 
 9 2,l6 
 
 6,99 
 
 
 f 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 5,91 
 
 94,09 
 
 5,o8 
 
 
 
 { 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 6,93 
 
 93,17 
 
 6,32 
 
 TV 
 
 1 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 9,86 
 
 90,I 4 
 
 9,40 
 
 A V . 
 
 1 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 7,47 
 
 92,53 
 
 6,85 
 
 V. 
 
 I 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 7,20 
 
 92,80 
 
 7,03 
 
 
 ( 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 7,43 
 
 92,57 
 
 7,24 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 
 
 307 
 
 TABELLE III. ANALYTISCHE RESULTATE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kaliu mgehalt. 
 
 Veruschs- 
 reihen. 
 
 Art des 
 Bromzusatzes. 
 
 A ngew. 
 Menge 
 a-brom- 
 crotons. 
 
 Erhalt. 
 Menge 
 KzSOi. 
 
 A ngew- 
 Menge 
 allo-a.- 
 bromcro- 
 tonsaures 
 
 Erhalt. 
 Menge 
 KtSOt. 
 
 
 a.-brom- 
 crotons. 
 
 allo-a.- 
 brom- 
 cro- 
 
 j.Tltc 
 
 
 
 Kalium. 
 
 
 Kalium. 
 
 
 Kalium 
 
 tons. 
 Ka- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lium. 
 
 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Proc. 
 
 Proc. 
 
 Theorie 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 19,20 
 
 19,20 
 
 I 1 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 0,2157 
 
 0,1 060 
 
 0,2810 
 
 0,1273 
 
 22,06 
 
 20,32 
 
 I 
 
 portionweise 
 
 o,35oi 
 
 0,1881 
 
 o,43 IJ 
 
 0,1984 
 
 24,12 
 
 20,63 
 
 II 1 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 o,i575 
 
 0,0693 
 
 0,4897 
 
 0,2109 
 
 19,75 
 
 19,34 
 
 I 
 
 portionweise 
 
 0,1385 
 
 0,0605 
 
 0,2205 
 
 0,0965 
 
 19,61 
 
 19,64 
 
 ,. j 
 
 auf einmal 
 portionweise 
 
 0,0827 
 0,0915 
 
 0,0362 
 0,0405 
 
 0,6318 
 
 0,7025 
 
 o,2795 
 o,3235 
 
 19,65 
 19,86 
 
 19,85 
 20,67 
 
 IV { 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 0,1385 
 
 0,0660 
 
 0,9101 
 
 0,4052 
 
 2i,39 
 
 19,98 
 
 I 
 
 portionweise 
 
 0,1010 
 
 0,0445 
 
 0,3295 
 
 0,1480 
 
 19,78 
 
 20,16 
 
 V { 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 0,2142 
 
 0,0939 
 
 0,2758 
 
 0,1215 
 
 19,68 
 
 19,76 
 
 I 
 
 Dortionweise 
 
 0,2713 
 
 0,1191 
 
 0,1849 
 
 0,0837 
 
 19,73 
 
 20,32 
 
 Zu diesen analytischen Resultaten ist zu bemerken, dass 
 sammtliche Kaliumsalze Spuren von Kaliumbromid enthielten, 
 indessen war fast stets etwas mehr in den a-bromcrotonsauren 
 als in den allo-bromcrotonsauren Salzen; in verhaltrrissmassig 
 namhaften Spuren kommt es in den beiden a- Salzen von Ver- 
 suchsreihe I und in nicht unbedeutender Menge im Salz von 
 dem erst en Versuch der Reihe IV vor. In BetrefT dieser letzten 
 Versuche ist hervorzuheben, dass durch ein Versehen die 
 alkoholische Losung des Gemisches von den a-Bromcroton- 
 sauren etwa 2 Stunden vor der Neutralisation mit Kali sich 
 iiberlassen wurde und man schon mit blossem Auge die wur- 
 felformigen Krystalle von Kaliumbromid im Niederschlag 
 erkennen konnte. Wahrscheinlich ist ein kleiner Theil der 
 Sauren verestert worden, so dass dieser Versuch eigentlich 
 von keinem grossen Wert ist. Auch konnten Spuren von 
 kohlensaurem Kalium in einigen der Niederschlage nachge- 
 wiesen werden, scheinbar mehr in den allo-a-, als in dena-Brom- 
 
 
308 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 salzen; vielleicht riihrt dies zum Theil von dem unvermeid- 
 lichen geringen Ueberschuss von Kali her, das man zur Neu- 
 tralisation benutzt. Merkwiirdiger Weise war aber viel mehr 
 Kohlensaure nachweisbar in alien Salzen der ersten Ver- 
 suchsreihe als in den Salzen der anderen Reihe, womit wohl der 
 hohe Kaliumgehalt dieser Salze in Verbindung steht. 
 
 Wir sind nun im Stande zu erklaren, in welcher Weise W i s- 
 1 i c e n u s in Betreff der Bildung von ,,abnormen" Produkten 
 bei der Addition von Brom zu Crotonsaure sich tauschte, und 
 weshalb seine hierauf beziiglichen Versuche fehlerhaft sind. 
 Er hat zuerst Versuche mit einander verglichen, die nicht 
 unter absolut gleichen Bedingungen ausgefuhrt war en, und 
 namentlich ist in seinen Arbeiten kein Anzeichen vorhanden, 
 dass er den Einfluss des Lichtes auf den Additionsvorgang 
 irgendwie erkannt, ober bei seinen Versuchen in Betracht 
 gezogen hat. Er hat ferner Schwefelkohlenstoff angewandt, 
 ein Losungsmittel, das meistens zu quantitativen Versuchen 
 mit Brom wenig empfehlenswerth ist; denn, wie oben gezeigt 
 wurde, bildet sich im schwachen Licht stets ein schwefel- 
 haltiges 6l, das namentlich entsteht, wenn man das Reagens 
 nicht sehr sorgfaltig reinigt, und die Addition sehr langsam 
 vor sich gehen lasst. Die Verhaltnisse bei der Bromaddition 
 waren gerade geeignet, um solche Tauschungen als wahrschein- 
 liche Beweise erscheinen zu lassen, denn die relative Menge 
 der entstehenden a-Bromcrotonsaure ist nur gering, so dass 
 eine kleine Gewichtsvermehrung der Niederschlage als be- 
 weisend fur die Annahme von ,,abnormen" Produkten und 
 ,,unfertigen Molekiilen" angesehen werden konnte. Es ist 
 sicherlich aber schwer zu verstehen, wie Wislicenus sich 
 begniigen konnte, eine an sich so unwahrscheinliche Hypothese 
 aufzustellen ohne zu versuchen, die hypothetischen ,,hoch- 
 molekularen" Produkte zu isoliren, oder wenigstens zu er- 
 mitteln, ob die geringe scheinbare Zunahme der a-Bromcro- 
 tonsaurebildung nicht andersartigen Verunreinigungen zu- 
 zuschreiben ist. Hatte er dies versucht, so wiirde er gefunden 
 haben, dass man bei richtig angestellten Versuchen nur die 
 bei 106 schmelzende a-Bromcrotonsaure daraus isoliren 
 konnte. 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 309 
 
 Uberblickt man die in den obigen Tabellen zusammen- 
 gefassten Resultate, so wird man sofort erkennen, dass absolut 
 kein Grund vorhanden 1st, die Bildung von ,,abnormen" Pro- 
 dukten oder ,,unfertigen" und ,,hochmolekularen" Molekiilen 
 bei der Addition von Brom zu Crotonsaure anzunehmen. Die 
 geringfiigigen Differenzen in den procentigen Verhaltnissen 
 der gebildeten a-Bromcrotonsaure bei schnellem oder langsam- 
 em Bromzutritt liegen ganz innerhalb der Grenzen von den 
 bei solchen Versuchen unvermeidlichen experimentellen Feh- 
 lern, wie aus den bei verschiedenen Versuchsreihen erhaltenen 
 Zahlen klar hervorgeht. Bei solchen Versuchen, wie in Ver- 
 suchsreihe I, wo eine abnorme Menge von a-Bromcrotonsaure 
 scheinbar gebildet wurde, ist das Verhaltniss zu gross, unab- 
 hangig von der Art des Bromzusatzes, und es handelt sich hier, 
 wie die Analysen zeigten, nicht um eine grossere Menge von 
 Saure, sondern um Verunreinigungen, die wohl grosstentheils 
 aus Mineralsalzen bestehen. Der oben angefiihrte Beweis, 
 dass bei der Zersetzung von reiner a/?-Dibrombuttersaure 
 schon etwa 4% an a-Bromcrotonsaure gebildet werden, ver- 
 bunden mit meinen Resultaten, wonach etwa 7% dieser Saure 
 bei der Zersetzung des rohen Additionsproduktes entstehen, 
 machen es wahrscheinlich, dass ungefahr 3% allo-a/?-Dibrom- 
 crotonsaure als normales Produkt der Addition von Brom zu 
 Crotonsaure gebildet werden. Es schien mir unnothig, den 
 vereinzelten Versuch, den Wislicenus durch Vermischen 
 bedeutender Mengen Brom und Crotonsaure in Schwefel- 
 kohlenstofflosung, wobei die Fliissigkeit 20 Minuten lang 
 kochte, zu wiederholen, denn ein solcher Versuch konnte un- 
 moglich regelrecht sein, wie man schon an der relativ grossen 
 Menge von 6l, welches Wislicenus erhalten hat, er- 
 kennt. 
 
 Merkwlirdiger Weise hat Wislicenus bei alien seinen 
 Versuchen ubersehen, dass immer BromwasserstofT entsteht, 
 und zwar, wenn man wie bei einem solchen Versuch verfahrt, 
 in nicht unbedeutender Menge; obwohl er so entschienen gegen 
 verschiedene Forscher, die bei anderen Untersuchungen die 
 Bildung desselben nicht hervorgehoben haben, aufgetreten 
 ist. 
 
3 io PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Die Versuche von Wislicenus liber die schnelle oder 
 verlangsamte Addition von Chlor zu Crotonsaure ergaben 
 Resultate, die unter einander so differirten, dass denselben 
 schon damals eigentlich keine Beweiskraft zugemessen werden 
 konnte; ich habe trotzdem einige Versuche iiber diese Reac- 
 tion angestellt, woraus hervorgeht, dass es bei richtig ange- 
 stellten Versuchen, beim Chlor wie beim Brom, nicht darauf 
 ankommt, in welcher Weise der Zusatz geschieht. 
 
 Vorlaufige Versuche zeigten, dass die Addition meistens 
 besser vor sich geht in Gegenwart von wenig gereinigtem 
 Schwefelkohlenstoff , unter Abkiilung, in hellem diffusem Licht. 
 Die Addition von Chlor ist ein so leicht vor sich gehender 
 Process, dass es nicht nothig ist im Sonnenlicht zu ar- 
 beiten. 
 
 I. 3 Grm. pulverisirte Crotonsaure wurde mit etwas Schwe- 
 felkohlenstoff ubergossen, auf 17 abgeklihlt, und die berech- 
 nete Menge, ebenfalls abgekiihltes Chlor, in Tetrachlorkohl- 
 enstoff gelost, zugesetzt, indem die Flasche im hellem diffu- 
 sem Licht stand. Die Addition ging sehr schnell vor sich, 
 und war nach einigen Minuten vollendet. Obwohl eine geringe 
 Menge Chlorlosung noch zugesetzt wurde, zeigte die Losung, 
 selbst nach 1 Stunde, die Anwesenheit einer Spur freien Halo- 
 gens und nur Spuren Chlorwasserstoffsaure. Die Bearbeitung 
 des Additionsproduktes geschah ganz wie schon bei den Ver- 
 suchen mit Brom beschrieben ist. Die gebildete, rein weisse 
 Dichlorbuttersaure war, bis auf eine Spur Ol, ganz fest. 
 
 II. Vorangehender Versuch wurde zur gleichen Zeit an- 
 gestellt, als die letzte Portion Chlorlosung bei diesem Versuch 
 zugesetzt worden war. Der Unterschied bestand darin, dass 
 bei diesem Versuch die Chlormenge in Portionen von je ^ in 
 5 Tagen zugesetzt wurde, und die abgekiihlte Flasche in be- 
 deutend schwacheres Licht gestellt wurde, damit die Addition 
 nicht so schnell vor sich gehe. Auch hier bekam man, bis auf 
 eine sehr geringe Menge, ein festes Additionsprodukt, obwohl 
 die gebildete Salzsaure etwas bedeutender war, als bei dem 
 vorigen Versuch. 
 
 III. Wei bei II das Chlor schnell, und IV. in 5 Portionen wie 
 bei II zugesetzt. Die Bearbeitung dieser Versuche geschah 
 
FESTER CROTONSAURE 
 
 nicht zu gleicher Zeit, wie dies bei I und II der Fall war, sonst 
 sind keine Unterschiede in Betreff derselben hervorzuheben. 1 
 
 TABELLE I. GEFUNDENE RESULTATE 
 
 
 
 
 Mono- 
 
 a.-chlor- 
 
 allo-o.- 
 
 Gesammt- 
 
 Versuch. 
 
 Art des 
 Chlorzwatzes. 
 
 butter- 
 
 chlor- 
 croton- 
 
 croton- 
 saures 
 
 chlorcro- 
 tonsaures 
 
 menge der 
 Kalium- 
 
 
 
 
 sauren. 
 
 Kaliunt. 
 
 Kaliunt, 
 
 salze. 
 
 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Grm. 
 
 Theorie 
 
 
 
 5,476 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 5,383 
 
 3,834 
 
 1,264 
 
 3,463 
 
 4,727 
 
 II. 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 5,400 
 
 3,818 
 
 1,306 
 
 3,596 
 
 4,912 
 
 III. 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 5,358 
 
 3,847 
 
 i,374 
 
 3,895 
 
 5,269 
 
 IV. 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 5,359 
 
 3,695 
 
 I , l6 3 
 
 3,39i 
 
 4,554 
 
 Theorie fiir Kalium im chlorcrotonsauren Kalium sind 24,60% 
 I. 0,1864 Grm. a-chlorcrotonsaures Salzgaben 0,1025 Grm. K 2 SO 4 
 24,67% Kalium. 
 
 0,5843 Grm. allo-a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,3228 Grm. 
 
 24,79% Kalium. 
 
 11.0,1683 Grm. a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,0925 Grm. K 2 SO 
 = 24,67% Kalium. 
 
 0,1 888 Grm. allo-a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,1046 Grm. 
 K 2 SO 4 = 24,83% Kalium. 
 
 III. 0,1125 Grm. a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,0618 Grm. K 2 SO 4 
 = 24,66% Kalium. 
 
 0,2297 Grm. allo-a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,1242 Grm. 
 K 2 SO 4 = 24,13% Kalium. 
 
 IV. 0,2370 Grm. a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,1283 Grm. K 2 SO 4 
 = 24,26% Kalium. 
 
 0,1242 Grm. allo-a-chlorcrotonsaures Salz gaben 0,0685 Grm. 
 K 2 SO 4 = 24,76% Kalium. 
 
 1 Da die o-Monochlorcrotonsauren sich noch leichter im Vacuum ver- 
 fliichtigen, als die entsprechenden Bromsauren, so ist es ganz unmoglich, ein 
 selbst annahernd constantes Gewicht zu erhalten. Die Versuche I und II sind 
 unter absolut gleichen Bedingungen ausgefiihrt wurden, und es kann daher 
 dieser Umstand keinen wesentlichen Einfluss auf das Endresultat ausgeiibt 
 haben, obwohl aus dem theoretischen Gewicht der Chlorcrotonsauren her- 
 vorgeht, dass eine kleine Menge der Chlorsauren sich verfliichtigt haben muss. 
 Beim Versuch IV verblieben, in der Hoffnung, ein mehr constantes Gewicht 
 zu erhalten, die Sauren 1 anger im Vacuum, als beim III., wodurch die noch 
 geringere Ausbeute erklart wird. 
 
3 i2 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 TABELLE II. BERECHNETE WERTE AUS OBIGEN VERSUCHEN 
 
 
 
 Relatives Verhaltniss des 
 
 
 
 erhaltenen. 
 
 Versuch. 
 
 Art des 
 Chlor zusatzes. 
 
 
 0,-chlorcroton- 
 
 allo-a.-chlor- 
 
 
 
 sauren Kalium. 
 
 crotons. Kal. 
 
 I. 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 26,7 
 
 73,3 
 
 II. 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 26,6 
 
 73,4 
 
 III. 
 
 auf einmal 
 
 26,1 
 
 73,9 
 
 V. 
 
 portionsweise 
 
 25,5 
 
 74,5 
 
 Es ist aus obigen Resultaten ersichtlich, dass, ebenso wenig 
 wie mit Brom, die Wislicenus 'schen Annahmen und Er- 
 klarungen betreffend den Einfluss von schnellen und verlang- 
 samten Additionen von Chlor zu fester Crotonsaure richtig 
 und stichhaltig sind. Bemerkenswerth ist, dass man bei der 
 Chloraddition anscheinend ein Gemisch reinerer Chlorcroton- 
 sauren nach der Zersetzung der Dichlorbuttersaure gewinnt, 
 wie dies aus den sehr genau stimmenden Zahlen der Kalium- 
 bestimmungen hervorgeht, als bei den entsprechenden Ver- 
 suchen mit Brom. Zieht man in Betracht, dass bei der Kalizer- 
 setzung von reiner a/?- Dichlorbuttersaure schon etwa 16% 
 /?-Chlorcrotonsaure gebildet werden, so ist man berechtigt 
 anzunehmen, dass etwa 10% allo-a/?-Dichlorbuttersaure als 
 normales Additionsprodukt bei der Einwirkung von Chlor 
 auf Crotonsaure gebildet werden; daher in betrachtlich 
 grosserem Verhaltniss, als die allo -aft- Dibromsaure, von 
 der nur etwa 3% bei der Addition von Brom zu Crotonsaure 
 entsteht. 
 
ZUR CONSTITUTION DES PHLORETINS 1 
 
 DIE Feststellung der Constitution des Phloridzins und des 
 Phloretins beruht auf einer Untersuchung von Hugo Schiff, 2 
 welcher durch Acetylirung die Gegenwart von f iinf Hydroxylen 
 in der ersten und von zwei soldier Gruppen in der letzten 
 Verbindung bewiesen hat. Von diesem Resultat ausgehend 
 hat Schiff das Phloretin als einen Ather der Phloretinsaure 
 und des Phloroglucins aufgefasst, welcher, da er nach dieser 
 Auffassung ein Carboxyl enthalt, eine Saure darstellen solle. 
 Diese Vorstellung der Constitution steht aber im Widerspruch 
 mit den lediglich phenolartigen Eigenschaften des Phloretins 
 und es schien mir daher von Interesse, das Studium des Phlo- 
 retins wieder aufzunehmen. 
 
 Zur Acetylirung des Phloretins wurde ein Stiickchen wasser- 
 freien Zinkchlorids in 20 g Essigsaureanhydrid in der Hitze 
 aufgelost und zu der heissen Losung, nach und nach und 
 nur in kleinen Mengen, 5 g bei 100 getrocknetes Phloretin 
 zugefugt. Der Kolben wurde mit einem Luftkiihler verbun- 
 den und die Losung auf ganz kurze Zeit zum Kochen ge- 
 bracht; der Inhalt desselben wurde in eine Porzellanschale 
 gegossen und nach dem Erkalten die krystallinisch erstarrte 
 Masse mit kaltem Wasser iibergossen. Das Wasser wurde 
 von Zeit zu Zeit erneuert; nach zwei bis drei Tagen blieb eine 
 schwach gefarbte, feste Masse zuriick, die im Vacuum ge- 
 trocknet wurde. Nach vollstandigem Trocknen wurde sie mit 
 wenig wasserfreiem Ather ausgezogen, der Riickstand abfil- 
 trirt und mit Ather nachgewaschen, wodurch eine amorphe 
 Masse entfernt wurde, und der nun fast farblos gewordene 
 Riickstand drei bis fiinf Mai aus heissem, absolutem Alkohol 
 
 1 Printed in the Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, XXVII, 
 2686 ; also in pamphlet form, Berlin, 1894. 
 
 2 Ann. d. Chem. 156, i. 
 
3 i4 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 krystallisirt. Die gleiche Substanz 1st auch durch Anwendung 
 von wasserfreiem Natriumacetat als Wasserentziehungsmittel 
 dargestellt worden; in diesem Fall wurden auf i g Phloretin 
 0.5 g des Natriumsalzes und etwa 4 g Anhydrid angewendet 
 und das Gemisch fiinfzehn Minuten in einem Kochsalzbade 
 erhitzt. Nach dem Ausziehen des Reactionsproducts mit 
 Wasser erhalt man den Korper in fast weissem Zustand, dessen 
 weitere Reinigung wie oben angegeben vorgenommen wurde. 
 Auch durch Gebrauch von Zinntetrachlorid, ein Reagenz, 
 das, meines Wissens, man bisher nicht zur Acetylirung an- 
 gewandt hat, kann man das gleiche Acetylproduct erhalten. 
 Aus 10 g Phloretin wurde nach der Acetatmethode etwa 9 g 
 Rohproduct, aber daraus wurden nur 3 g reines Product 
 gewonnen. Zur Analyse wurde die Substanz im Vacuum 
 getrocknet. 
 
 Analyse: Ber. fur C 1 5H 1 2O 5 (C 2 H 3 O) 2 . 
 
 Procente: C 63.7, H 5.0. 
 Analyse: Ber. fur C 15 H U O5(C 2 H 3 O)3. 
 
 Procente: C 63.00, H 5.00, 
 
 Gef. " " 62.65,62.70 62,70, " 5.49, 5.32, 5.32. 
 
 Der Korper bildet schone, farblose Nadeln, die bei 93.5 
 94.5 schmelzen und in kaltem Eisessig, Aceton, Benzol, Es- 
 sigather und Chloroform loslich, in Ligroin und kaltem Ather 
 unloslich sind. Um zu ermitteln, ob Phloretin aus dem Acetyl- 
 derivat zuriickgewonnen werden konnte, wurde das Acetylpro- 
 duct mit 3 procentigem, wassrigem Kali iibergossen und das 
 Gemisch bei gewohnlicher Temperatur so lange sich selbst 
 iiberlassen, bis ganzliche Losung erfolgt war. Beim An- 
 sauern der Losung fiel ein Korper aus, der in Betrefl seiner 
 Eigenschaften und Aussehen mit denen des Phloretins 
 ubereinstimmte. Das rohe Product schmolz bei etwa 220 
 und es kann daher wohl kein Zweifel obwalten, dass Phloretin 
 wirklich vorlag. Obwohl die Verbrennungsresultate viel 
 besser mit den theoretischen Zahlen eines Tri- als mit denen 
 eines Diacetylphoretins ubereinstimmten, so wurde wegen 
 der verhaltnissmassig kleinen Differenz zwischen den beiden 
 Zahlenreihen die Anzahl der Actylgruppen direct bestimmt 
 
 
ZUR CONSTITUTION DES PHLORETINS 315 
 
 und zwar nach der von H e r z i g * angegebenen Methode. 
 Eine gewogene Menge der Substanz wurde mit einem tiber- 
 schuss 10 procentiger Kalilauge im zugeschmolzenen Rohr 
 10 Stunden auf 100 erhitzt, der Inhalt des Rohres in einen 
 Kolben gebracht, mit Phosphorsaure angesauert und zuerst 
 langere Zeit mit Dampf behandelt, zuletzt im Vacuum zur 
 Trockne abdestillirt. Die Bestimmung der Essigsaure im 
 Destillate geschah wie Herzig angegeben hat; es ist her- 
 vorzuheben, dass bei der Behandlung von Phloretin aiif gleiche 
 Weise kein saures Destillat gewonnen wurde. 
 
 Analyse: Ber. fur C 15 H 12 O5(C 2 H 3 O) 2 . 
 
 Procente Acetyl: 22.05, 
 Analyse: Ber. fur C 15 H U O5(C 2 H 3 O) 3 . 
 
 Procente Acetyl: 32.20, 
 Gef. " 33.39, 33.68. 
 
 Nach diesem Resultat kann man nicht zweifeln, dass Phlo- 
 retin nicht zwei, sondern mindestens drei Hydroxylgruppen 
 enthalt, wie es S c h i f f aus seinen Versuchen gefolgert hat. 
 Um zu erfahren, ob das amorphe S c h i f f 'sche Product wirklich 
 von dem oben beschriebenen Korper verschieden ist, wurden 
 die Angaben von S c h i f f zur Darstellung des Acetylderivats 
 vermittelst Essigsaureanhydrid ohne Anwendung eines Was- 
 serentziehungsmittels genau wiederholt; beim Einengen der 
 alkoholischen Losung des Rohproducts wurde aber eine nicht 
 unbetrachtliche Menge der bei 94 schmelzenden Verbindung 
 zunachst abgeschieden. Bei einer zweiten Probe wurde das 
 mit Wasser behandelte und im Vacuum getrocknete Rohpro- 
 duct direct mit Ather ausgezogen, wodurch etwa ein Dritteil 
 einer harzigen Masse entfernt wurde, und der Riickstand 
 mehrmals aus Alkohol krystallisirt. Der Korper schmolz bei 
 94 und hatte alle Eigenschaften des Triacetylphloretins, dessen 
 Bildung durch eine Analyse bestatigt wurde. 
 
 Analyse: Ber. fur C u fl n O 6 (C^O\. 
 
 Procente: C 63.00, H 5.00, 
 Gef. " " 62.59, " 5-20. 
 
 1 Monatshefte 1884, 90. 
 
 
316 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 Das harzige Nebenproduct der Einwirkung von Essigsau- 
 reanhydrid auf Phloretin reprasentirt vielleicht ein weniger 
 acetylirtes Derivat und wird welter untersucht. 
 
 Die Zeitdauer der Einwirkung von Essizsaureanhydrid auf 
 Glucoside spielt bekanntlich eine bedeutende Rolle, indem 
 meistens nach kurzem Verlauf nur teilweise Acetylirung 
 stattfindet; auch mit Phloretin entsteht bei langerem Erhitzen 
 ein zweites, hoher schmelzendes Acetylderivat. Das Gemisch 
 von Phloretin, Natriumacetat und Essiganhydrid in den an- 
 gegebenen Verhaltnissen wurde 2 3 Stunden in einer koch- 
 enden Salzlosung gehalten und das Reactionsproduct wie 
 oben fur das Triacetylderivat weiter behandelt. Zur Reini- 
 gung des Products wurde es bis zum constanten Schmelzpunkt 
 aus Alkohol krystallisirt, wozu mehrmalige Krystallisation 
 notwendig ist, da das Rohproduct aus einem Gemisch be- 
 steht. Die Verbrennungen warden mit Bleichromat ausge- 
 fuhrt. 
 
 Gef. Procente: C 63.52, 63.10; H 5.33. 
 
 Der Korper bildet lange, weisse Nadeln, die bei 166 167 
 schmelzen. In Eisessig, Benzol, Aceton und Essigather ist 
 er loslich, dagegen wird er sehr schwer von kaltem und auch 
 schwierig von heissem Alkohol sowie von Ather aufgenom- 
 men. Die analytischen Zahlen passen nicht auf ein enifaches 
 Derivat des Phloretins, und es ist hochst wahrscheinlich, dass 
 der Korper ein Condensationsproduct des Triacetylphloretins 
 darstellt. Hervorzuheben ist, dass man das gleiche Product, 
 obwohl in geringerer Ausbeute, mittels Zinnchlorids erhalt und 
 dass dasTriacetylphloretin, wieder mit Anhydrid und Natrium- 
 acetat erhitzt, ebenfalls den hoher schmelzenden Korper liefert. 
 Ich gedenke denselben weiter zu untersuchen. Nachdem 
 diese Versuche vollendet waren, erschien eine Arbeit von 
 Ciamician und S i 1 b e r, 1 die aus Phloretin ein Acetyl- 
 product vom Schmp. 170 171 gewannen und demselben 
 die Constitution C^H^Ot zuschreiben. Da dieser Korper 
 als leicht loslich in Ather angegeben ist, so ist es zweifelhaft, 
 ob wir mit der gleichen Verhindung zu thun haben. 
 
 1 Diese Berichte 27, 1630. 
 
ZUR CONSTITUTION DES PHLORETINS 317 
 
 Die Constitution des Phloretins scheint mir aus meinen 
 Resultaten mit ziemlicher Sicherheit hervorzugehen. Dasselbe 
 ist kein oxydartiger Korper, wie S c h i f f annahm, sondern 
 der Phloroglucinester der Phloretinsaure von der Constitu- 
 tion C 6 H 3 < Q 2 C C2H4>CeH4 o Hj 
 
 eine Auffassung, die mit der Bildung des Triacetylderivats und 
 den Eigenschaften des Phloretins ubereinstimmt. 
 
 
A REVIEW OF RECENT SYNTHETIC WORK IN 
 THE CLASS OF CARBOHYDRATES 1 
 
 EVOLUTION is so universal, whether as exhibited in the unfold- 
 ing of human conceptions or in the making of worlds, that in 
 all reason it may be accepted as a cosmic principle. The fac- 
 tors of evolution are essentially constructive and destructive 
 ones, since growth and decay, progress and retardation, syn- 
 thesis and decomposition, accompany the rhythmic pulsations 
 of this general condition of change. Likewise, the chain of 
 chemical causality may be conceived of as closely correlated 
 with this presentation of evolution. The notion advanced in 
 this consideration precludes the thought of permanence. In 
 chemical activity the atoms are ever shifting their position in 
 space, and this unrest is indicative of the fundamental law of 
 advance. Howsoever stable and fixed may seem the individual 
 links of this chain, in reality the seeming stability is a condition 
 of variation and rearrangement of the atoms and molecules. 
 The molecule, that smallest portion of matter self -existing, 
 when considered as the resultant of chemical reaction, is but a 
 state of force equilibrium between the becoming and the van- 
 ishing. 
 
 In this evening's review of recent synthetic work, in the 
 sugar group, these constructive and destructive processes are 
 well exemplified; also, the unfolding changes so apparent 
 in other manifestations of universal phenomena are likewise 
 observable in the realm of chemistry. This underlying unity 
 and dominant principle unites all aspects of the cosmos, and 
 connects the parts into a living universe of the whole. 
 
 Evolution, when applied to chemistry, as elsewhere, com- 
 
 1 A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, March 8, 1895. Printed 
 in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, September, 1896; also in pamphlet 
 form, Philadelphia, 1896. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 319 
 
 prises the notion that the conceptions of the science advance 
 with the unfolding of its parts. 
 
 The evolution of chemical compounds is theoretically illus- 
 trated by the building of more complex compounds from sim- 
 ple compounds, themselves formed from the elements, which, 
 no doubt, in turn come from still simpler sources. The com- 
 plex bodies of the same type, as, for instance, the hydrocar- 
 bons of the fatty series, show development on their own lines. 
 Passing from the fatty hydrocarbons to those of the aromatic 
 series is another example and indication of progress to syn- 
 theses beyond. In the laboratory these processes no doubt 
 oftentimes are carried out by circuitous methods, as Nature's 
 sequences in these particulars are unknown. In the natural 
 changes that rocks, plants and animals undergo, a self-direc- 
 tive chemical consciousness, adequate to the needs of the re- 
 spective conditions, doubtless obtains. 
 
 There was a time, not so long ago, when many of the chem- 
 ical compounds resulting from the chain of existence were 
 isolated from animal and plant life. The key of chemical change 
 was looked for in the study of plants, and to these sources, 
 from life, chemists turned for new research fields. 
 
 A little later, chemical synthesis, or the production of com- 
 pounds by artificial means, had its beginning. From time to 
 time, at longer or shorter intervals, appeared the announce- 
 ment of the synthesis of some compound hitherto derived from 
 plant or animal life. But the later years of this century, from 
 the chemical point of view, may be regarded specially as syn- 
 thetic years, ever nearing the zenith of greater attainment. 
 
 The subject of sugars early attracted the attention of chem- 
 ists, not only because of the industrial aspects, but also, be- 
 ing one of the main divisions of the classification of compounds, 
 the study of its varieties and composition has been untiringly 
 pursued. The vision arose in the long past of its possible syn- 
 thesis. Liebig first conceived the idea of making sugar arti- 
 *fitially. But the synthesis of this important group of com- 
 pounds defied all efforts until comparatively recent times. 
 The first mixture of synthetical sugars was obtained by Butle- 
 
320 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 row, 1 by the action of lime-water on oxymethylene, in the form 
 of a syrupy liquid which he named methylenitan. In 1863, 
 Van Deen, by the oxidation of glycerine, discovered a com- 
 pound which reduced salts of copper in alkaline solution, and 
 showed other properties indicative of a sugar, although of a 
 simpler kind than those found in nature. The discoveries of 
 Low, Tollens, and Fischer have brought the investigations of 
 sugars to our own times. 
 
 The researches of Nageli, from a botanical standpoint, 
 led him to advance a theory that starch was the origin of sugar 
 in plants. 
 
 A later purely chemical hypothesis of the synthesis of sugars 
 from simple compounds in the living cell, which, in turn, yield 
 more complicated compounds, is thought by many to be a 
 more satisfactory theory, for it coincides with our ideas de- 
 rived from other branches of scientific investigation, in sup- 
 port of the notion that from simple integrals arise intricate 
 structures. But it is quite probable that both processes of con- 
 struction and destruction are carried on simultaneously in the 
 plant. In the laboratory it is possible, starting with the ele- 
 ments carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, to form, from these ele- 
 ments, compounds which are found in vegetable life. From 
 the simple bodies thus derived are the means ready at hand 
 to proceed to compounds of a sugar type. 
 
 The carbon dioxide in the plant is derived from the exter- 
 nal environment of the air and soil, or the gas is generated 
 within the plant cells. Under the influence of sunlight, car- 
 bon dioxide and water yield formaldehyde, a compound con- 
 taining the group (CHO); i. e., one atom respectively of 
 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, known as the aldehyde group, 
 united to hydrogen by the residual affinity of carbon. Accord- 
 ing to Baeyer, formaldehyde is the source of the plant's sugar. 
 
 In the chlorophyll grains of the green part of the leaf, it is 
 supposed that the formation of glucose takes place. 
 
 The aldehyde group enters into the constitution, and is 
 characteristic, of many of the sugars. One of the divisions in 
 the classification of sugars containing this group is known as 
 
 1 Ann., cxx, 295. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 321 
 
 the aldehyde sugars. As a comprehensive name for the class, 
 the word aldose has been adopted. The other class of sugars 
 is known as the ketose sugars, so called from the ketone group 
 (CO), or carbonyl, contained in their molecules. 
 
 The ease with which formaldehyde polymerizes, under fa- 
 vorable conditions, qualifies this compound eminently for its 
 function in sugar-formation. 
 
 Polymerization is the amalgamating, so to speak, of two or 
 more aldehyde groups, forming a carbon compound contain- 
 ing a greater number of carbon atoms. 
 
 In considering the polymers of formaldehyde, Baeyer sug- 
 gested that, under the influence of the contents of the plant 
 cells, 6 molecules of formaldehyde polymerize to form i mole- 
 cule of glucose, 6HCHO=C 6 H 12 O 6 . 
 
 It has been claimed that formaldehyde occurs in plants, 
 and has been found in very small quantities in plant cells; but 
 in any great proportion it acts as a poison to the living plant, 
 and Fischer has suggested, in consequence, that there can be 
 no doubt that other intermediary compounds occur in the 
 formation of sugars. Bokorny 1 has made an interesting ob- 
 servation on the assimilation by the green cells of Algae of a 
 double compound of formaldehyde and sodium bisulphite. 
 He has shown that, if plants are deprived of starch and placed 
 in an atmosphere free from carbonic acid, they are capable 
 of forming considerable quantities of starch under the influ- 
 ence of sunlight, if fed upon this compound. In the dark the 
 conversion of formaldehyde into starch does not take place. 
 
 Low, by treating formaldehyde with lime, obtained a sugar 
 which he called formose. Fischer has shown that this pro- 
 duct contains sugar compounds of the composition C 6 H 12 O 6 , 
 and among these, one named acrose, which stands in very 
 close relation to natural glucose. 
 
 It may be well to state here that the term sugar includes a 
 variety of substances. It includes fruit sugar, glucose, and 
 chemically allied sugar groups, some of which contain more 
 and some less carbon atoms than glucose. These compounds 
 are not to be confounded with the food material derived from 
 
 1 Landiv. Jahrbwh, xxi, 445. 
 
322 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 the sugar-cane or beet-root, and milk sugar. Starches and 
 gums, though conveying little idea of sugar, are chemically 
 to be considered as sugars. 
 
 The characteristics of these different compounds are very 
 unlike. They vary from very soluble to insoluble compounds, 
 and from crystalline to non- crystalline bodies. But the in- 
 soluble compounds, like starch and cellulose, may be con- 
 verted into the soluble sugars by the action of heat and dilute 
 acids, and by certain ferments, as diastase. The reaction 
 which accompanies this conversion involves the taking up of 
 water, and at the same time the complicated molecule splits 
 into several simpler ones. This reaction is called hydrolosis: 
 x(C 6 H 10 O 5 ) + xH 2 O = xC 6 H 12 O 6 . 
 
 As will be observed, the sugar group collectively desig- 
 nated as "carbohydrates" comprehends a vast widening- 
 out vista of compounds, from a simple compound derived 
 directly from the elements, to complex bodies with numerous 
 isomers. 
 
 The sugars of physiological consequence are widely spread 
 in animals and plants, and, as carbohydrates, constitute one 
 of the three great classes of natural organic compounds, the 
 fats and albuminoids constituting the other two classes. La- 
 voisier discovered that the materials of which carbohydrates 
 are composed were carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; but the 
 objection to the use of the term carbohydrate, which is denned 
 as a compound containing carbon and hydrogen and oxygen 
 in the proportion of 2 to i, is its non- universality. The sugar 
 called rhamnose, C 6 H 12 O5, may be mentioned as an excep- 
 tion to the definition, but for purposes of classification the 
 name carbohydrate has been retained by writers. 
 
 The carbohydrates have been divided for convenience into 
 three groups: 
 
 (1) Simple sugars, or monosaccharides, as grape or fruit 
 sugars. 
 
 (2) Decomposable sugars, or polysaccharides, as cane or 
 milk sugar and raffinose. 
 
 (3) Polysaccharides unlike sugar, as starch, cellulose, and 
 dextrine. 
 
 CQIJ 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 323 
 
 The polysaccharides are bodies made up from several sim- 
 ple sugar molecules, uniting with elimination of water. Thus 
 cane sugar may be converted into grape and fruit sugar by 
 hydroly tic reaction, as shown by the equation : 
 
 C 12 H 22 O n +H 2 O =C 6 H 12 O 6 +C 6 H 12 O 6 ; 
 
 consequently, the simple sugars, like glucose, appear as the 
 basis of the entire group. 
 
 In nature, the simple sugars, or monosaccharides, are found 
 not only as carbohydrates, but they occur also in combina- 
 tion with phenols as glucosides. 
 
 From the widely spread distribution of glucose, its uses as 
 a food product, and considered chemically as the basis of more 
 complicated carbohydrates, it deserves careful consideration. 
 
 The name hexose, which is the general name for the glu- 
 cose group, as the word implies, shows that 6 carbon atoms 
 enter into the composition of the individuals of the group. 
 These carbon atoms are united in an open chain, each carbon 
 atom, except one at one end of the chain, being united to a 
 hydroxyl (OH) group. This end carbon atom is united with 
 hydrogen and oxygen, forming an aldehyde group which is 
 peculiar to these sugars. Glucose and sugars of its class are 
 represented by the constitution which expresses an aldose or 
 aldehyde sugar, CH 2 OH . (CHOH) n . CHO. 
 
 Fruit sugar, or ketose, is expressed by the formula : 
 
 CH 2 OH . (CHOH) n . CO . CH 2 OH. 
 
 The reason for accepting this atomic arrangement to ex- 
 press the constitution of the glucose and fructose groups is 
 based upon several considerations. Grape and fruit sugar, 
 on reduction with hydrogen, yield the alcohol mannite. Galac- 
 tose, which is also an aldehyde sugar, under the same condi- 
 tions gives the alcohol dulcite. The 6 hydrogen atoms of the 
 hydroxyl groups of these alcohols are replaced by acetyl groups 
 on treating them with acetic anhydride, so they must be con- 
 sidered as the hexavalent alcohols of the above sugars. 
 
 The aldehyde character of glucose and galactose is also 
 shown by their behavior towards oxidizing agents. On par- 
 tial oxidation, by chlorine or bromine water, they yield re- 
 
324 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 spectively gluconic and galactonic acids. By complete oxida- 
 tion they both give saccharic acid. 1 
 
 Conversely to the aldehyde sugars, fruit sugar is slowly 
 attacked by bromine water. By the action of a more powerful 
 oxidizing reagent it is decomposed into products containing 
 fewer carbon atoms. 
 
 The aldehyde and ketone character of these compounds 
 is shown by the readiness with which the sugars form hy- 
 drazone and osazone compounds. This reaction with phe- 
 nylhydrazine is characteristic of all compounds containing 
 aldehyde and ketone groups. 2 
 
 The sugar varieties which to-day go to make up a magnifi- 
 cent display of synthetic skill include many isomers, depend- 
 ing upon the different arrangement of the atoms in space. In 
 order to have a clear view over this field, it is important to as- 
 certain the spacial relations or configuration of each member 
 of the sugar groups. 3 
 
 The latest publications by Emil Fischer on the stereomers 
 of the sugar groups show an admirable agreement between 
 the conflicting facts pertaining to the sugars which have poured 
 in from isolated researches during past years, when these are 
 considered in the light of Le Bel and Van't Hoff's theory. The 
 names of these investigators are especially identified with 
 stereo-chemistry, although others have followed in the same 
 lines. 
 
 Among the writings of the past, the geometrical forms of 
 matter were suggested by the Greeks, and later by Sweden- 
 borg as a possibility; but it was Pasteur, in 1860, who gave 
 the underlying idea of grouping of atoms in space. 
 
 1 When a solution of the alcohol mannite is heated for some hours to 42 C. 
 with nitric acid, it is oxidized to mannose; if the reaction is continued with 
 increased heat, the oxidation is carried on to the acid formation. 
 
 2 CH 2 OH(CHOH) 4 CHO + C C H 5 HN 2 H 2 = CH 2 OH(CHOH) 4 CH 
 
 N 2 HC 6 H 6 +H 2 
 
 CH 2 OH(CHOH) 3 CO . CH 2 OH+C C H 5 HN 2 H 2 =CH 2 OH(CHOH) 3 C.CH 2 OH 
 + H 2 | 
 
 N 2 HC 6 H 5 
 
 3 The configuration of a compound is the relative position of its atoms in 
 space. The portion of chemistry treating on this subject is called stereo- 
 chemistry. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 325 
 
 This theory explains the existence of two or more compounds 
 of like chemical composition, by assuming different disposi- 
 tions of the atoms entering into the compound. 
 
 The simplest hydrocarbon, methane, is conceived as being 
 a tetrahedron with a carbon atom in its centre and one hy- 
 drogen atom joined at each of its four angles. The carbon 
 atom of this compound is symmetrical, inasmuch as all the 
 atoms to which it is united are of a like kind. In such a case 
 stereomers are impossible. 
 
 But in order to have the conditions for stereosomerism, it 
 is necessary for a compound to contain one or more atoms of 
 asymmetrical carbon; that is, a carbon atom united by all of 
 its four bonds to atoms or groups of atoms of different kinds. 
 
 Methane may be represented, for illustration, by a paste- 
 board tetrahedron model, 1 the angles being painted red to 
 distinguish the points of carbon's union with hydrogen atoms. 
 If this model be placed angle to angle with a second methane 
 tetrahedron, the hydrogen atoms will coincide, and if one of 
 the models be superimposed upon the other, the hydrogen 
 atoms at each of the angles will touch, showing the symme- 
 trical grouping. The symmetry of the molecule is not dis- 
 turbed when two or three different kinds of atoms replace the 
 hydrogen atoms of methane. But when all of the hydrogen 
 atoms are replaced by different kinds of atoms, it will be found, 
 on bringing the angles of like color of two models together 
 and superimposing the one model upon the second model, 
 that the angles of like colors cannot be made to coincide. 
 
 Lactic acid is an illustration of a compound containing an 
 asymmetrical carbon. This compound, represented by the 
 constitution CH 3 . CHOH . CO OH, contains two symmetri- 
 cal carbon atoms, one at either end; the carbon atom which 
 occupies the middle position is the asymmetrical carbon, since 
 this atom is united by its four bonds with different atoms or 
 groups. The presence of this middle carbon atom induces 
 the conditions which cause lactic acid to appear under two 
 acid modifications. By the action of these compounds on the 
 
 1 The subject here and what follows was explained by means of models 
 and charts. 
 
326 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 rays of polarized light, which are turned to the right or left, 
 depending upon the isomer, the acids are known as the right 
 and left lactic acids. In uniting they give an inactive form. 
 In connection herewith, it may be well to mention the tar- 
 taric acid experiments of Pasteur. On working with certain 
 of the salts of that form of tartaric acid called racemic acid, 
 he noticed that he could separate them into two crystalline 
 forms, which in aqueous solution behaved differently towards 
 polarized light. According to the direction that the solutions 
 of the crystals turn the plane of polarized light, they are known 
 as the salts of the right and left tartaric acids. The corre- 
 sponding acids contain two symmetrical and two asymmetri- 
 cal carbons. They may 'be represented in this manner: - 
 
 Right Tartaric Acid. Left Tartaric Acid. 
 
 COOH COOH 
 
 H C OH OH C H 
 
 OH C H H C OH 
 
 I I 
 
 COOH COOH 
 
 The two active modifications may he brought together, and 
 when united, give the inactive form, or racemic acid. 
 
 COOH 
 
 COOH 
 
 H 
 
 -OH 
 
 OH 
 
 -H 
 
 OH- 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 | COOH 
 
 COOH | 
 
 The inactive acid may be separated into its active compo- 
 nents by chemical means, or by the action of certain ferments. 
 These ferments have the effect of destroying either the right 
 or the left modification. 
 
 There is another inactive form of the acid, known as the 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 327 
 
 anti-tartaric acid. This is the result of synthesis, and is not 
 decomposable into active parts. 
 
 A nti-tartaric A cid. 
 
 COOH 
 
 OH 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 COOH 
 
 From what has been said it will be easy to understand the 
 parallelism of Pasteur's classical experiments with the sugars 
 and the application of this theory to other classes of com- 
 pounds. 
 
 With the simple sugar molecules the conditions are not so 
 complex as in the higher sugar series, and the number of stereo- 
 mers is less. With an increasing number of carbon atoms the 
 conditions of asymmetry increase and stereomers are more 
 numerous. 
 
 In the case of glucose the number of asymmetrical carbons 
 is four. The possible number of stereomers is sixteen, of which 
 eleven are known. Among these, five are optical pairs. That 
 is, each member of these optical pairs turns the plane of polar- 
 ized light in an opposite direction, and one of the pair may 
 be described as the reflected or "mirror image" of the other. 
 
 When it is remembered that glucose refers to a compound 
 which appears under two forms in respect of its action on 
 polarized light, the explanation, from what has gone before, 
 of this quality is seen to rest on the space position of its atoms. 
 The position of the hydrogen and hydroxyl groups, with re- 
 spect to the asymmetrical carbons in the molecule of the ac- 
 tive glucose, which turns the plane of polarized light to the 
 right, is diametrically opposite to the position in space of these 
 same atoms and groups in the other modification of glucose, 
 which turns the plane of polarized light to the left. 1 
 
 The right glucose may be spoken of as the " mirror image" 
 
 1 This was represented on a diagram. 
 
328 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 TABLE I. PENTOSE, PENTONIC ACID, 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 COH 
 H OH 
 HO H 
 H OH 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 / Xylose. 
 / Xylonic acid. 
 
 COH 
 HO H 
 H OH 
 HO H 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 [Mirror 
 COH 
 HO H 
 HO H 
 HO H 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 / Ribose. 
 / Ribonic acid. 
 
 Images.l 
 COH 
 H OH 
 H OH 
 H OH 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 C 
 
 H 
 H 
 H 
 
 ( 
 Ribo-triox} 
 Adonite (ir 
 
 :OOH 
 
 OH 
 OH 
 OH 
 
 :OOH 
 
 glutaric acid, 
 tactive). 
 
 H 
 HO 
 H 
 < 
 
 Xylo-trioxyg 
 Xylite (inac 
 
 COOH 
 OH 
 H 
 OH 
 300H 
 ;lutaric acid, 
 tive). 
 
 HEXOSE, HEXONTC ACIDS, HEXITE AND 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 i5 
 
 16 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO- 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 TT 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 BO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO- 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 BO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 TT 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 / Mannose. 
 
 d Mannose. 
 
 / Idose. 
 
 
 d Idose. 
 
 / Mannic acid. 
 
 d Mannic acid. 
 
 / Idonic acid. 
 
 d Idonic acid. 
 
 The configurations of the acids correspond- 
 
 b. DULCITE 
 
 27 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 / Galactose. 
 
 d Galactose. 
 
 
 
 
 
 / Galactonic acid. 
 
 d Galactonic acid. 
 
 
 
 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 329 
 
 PENTITE AND TRIOXYGLTJTARIC ACIDS. 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 H OH 
 
 H OH 
 
 HO 1 H 
 
 HO 1 H 
 
 HO H 
 
 H OH 
 
 H OH 
 
 HO H 
 
 HO H 
 
 HO H 
 
 H | OH 
 
 H 1 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 / Arabinose. 
 
 
 d Arabinose. 
 
 
 / Arabonic acid. 
 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 12 
 
 COOH 
 
 COOH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 COOH 
 
 COOH 
 
 / Trioxyglutaric acid. 
 / Arabite. 
 
 SACCHARIC ACIDS. a. MANNITE GROUP. 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 I Glucose. 
 
 / Gulose. 
 
 d Glucose. 
 
 d Gulose. 
 
 / Gluconic acid. 
 
 / Gulonic acid. 
 
 d Gluconic acid. 
 
 d Gulonic acid. 
 
 ing to the above have been omitted. 
 GROUP. 
 
 3 1 
 
 3 2 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 COH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 HO 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 H 
 
 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d Talose. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d Talonic acid. 
 
330 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of the left one, for by no possible turning can the configura- 
 tion of the one be superimposed upon the other. Thus they 
 are called enantiomorphic; but united, they give the modifi- 
 cation towards polarized light. The inactive glucose may be 
 again decomposed into the two active forms. 
 
 The question naturally arises, Why are these configura- 
 tions represented as they are on the diagram ? x It would carry 
 us beyond the time allotted for this occasion to go into the 
 reasonings for each case. I will only take one or two exam- 
 ples. But it may be stated generally that the observations 
 made on these sugars from experimental facts are in accord 
 with theory. 
 
 On the chart, beginning at the top of the diagram, are the 
 two triose sugars, each with one asymmetrical carbon. On 
 the next lines are the four tetroses, which have been made syn- 
 thetically. There are eight pentose sugars having three asym- 
 metrical carbons; and below these are represented the six- 
 teen hexose sugars, to which glucose belongs. I have not 
 considered it necessary to continue the representation of the 
 higher sugars on the chart. 
 
 But suppose that I should change the aldehyde group of 
 these sugars into a corresponding alcohol group, it would be- 
 come apparent that the conditions for asymmetry were changed. 
 Each of the end carbon atoms, in its atomic relations, is alike, 
 and these alcohols contain only two asymmetrical carbons. 
 The configurations for the pentose sugars, one and two, here 
 given, are unlike. They are the mirror images of each other. 
 When reduced, however, to their alcohols, the identity of the 
 alcohols arising from these two sugars becomes apparent on 
 turning the end group of one df the compounds in the plane 
 of the diagram, and bringing this group to the top of the other 
 configurations. Also, if these alcohols are imagined to be the 
 acids of the group, the tri-oxyglutaric acids, the (CO OH) 
 groups standing at each end of the carbon chain when the acid 
 is turned in the same plane on the diagram as the alcohols, 
 it will be seen that one acid configuration results from two 
 sugar ones, as in the former case of the alcohols. 
 
 1 See Table I. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 331 
 
 There are only four alcohol and acid isomers for the eight 
 sugar isomers in this group. In the other higher sugar groups 
 the conditions are somewhat changed. But by studying the 
 results of oxidation or reduction on sugars, it may be shown 
 that the compounds so obtained point to the probable con- 
 figuration of a given sugar; and in this way, these formulae 
 express the conclusions of actual experiment. 
 
 These active asymmetrical compounds are obtained directly 
 from natural products, or are derived from optically active 
 compounds. If compounds are formed from inactive ones, 
 and inactive modifications arise, these inactive forms must 
 be decomposed in order that the active form may appear. 
 
 Although these active compounds are the resultants of 
 accompanying life processes, they are not regarded by the 
 chemical thinkers of the day as essentially due to a life force. 
 Fischer believes that these active compounds will all be made 
 synthetically. This is by no means assuming that the know- 
 ledge to fabricate these active substances will give into the 
 hands of the chemist the secret touch to set these molecules 
 into a life mechanism. 
 
 The example of the glorious period of the highest achieve- 
 ments in Greek art remains as a reminder that neither the 
 skill of a Phidias nor of a Praxiteles could give to their creations 
 the breath of life. The analogous height and limit of relative 
 perfection in attainment is seen in other developments of hu- 
 man conception. Each later development may reach a higher 
 round of the ladder than its predecessors, and the standpoint 
 of vision may be a line nearer that goal which seems to recede 
 as the effort of advance reaches forward. 
 
 An Arabian alchemist, it is said, first obtained grape sugar, 
 or glucose, in a solid form, by concentrating grape sap. It was 
 obtained pure by the chemist Marggraf, in the middle of the 
 last century. The conversion of starch into grape sugar by 
 boiling with dilute acids was discovered by Kirchhoff, in 1811. 
 No less interesting is the recent work of Rohmann, wherein 
 he shows that blood serum converts potato starch into dextro- 
 glucose, and that finally, at the end of the reaction, maltose, 
 likewise soluble starch and dextrine, remain. 
 
332 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 
 Aldose. 
 
 Mono-basic acid. 
 
 Biose 
 
 Glycolaldehyde 
 
 
 Triose 
 
 Glycerose (Mixture oi 
 
 
 Tetrose 
 
 aldose and ketose.) 
 Erythrose 
 
 Erythritic acid 
 
 Pentose < 
 
 d-l-i Arabinose. 
 Xylose 
 
 / Arabic acid. 
 
 Methyl Pentose . . j 
 
 {Mannite | 
 Group [ 
 Dulcite ( 
 Group i 
 
 Methyl-hexose 
 
 / Ribose. 
 
 Rhamnose. } 
 Chinovose. 
 Fucose. ) 
 
 d-l-i Glucose. 
 d-l-i Gulose. 
 d-l-i Mannose. 
 d-l-i Idose. 
 
 d-l-i Galactose. 
 d Talose. 
 
 Ct Rhamno-hexose 
 
 / Ribonic acid. 
 Rhamnic acid. 
 
 d-l-i Gluconic acid. 
 d-l-i Gulonic acid. 
 d-l-i Mannic acid. 
 d-l-i Idonic acid. 
 
 d-l-i Galactonic acid. 
 d Talonic acid. 
 
 ( a Rhamno-hexonic acid. ) 
 
 Heptose < 
 
 d-l-i Manno-heptose. 
 a Gluco-heptose. 
 
 \fl Rhamno-hexonic acid. ) 
 
 d-l-i Manno-heptonic acid. 
 a Gluco-heptonic acid. 
 
 Methyl-heptose 
 Octose 
 
 a Gala-heptose. 
 ft Gala-heptose. 
 
 Rhamno -heptose . 
 Manno-octose. 
 
 a Gala-heptonic acid. 
 ^ Gala-heptonic acid. 
 
 Rhamno-heptonic acid. 
 
 Manno-octonic acid. 
 j a Gluco-octonic acid. ) 
 
 Nonose ^ 
 
 Gala-octose. 
 Manno-nonose. 
 
 ( /y Gluco-octonic acid. ( 
 Gala-octonic acid. 
 
 Manno-nononic acid. \ 
 
 Aromatic Series 
 
 Gluco-nonose. 
 Phenyltetrose. 
 
 Gluco-nononic acid. } 
 Phenyltetronic acid. 
 
 
 Ketose. 
 
 Structure Unknown. 
 
 Triose 
 
 Dioxyacetone 
 
 
 Hexose < 
 
 (contained in gly- 
 cerose). 
 
 d-l-i Fructose. 
 
 Formose. 
 
 
 Sorbose. 
 
 [3 Acrose. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 333 
 
 TABLE H. 
 
 Di-basic acid. 
 
 Polyvalent alcohol. 
 
 Oxalic acid. 
 Tartronic acid. 
 
 Glycol. 
 Glycerine. 
 
 4 Tartaric acids. 
 
 2 Erythrite. 
 
 / Trioxyglutaric acid. 
 Xylo-trioxyglutaric acid (inactive). 
 Ribo-trioxyglutaric acid (inactive). 
 
 / Arabite. 
 Xylite (inactive). 
 Adonite (inactive). 
 
 
 Rhamnite. 
 
 ( d-l-i Saccharic acid. 
 < d-l-i Manno-saccharic acid. 
 ( d-l-i Ido-saccharic acid. 
 
 ^-/-Sarbite. 
 d-l-i Mannite. 
 d-l Idite (i). 
 
 Mucic acid (inactive). 
 ( d-l Talo-mucid acid. ) 
 ( Allo-mucic acid. ) 
 
 Dulcite (inactive). 
 d-l Talite. 
 
 
 a Rhamnohexite. 
 
 d Manno-heptanpentoldic acid, 
 a Gluco-heptanpentoldic acid (inactive), 
 jtf Gluco-heptanpentoldic acid. 
 a Gala-heptanpentoldic acid. 
 p Gala-heptanpentoldic acid. 
 
 d-l-i Mannoheptite (Perseit). 
 a Glucoheptite (inactive). 
 
 a Galaheptite. 
 
 
 Manno-octite. 
 
 
 a Gluco-octite. 
 
 
 Gluco-nonite. 
 
 
 (i) Ber. 28, 1975. 
 
 Aldehyde Acids. 
 
 (CHOH) 4 <gg H 
 
 Glucuronic acid. 
 Oxygluconic acid. 
 
 (CHOH) 6 <CggH 
 
 Aldehydgalactonic acid. 
 
334 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 OH 
 
 I 
 
 ft 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 335 
 
 From all sources the number of simple sugars, from the be- 
 ginning of the century to less than ten years ago, numbered 
 not over 6. Now, by means of synthetical research, not less 
 than 30 simple sugars are known, and 7 of them are natural 
 products. Among the 7 carbon-atom sugars, by calculating 
 the possible number of isomers, 32 are possible, of which only 
 6 have thus far been obtained. Of the 128 possible nonose 
 sugars, as yet but 2 have been made. 1 
 
 To carry out the thought of the sugar-group development 
 it will be necessary to give rapidly an outline of these sugars 
 before summing up the methods which led to their synthesis. 
 
 Under the mannite group are included grape sugar and 
 sugars possessing the same chemical composition as grape 
 sugar. The mannose sugars also come under this group, with 
 their corresponding alcohols and acids. The right, left, and 
 inactive mannose correspond to the d-l and i glucose. The 
 right mannose is formed at the same time as the right fructose, 
 by the careful oxidation of the alcohol mannite. It was first 
 obtained in this way. It may be mentioned that mannite is 
 found in manna. Mannose may also be obtained from the 
 natural carbohydrates by hydrolytic reaction. It is also found 
 in the fruit of many palms. A very cheap source of supply is 
 from the shavings of vegetable ivory in the manufacture of 
 buttons. In separating the right mannose from its solutions, 
 its phenylhydrazone compound is used. This compound is 
 very insoluble, and affords a characteristic test for this sub- 
 stance. 
 
 The left mannose is obtained from the left arabinose. 2 The 
 arabinose compounds contain 5 atoms of carbon. The cyan- 
 hydrine reaction in the sugar series, or Kiliani's reaction, is 
 the one employed in its formation. This method has opened 
 the field to some of the most important discoveries in sugar 
 synthesis. In this reaction prussic acid unites directly with 
 sugar, 3 and in this way the number of carbon atoms in the 
 
 1 The table shows the present sugar status. 
 
 2 By right, left, and inactive acids, of course, is meant the effect of these 
 compounds on polarized light. 
 
 3 C 2 HOH(CHOH) t CHO + HCN=CH 2 OH(CHOH) 4 CHOH . CN+H 2 O. 
 
336 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 sugar chain may be increased and a higher synthetic com- 
 pound formed. Upon the addition of prussic acid to sugar 
 compounds, the further processes of saponification and reduc- 
 tion are necessary before obtaining a higher sugar. By this 
 method it is possible to pass from sugars containing a few car- 
 bon atoms to sugars representing a higher synthetical series. 
 However, this method can only be used with sugar compounds 
 containing not less than 3 carbon atoms. Such compounds 
 have the power of forming lactones, and sugars of a higher 
 carbon percentage are obtained by reducing these lactones. 1 
 By the use of this method Fischer has obtained some of his 
 most brilliant achievements. 
 
 The right, left, and inactive glucose and idose, which are 
 stereomers of glucose, have been obtained synthetically from 
 their corresponding acids. Idose is named from the symme- 
 trical form of its molecules, and is among the latest discovered 
 compounds of this group. The acids of these last two sugars 
 are isomeric with the sugar acids obtained by oxidizing glu- 
 cose and mannose. 
 
 Two other sugars, which may be mentioned as belonging 
 to the hexoses, are galactose and talose. The right, left, and 
 inactive galactose have been obtained. The ^-galactose as 
 well as the ^-glucose may be derived from milk sugar by hy- 
 drolysis. The latter may also be obtained by the same means 
 from other carbohydrates. Galactose yields, on reduction, an 
 alcohol called dulcite. These sugars belong to the second divi- 
 sion of the hexose group, known as the dulcite group, and by 
 oxidation yield mucic acid; whereas the sugars of the mannite 
 division yield, on oxidation, saccharic acid. All these sugars 
 may be separated from their solutions, in a solid form, by 
 
 1 The lactones are gamma hydroxy compounds, which, by the loss of 
 water, give an anhydride. 
 
 CH 2 OH 
 
 CH 3 
 JH, 
 
 COOH 
 
 Counting from the one above the bottom group, the carbons are known as 
 the alpha, beta, gamma, delta carbons, etc. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 337 
 
 means of their hydrazones and osazones. 1 " However, with the 
 exception of mannose, the hydrazones of other sugars are mostly 
 soluble in water. Hence, the reaction with phenylhydrazine 
 is carried on to a further state, which results in the formation 
 of the insoluble osazones. These compounds differ decidedly 
 in color and system of crystallization. They have sharp melt- 
 ing-points, which lead to their easy identification. 
 
 Another class of substances, which are called mercaptals, 
 and are compounds of sugar with sulphur, of the composition 
 CH 2 OH(CHOH) 4 CH(S 2 C 5 H) 2 , furnishes a means of separat- 
 ing and distinguishing the aldehyde sugar compounds. 
 
 The synthetical sugars containing 7, 8, and 9 carbon atoms, 
 derived from the groups containing less carbon atoms, may 
 be made by Kiliani's method. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the sugars containing 3, 6, and 
 9 atoms of carbon are fermentable; while those containing 
 4, 5, and 7 atoms of carbon cannot be fermented. 
 
 Fischer has suggested wherein the interest of these massive 
 sugar molecules lies. It is in physiological research. He has 
 proposed, as worthy of attention, that these higher synthetical 
 sugars be experimented with as to their full physiological value. 
 Possibly the tissues of animals nourished with these higher 
 sugars may yield other chemical products; the liver may give 
 a new glycogen, and a new acid may be found in the milk secre- 
 tions from the mammary glands. Here may possibly be opened 
 a new research ground for the biologist. 
 
 The pentosans are compounds belonging to the sugars 
 containing 5 carbon atoms. These pentosans occur in various 
 parts of plants of different age and development. The amount 
 increases during the development of the plants. The wood 
 of dicotyledonous plants is richer in pentosans than that of the 
 Coniferae. It is thought by De Chalmot that these substances 
 are reserve materials. But they seem of importance in the 
 formation of wood, for they are developed at this stage. 
 
 Arabinose is one of the important members of the pentose 
 series. It was discovered by Scheibler on boiling the gum of 
 the cherry tree with sulphuric acid. This compound was con- 
 
 1 The reaction and products of some of these sugars were demonstrated. 
 
338 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 sidered by him an isomer of grape sugar; but it was shown 
 by Kiliani to possess the formula C 5 H 10 O 5 . Although the 
 natural arabinose turns the plane of polarized light to the right, 
 on account of its relation to /-glucose, it should be considered 
 as a left compound. Artificially, the right-turning arabinose 
 may be made from glucose by a building-down process, as it 
 were, discovered by Wohl. This process consists in passing 
 from a sugar richer in carbon atoms to one containing fewer 
 carbon atoms. 
 
 On boiling bran, wood, jute, straw and like substances, 
 with acids, pentosan compounds are obtained. In some cases 
 they may be isolated, or their presence may be proved by the 
 furfurol reaction. This is a well-known test for their identi- 
 fication. If compounds belonging to the hexose groups be 
 heated with acids, they yield laevulinic acid (CH 3 COCH 2 CH 2 
 CO 2 H). On the contrary, pentose compounds, by distillation 
 with strong acids, yield furfurol compounds, which easily 
 pass over with steam. 
 
 The portions of the coffee berry insoluble in water, when 
 distilled with dilute hydrochloric acid, yield furfurol alde- 
 hyde, which demonstrates the presence in the coffee of a com- 
 pound belonging to the pentosans. 
 
 By warming with phloroglucin and hydrochloric acid, the 
 pentosans, as also all compounds which, by decomposition, 
 yield sugar compounds containing 5 carbon atoms, give a 
 cherry-red color reaction. 
 
 Ribose, a colorless syrup, and xylose, wood sugar, are 
 isomeric with arabinose. 
 
 Rhamnose, formerly erroneously called " isodulcite, " is 
 a methylpentose. It is obtained from datiscin by hydrolytic 
 reaction, and by the same method from different glucosides. 
 
 Fucose, obtained from the sea-tangle or grass wrack, is 
 isomeric with rhamnose, also chinovose, which is derived from 
 chinovite. The alcohols, xylite and adonite, belonging to the 
 sugars xylose and ribose, correspond to arabite, the alcohol of 
 the sugar arabinose, and are inactive. 
 
 The remaining series of compounds, which chemically 
 belong to the same class as the sugars, are designated as 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 339 
 
 biose, triose, and tetrose sugars. These compounds contain, 
 respectively, as their names indicate, 2, 3, and 4 carbon atoms. 
 The latest addition to this list is the number containing the 
 smallest number of carbon atoms. This is a compound with 
 two atoms of carbon, chemically known as glycol-aldehyde, 
 and may be obtained from brom-acetaldehyde, by means of 
 barium hydrate in the cold. This compound possesses all the 
 properties to be expected from a simple sugar. Of these, the 
 property of being converted by phenylhydrazine into the gloxa- 
 losazone may be mentioned. It has not been possible to obtain 
 the glycol-aldehyde jrom admixture with the brom-aldehyde 
 from which it is derived; consequently, the behavior of this 
 simple sugar with ferments has not been proven. Since brom- 
 compounds act as a poison towards yeast, the mixture will 
 probably be found not to ferment. 
 
 Triose or glycerose is considered to be a mixture of glyce- 
 rine aldehyde (CHOH . CHOH . CHO) and dioxyacetone 
 (CHOH . CO . CHOH). This compound is a syrup, and re- 
 duces Fehling's solution, and actively ferments with yeast. 
 
 The chemical sugar next higher in the scale is the tetrose 
 sugar, which is formed by the oxidation of erythrit, and is 
 named therefrom erythrose. This is likewise a mixture of alde- 
 hyde and ketone compounds. The regeneration of this sugar 
 from its osazone has not as yet been accomplished. The syn- 
 thetical tetrose probably arises by a -kind of aldol condensa- 
 tion. It has been isolated in form of its osazone only, which 
 is identical with the erythrosazone. 
 
 It may be mentioned in reference to aldol condensation, 
 that it is of two kinds. The condensation may be accompanied 
 either by the loss of a molecule of water or by no loss of water. 
 The former is known as aldehyde condensation, when, for 
 example, two molecules of ethylaldehyde are heated with zinc 
 chloride, and a molecule of water is lost. In the latter case, 
 the aldehyde must stand for a longer time with dilute hydro- 
 chloric acid; thence arises a condensation product known as 
 aldol condensation. 
 
 The distinctions between the sugars characterized as the 
 aldose and ketose sugars disappear when these sugars are 
 
340 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 converted into the osazones; for each sugar gives identically 
 the same osazone, and this compound affords a means of pass- 
 ing from a sugar of one class to a sugar of the other class. 
 
 The other division of natural sugars, or the ketone sugars, 
 of which fructose is the type, includes, up to the present time, 
 three representatives only. Of these three sugars, only the 
 dextro-fructose combines with prussic acid; consequently, 
 the synthesis in this division by Kiliani's method is limited. 
 It has not gone beyond the fructo-heptose, or a ketone sugar 
 containing 7 atoms of carbon. 
 
 Fructose is the fruit sugar to which the sweetness of fruits 
 is chiefly due. This sugar crystallizes from alcohol in crystals 
 belonging to the rhombic system, whilst the crystals of glu- 
 cose are obtained as fine needles. Fructose occurs in three 
 modifications. The inactive modification is of historical in- 
 terest, since it was the first synthetic sugar made out of ma- 
 terials obtained by synthetical means. 
 
 Of the methods which serve for the direct synthesis of 
 sugar may be mentioned: (i) the polymerizing of formyl- 
 aldehyde by bases; (2) a valuable synthetical means is, like- 
 wise, the reaction which corresponds to aldol condensation; 
 and (3) Kiliani's method has been of untold value in this field ; 
 (4) the artificially made sugars may be separated from solu- 
 tion in form of their osazone compounds, and, in most cases, 
 the sugars can be regenerated from these compounds. 
 
 In all cases a mixture of these osazones arises. The inactive 
 phenyl-glucosazone is the direct source of the inactive fructose; 
 for, by reducing the osone derived from the osazone, a ketose 
 arises which agrees in all respects with the inactive form of 
 fructose. It possesses all the properties of the natural fruit 
 sugar. 
 
 By the reduction of this inactive fructose, obtained syntheti- 
 cally, arises the inactive mannite. The synthesis of the active 
 glucose and fructose (the natural sugars) may be made from 
 the inactive mannite in the following way: By treating the 
 inactive mannite with the suitable oxidizing agent, it will be 
 oxidized to the inactive mannose and the inactive mannonic 
 acid; the inactive mannonic acid can be split into its active 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 341 
 
 constituents, the right and the left acids. The right mannonic 
 acid yields, by reduction, the right mannose on the one hand, 
 while on the other, by heating with chinolin or pyridin, a mole- 
 cular change takes place, and the d-gluconic acid is obtained, 
 which yields the active glucose. Finally, the active glucose and 
 mannose, through their phenyl-glucosazones, may be converted 
 into the active fructose. Thus the problem of the synthesis of 
 the most important natural sugars has been accomplished. 
 J Sugar, as a class, is thus derived not only from sources 
 pertaining to the land and sea, but also, from the brief sketch 
 just drawn, from no less a source than man's intelligence. 
 
 According to the earliest records, the sugar-cane, the main 
 source of the supply of saccharose, or cane sugar, was culti- 
 vated in India for food supply. The beet-sugar industry dates 
 from our own time. 
 
 Cane sugar is found in many plant species, and occurs in 
 grain during germination at the expense of starch, as it was 
 observed in the barley. Cane sugar has not as yet been made 
 synthetically. It stands as one of the atomic peaks still to be 
 scaled. The discovery, by Biot, of the power of cane sugar 
 solutions to turn the plane of polarized light led Dubrunfaut, 
 in 1847, on decomposing cane sugar, to discover fructose, the 
 second sugar constituent of cane sugar. In the same way, we 
 may read any day the announcement of the discovery of a 
 chemical spyglass, which will reveal the pathway to the syn- 
 thesis of this member of the chemical chain. 
 
 Maltose, a sugar of the same composition as cane sugar, 
 was discovered by Dubrunfaut. Maltose, a polysaccharide, 
 has been made synthetically. 
 
 Milk sugar, which also belongs to this same division, was 
 separated from milk as early as the year 1619, by Bartoletti, 
 of Bologna. Demole claims to have made it synthetically. 
 
 Starches, gums, cellulose, and mucous compounds are of 
 great physiological interest in their bearing on plant life, and 
 the recent thorough investigations of the sugar groups will 
 not be unavailing to bring forward a clearer knowledge of 
 these bodies. There are many sources of starch, and some 
 peculiarities among the different kinds. Lichenin, from Ice- 
 
342 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 land moss, and inulin, from many composital plants, act the 
 role of starch in the plants wherein they occur. 
 
 A brief reference may be given here to compounds like 
 dextrin and laevulin, which stand intermediary between the 
 starches and sugars. Dextrin is formed from starch by treat- 
 ing with dilute acids, or by diastase. According to the con- 
 ditions, several dextrin kinds may be separated. A crystal- 
 line form, produced by the action of dilute mineral acids on 
 starch for months, has been isolated. Dextrin gives with 
 iodine a red coloration. 
 
 Glucosides are compounds of grape sugar or glucose with 
 another substance, and naturally find place in a study of car- 
 bohydrates. Grape sugar, on account of its containing an 
 aldehyde group, is capable of uniting with different kinds of 
 chemical bodies to form these compounds. The compound 
 which results on decomposing a glucoside is frequently of a 
 complex nature. Glucosides are very widely spread in nature. 
 In many cases the chemical constitution of glucosides is well 
 known, and some of these compounds have been made syn- 
 thetically. 
 
 Recently, Fischer has described a method of obtaining glu- 
 cosides synthetically. By the action of hydrochloric acid on 
 sugars, alcohols, oxyacids, and phenols, he obtained conden- 
 sation products of the nature of glucosides. These compounds, 
 like other glucosides, do not react with Fehling's solution or 
 with phenyl-hydrazine. But they are decomposed by acids. 1 
 
 1 Also ketones, by warming and treating with hydrochloric acid, are changed 
 into glucosides. Ketones combine with sugar; rhamnose with one molecule; 
 arabinose, fructose, and glucose unite with two molecules of acetone; sarbose, 
 with a ketosane, yields a beautiful crystalline compound. By employing a very 
 weak solution to work with, in contradistinction to the former work with strong 
 hydrochloric acid, o-and )8-stereomers were obtained, also a third product, an 
 acetal compound, analogous to the glucose mercaptans. In the beginning 
 these are in excess, then they go over into glucosides. 
 
 The ketose sugars react with alcohol, in presence of HC1, more quickly than 
 aldosans. 
 
 Fischer has also discovered, as a between-product, glucose-acetone, which 
 is separated in fine, colorless needles. This compound is distinguishable from 
 the glucose di-acetone. 
 
 A new glucoside, similar to amygdalin, but of a simpler formula, named 
 amygdonitril glucoside, has been recently described by Fischer. 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 343 
 
 These simple compounds are analogous to the more com- 
 plex ones, and are of interest for their bearing on the natural 
 glucosides. There is no essential difference between the sim- 
 ple synthetical glucosides and the more complicated carbo- 
 hydrates like cane sugar. Indeed, the latter should be con- 
 sidered as the glucosides of sugar. 
 
 The list of natural glucosides is a long one. A summary 
 of their particular occurrence and properties is unnecessary 
 here. But a glucoside, for example, like either saponin or 
 phlorizin, illustrates the fact that compounds of a like com- 
 position are found in closely related botanical families. Plants 
 in which saponin occurs are nearly related in regard to their 
 stage of evolution, and so with phlorizin-containing plants. 
 Phlorizin, when isolated from the bark of the apple, cherry, 
 or plum tree, or from other plants belonging to the order Po- 
 maceae, is a crystalline substance of a white color when quite 
 pure. Like all glucosides, it is decomposed by dilute acid into 
 glucose and a second product. In this case the second pro- 
 duct is phloretin. 
 
 From experiments on animals, phlorizin, when taken into 
 the body, produces a condition which results in diabetes. 
 The amount of sugar excreted from the system after inges- 
 tion is far in excess of what could be produced from the gly- 
 cogen of the liver, nor would the amount of glucose in the glu- 
 cosides explain the large quantity of sugar excreted. But, in 
 fact, according to Cremer, the phlorizin passes through the 
 system unchanged, and the sugar which arises is from the 
 proteids of the body. 
 
 The very latest trend of investigation is to show that the 
 configuration of a compound has its place in the explanation 
 of the functions of an organism. Also, the reasons for the fer- 
 mentation of certain compounds are to be found in stereo- 
 chemical considerations. 
 
 It is stated in a recent publication that the most ordinary 
 functions of a living being depend more upon the molecular 
 geometry than upon the composition of the food material. 
 It is well known that the fermentation processes are brought 
 about by minute organisms, and it is supposed that the geo- 
 
344 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 metrical configuration of the ferment coincides with that of 
 the compound which it attacks. The most important chem- 
 ical agents of the living cell are the optically active ones of 
 the albuminoids, and these possess, consequently, an asym- 
 metrically constructed molecule. Since the simple albumi- 
 noids result from the sugars, the fact is given in proof of the 
 same geometrical structure for these two classes of bodies. 
 On this reasoning it has been claimed that, when sugar comes 
 into contact with the albumen of the yeast cells, fermentation 
 takes place only if the geometrical form of the sugar molecule 
 does not differ too widely from that of the yeast substance. 
 
 In some recent experiments, Fischer found that the fer- 
 ments invertin and emulsin attack only the glucosides of grape 
 sugar, whilst they leave those of other sugars likewise 
 starch, salicin, phlorizin, and other synthetical phenol-glu- 
 cosides unacted on. 
 
 However, the a-methyl glucoside is decomposed by inver- 
 tin and not by emulsin; but with the methyl-glucoside the 
 reverse occurs. These facts are given to show that a different 
 molecule structure alters the condition. 
 
 The influence of the bacilli on chemical changes in the 
 body is recognized. That these changes do occur is evident. 
 Many experiments on plant tissues show this. The transfor- 
 mation of starch into sugar by the Bacillus anthracis has been 
 shown lately by cultivating the bacillus on a potato. After a 
 short time, the surface of the potato gave, not the blue color 
 of starch with iodine, but the red color of dextrin. Portions 
 of the potato were then placed in sterilized water, and, after 
 some days, on testing the liquid, it reduced Fehling's solution. 
 The explanation of these changes is supposed to rest on the 
 configuration of the molecule. 
 
 From the survey of the chart, on which are summarized 
 the synthesis and work on the sugars, the attention of the least 
 interested observer will be called to this fact, that a vast 
 amount of work has been accomplished in this field, and the 
 harmony in these groups between facts and theories is signi- 
 ficant. That chemical compounds are solids and occupy space 
 is not to be gainsaid, but there must be an adjustment between 
 
SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 345 
 
 scientific facts and hypotheses. To pervert or carelessly to 
 observe facts in order to make them, at all hazards, fit into 
 theoretical moulds, is the highest act of treason of which the 
 scientist can be guilty. Chemistry, studied from a geometri- 
 cal basis, is of comparatively recent date. It is purely arbi- 
 trary to settle upon any particular figure to express the group- 
 ing of the atoms in space. However, the tetrahedron is the 
 simplest expression that explains the fact. 
 
 The entire subject of the chemistry of sugars would be the 
 chaos it was before, without the aid of geometrical specula- 
 tions. These at once bring order and system to a confusion 
 of facts. 
 
 Hegel names time and space the accidents of true exist- 
 ence. In the consideration of the space relations of these com- 
 pounds a step is taken to the reality which lies beyond time 
 and space and the imperfection of knowledge. These con- 
 figurations represent crudely the ideal basis of what is called 
 matter. 
 
 The next query that will occur to those who are not daily 
 working in scientific matters is this: Is the subject of sugars, 
 just reviewed, settled for all times? In science there is no 
 fixed ground. The true object of scientific research is to seek 
 truth regardless of the consequences, and on our plane, truth 
 is evolving. To embrace, when found, that truth which seems 
 the more evolved, even though the pet hypotheses and results 
 of a lifetime's personal effort are laid aside, is the true aim of 
 endeavor. This is the true scientific spirit. The magnetic 
 needle oscillates until it finds its resting-place pointing north- 
 ward, and the chemist, too, should oscillate within the arc of 
 his science until he finds the currents flowing towards light 
 and higher truth. 
 
 It has been said that "every man who would do anything 
 well must come to it from a higher plane. A philosopher must 
 be more than a philosopher." Plato was clothed with the 
 powers of the poet, though he chose to use his poetic powers 
 to an ulterior purpose. In the love for facts, the other side 
 of the subject, the "mirror image," so to speak, must not be 
 forgotten. The true insight will come from the employment 
 
346 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
 
 of the imagination and the cultivation of the higher reasoning 
 faculties. This insight will reveal the meaning of all these 
 phenomena, and the oneness underlying all things will become 
 apparent. To cleanse the eye from seeing only the grosser 
 phenomena, and to gain the perfect faultless eye of wisdom, 
 compensated Kunala, the king's son, for the loss of his eye, 
 which, by a cruel order, was torn from its socket. 
 
 The more apparent phenomena of a science have their 
 true place when studied in harmony with the bold outlines 
 of the universe. Call these outlines philosophical principles, 
 cosmic laws, or what you will, but the facts of science, culled 
 from many fields, only confirm the words of long ago: "Our 
 whole existence depends on our thought; thought is its noblest 
 factor; in thought its state consists." 
 
 Chemical facts, or the facts of any science when regarded, 
 not as the end of endeavor, but as the means to an end, take 
 their true place in the intellectual universe. 
 
 The facts of a science being more or less relative, in the 
 search of truth these relative facts are useful, inasmuch as 
 they indicate the principle which underlies the manifestations. 
 
 The ceaseless change and interchange; the impermanence 
 of all things in nature, whether pertaining to the so-called 
 inorganic or organic life phenomena, is expressed by the mu- 
 tations and transformations of chemical reaction. 
 
 The recurrent properties and the chemical laws, exhibited 
 in all syntheses, as well as in breaking-down processes of com- 
 pounds, are in unison with the rhythmic system of evolution 
 from which nothing in this universe can escape. 
 
LITERARY PAPERS 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 1 
 
 Wer gegenwartig iiber Kunst schreiben will, der sollte einige Ahnung 
 haben von dem, was die Philosophic geleistet hat, und zu leisten fort- 
 fahrt. Goethe. 
 
 SUMMARY : Art as one of the highest forms of scientific and philosophic 
 expression This illustrated by the Impressionist school Elements 
 of their method Triangulation Examples Motion and force 
 Theory of lines Theory of dissymmetry Dissymmetry in mind 
 and thought Technique and coloring Psychological effect of colors 
 Focal visual point and perspective Examples Water effects 
 Tone motifs Philosophic analysis of two landscapes Comments 
 on Renoir and Sisley Conclusion. 
 
 THE mainspring of happiness to the philosophic mind is to 
 penetrate into the internal structure of things, and to analyze 
 the complex to its ultimate elements. This principle has been 
 accepted consciously or unconsciously, and underlies the 
 works of the best representatives of the impressionist school 
 of painting. The truths of geometry and the laws of force have 
 been also recognized by them, whether consciously or un- 
 consciously, as the only correct basis upon which to proceed, 
 in order to produce on the mind of the observer those sub- 
 jective effects which are the highest expression of Art, and of 
 which this school, par excellence, is the most able exponent. 
 The pictures of Claude Monet come first as the latest art 
 expressions of scientific and philosophic thought. 
 
 This is clearly shown both by the treatment and the sub- 
 ject. The simplest elements are introduced and managed 
 
 1 A review of the work of the Impressionists of Paris exhibited at the Amer- 
 ican Art Association Rooms, New York, during the spring of 1886. By " Celen 
 Sabbrin." Printed in pamphlet form. Philadelphia, Wm. F. Fell & Co., 1220- 
 24 Sansom St., 1886. 
 
350 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 with such consummate skill as to form a combination in the 
 highest degree complex. These pictures are the work of a 
 genius, of a master thinker, who feels the power of the infi- 
 nite, and can reflect it to others. This familiar association 
 with the eternal problems, is where the master spirit of Claude 
 Monet manifests itself. None in art before him has ever ap- 
 proached so near the domain of the philosopher. The inflex- 
 ible principles of geometry give the form to his charming color 
 harmonies. The line between the aesthetic and the intellectual 
 is so lightly traced in his creations, that the slightest touch 
 effaces it, and thus almost proclaims their identity. Nature 
 is rendered more lovely by this revelation of her mechanism 
 and the sources of her activity, which are clearly brought out 
 by study of his pictures; though to those minds unprepared 
 for and incapable of grasping the laws of the universe, these 
 pictures will offer little of interest. But to the thinker, the 
 canvases of Claude Monet are records of what the sensitive 
 mind sees in nature. It is not the pitiless laws of growth and 
 decay which present themselves, but humanity with its hopes 
 and fears shining forth, with which the true soul alone can 
 sympathize. 
 
 The compositions of Claude Monet are animated evidences 
 of what some one has said, that the true source of knowledge 
 can be derived alone from the subjective. He does not paint 
 what nature is, or as she presents herself to the ordinary mind 
 through the medium of the imperfect senses, but he paints 
 those thoughts which she impresses upon him by means of 
 subtle forces to which only the sensitive mind responds. 
 
 The idea of triangulation is clearly expressed in the works 
 of most of the followers of the Impressionist school. It would 
 be difficult for one unacquainted with this school's teach- 
 ings to say if this is purely unconscious or by design. It is not 
 accidental. Of this there can be no doubt ; for in each pic- 
 ture of Monet's, as well as of those other painters whose pic- 
 tures have been studied, the same theory is expressed. The 
 attention of the observer is, as a rule, directed along the 
 hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle. This line is used as 
 a framework upon which to construct the picture. The lights 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 351 
 
 and shadows and objects, when introduced for the main effect, 
 are always along this line. Nor is there only one line, but 
 a parallel series, always running at the same angle. So with 
 shadows, trees, elevations, depressions, or with whatever ob- 
 jects the picture is composed. Numerous examples can be 
 brought forward from his pictures. One may refer to No. 
 250, "Le Jardin de Monet a Vetheuil." 
 
 It represents a garden rising from the foreground. This 
 is occupied by an open space a little to the left of a right line 
 drawn from the median line of the canvas. This space is a 
 very high light, with deep shadows of dark blue. On each 
 side are blue figured vases filled with flowering plants, the 
 shadows on the space and vases being along the diagonal line. 
 A staircase, which is interrupted by a narrow terrace, leads 
 from the space upward to the right, to a second terrace, on 
 which are the houses. Nearly the entire canvas is occupied, 
 and the narrow space above is a deep blue sky. On either 
 side of the staircase are numerous tall plants, their yellow 
 flowers rising one higher than the other, like a flight of steps. 
 This is ended by a lattice work running along the second ter- 
 race. The light falls along the hypotenuse line through the 
 flowers to the left, across the stone steps, and vanishes be- 
 yond to the right-hand lower corner. The same is true of the 
 shadows. The lattices of the little fence around the terrace are 
 distinctly seen only where the slats are arranged in the direc- 
 tion of the hypotenuse. The left-hand corner, which corre- 
 sponds to the right angle of the triangle, is where the ob- 
 jects are most clearly represented, and the coloring is richer 
 in tone. As the right-hand upper corner of the picture is 
 examined, it will be seen that the objects are less distinctly 
 painted, but the lines that correspond to the direction of 
 the hypotenuse are more distinct, and the color of the picture 
 seems to fade away, and only the geometrical basis remains. 
 
 The sky is cloudless, but a vapor-like effect can be detected 
 by close observation, draped over the sky's form, in direc- 
 tions corresponding to the hypotenuse. This light drapery 
 is a most appropriate clothing for the heated sky. The color- 
 ing of the sky is remarkable; the appearance is one familiar 
 
352 
 
 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 to those who have seen it in southern France and Spain. The 
 rich colored vault is apparently brought almost within reach. 
 On gazing at it steadily, the eye becomes fatigued, and the 
 sky is no longer blue, but of a leaden color. This can also be 
 seen on examining the picture by gaslight; the sky, by arti- 
 ficial light, loses its blue tone and assumes the dull, leaden 
 hue. It may be noted that the skies of Monet are the most 
 carefully painted of any parts of his pictures. 
 
 Two little children stand on the flight of steps leading to 
 the dwelling, in a diagonal line. The immediate impression 
 conveyed by this scene is one of warmth and vitality. Rich 
 tones of green, blue, red, and orange are used with wondrous 
 skill. It is a midsummer scene; the vegetation is at its highest, 
 the air sultry and heavy with heat. It is a picture of the pre- 
 sent moment, and the only pause to check the joy which such 
 a surrounding offers is the sky, by its depth suggestive of the 
 impenetrability to human understanding of the termini of 
 life. 
 
 Everywhere is seen this theory of triangulation. It is the 
 painter's guide for composition. In these color idyls, draw- 
 ing is scarcely present. The artist's mind rests upon this sim- 
 ple geometrical foundation, and his thoughts are turned into 
 a perfect form, because true to nature. Frequently the pic- 
 tures can be divided into several triangles; these triangles 
 are formed by shadows, lights, clouds, fields, the sea, houses, 
 or lines of trees, and are always significant of the underly- 
 ing truths of life, which these painters have felt. In 123, " Mail 
 Post at Etretat," the roll of the waves, the dip of the rock, 
 and the direction in which the clouds are flying, are all ex- 
 pressed in lines corresponding to the hypotenuse. The oblique 
 parallelism of the picture is indicative of movement. Motion 
 is suggested by every stroke of the knife. The sunlight is com- 
 ing from the same direction as the lines run; and the shadow 
 of the great rock upon the water is in motion. As the observer 
 moves from one to the other side of the picture, the shadow 
 seems to change its position. The effect is strange. The sea 
 is shimmering in the sunlight and seems to be many fathoms 
 deep. Its lovely transparency, which is finally lost in depth, 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 353 
 
 reminds us of how we are lured on in our search after truth 
 simplicity and clearness at the start, ever-increasing dimness 
 following. The high swells of the sea are coming on in a stately 
 procession, each bending before the mighty rocky arch, and 
 then rushing upon it as if to reach to its summit. These great 
 billows are composed of small waves, and upon them rise 
 smaller ones still, until the little ripples come, as a bright smile 
 upon a loved face. The prevailing color-tones of greens, blues, 
 and pinks offer a harmony of incomparable composition. 
 One can sniff the fresh salt breezes, and hear the heavy thud 
 of the waters coming against the rock. On viewing such a 
 scene, we cannot but feel that we are looking upon more than 
 nature has to offer in her cold way. We see and feel, in 
 addition to the sea, rock, and waves, the thoughts which the 
 artist had on painting this picture. 
 
 The theory of triangulation should be considered at this 
 stage. It was stated above that in No. 123 movement is for- 
 cibly expressed by all the objects in the picture being painted 
 along parallel diagonal lines. Motion can be represented only 
 by ideas of force. Force is always exerted in straight lines, 
 whether as initial or deflected force. The triangle is selected 
 as the simplest figure enclosing space, and thus represents 
 the lines of force in their simplest elements. 
 
 The hypotenuse offers the opportunity of introducing the 
 idea of dissymmetry. We owe to M. Pasteur the acknow- 
 ledgment of presenting molecular dissymmetry in its widest 
 bearing. Dissymmetry is essential to the conditions of life. 
 The results of synthesis in the laboratory of the chemist 
 are always symmetrical, because the forces employed are 
 non-dissymmetrical. On the contrary, all chemical products 
 made in the plant cell are dissymmetrical, for they are formed 
 by forces of dissymmetry. How should the chemist break 
 away from his methods, which are, from this point of view, 
 obsolete and imperfect? He should have recourse to the ac- 
 tion of solenoids, of magnetism, of the dissymmetrical move- 
 ment of light, and the reactions of substances themselves 
 dissymmetrical. A vast field opens here for future investiga- 
 tions into the origin of life. Dissymmetry is not only the basis 
 
354 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 of organic life, but of the universe, for the cosmic forces are 
 dissymmetrical. 
 
 Some bodies which are not symmetrical on the right and 
 the left are constructed on a general plane of symmetry. A 
 chair has a plane of symmetry ; it is the vertical plane passing 
 through the middle of the back and of the seat. But the two 
 halves of the chair, separated by this plane, are not symme- 
 trical; the right is not superposable upon the left. 
 
 There is a marked separation between the organic kingdom 
 and the mineral kingdom. Dissymmetry and symmetry, or 
 function and crystallization, are the modes of cosmic forces. 
 The nearer the approach to the symmetrical, so much the 
 nearer to a condition of crystallization and cessation of 
 so-called vital functions. The transition from the dissym- 
 metrical to the symmetrical is at the expense of force, con- 
 sequently involves motion. Symmetry is equalized force, 
 dissymmetry is unequalized force. When force is in a state 
 of equilibrium it is symmetrical, and conversely. 
 
 The striving of the human mind to attain the symmetrical 
 or ideal also carries with it the idea of movement. A deeper 
 meaning underlies this. In the human struggle after perfec- 
 tion, or symmetry geometrically expressed, should such a state 
 be reached, every further progress would end human effort 
 would be changed to a stable condition or one of crystalliza- 
 tion. Perfection would be fixation. Absolute truth, if achieved, 
 would terminate all thought, as the crystal terminates all 
 directive motion. A geometrical formula expressing all life, 
 would be also expressive of all death. Relative truth is dis- 
 symmetrical; absolute truth symmetrical. 
 
 That this conclusion seems to be where scientific thought 
 will eventually drive the world is imminent, and the thought 
 crops out from many of the canvases of Monet. Many of the 
 tricks which painters of other schools employ to give motion 
 to their pictures, are disregarded by the impressionists. They 
 have penetrated to the source of motion, and they recognize 
 force as the cause. This fact that force manifests itself in 
 straight lines is not only expressed in generality, but in the 
 details or technique of their pictures. On close inspection, 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 355 
 
 their pictures are masses of short, straight lines, and all their 
 effects are produced in this way. Curved lines are only em- 
 ployed when it is desired to express the idea of retardation, 
 and when curves are used, they are formed of short, straight 
 lines, much as in modern geometrical teachings, a circle is 
 held to be formed of innumerable straight lines. 
 
 The right angle of the triangle, which includes all the ele- 
 ments of the picture, falls sometimes outside the canvas. The 
 hypotenuse, however, is never absent. Without it, there could 
 be no basis for the composition. Sometimes the right angle 
 of the triangle is occupied with the most prominent objects 
 of the painting, and to these the focal point of vision is directed. 
 No. 184, "The Setting Sun," by Monet, is a conspicuous ex- 
 ample of this. The focal point of vision is thrown entirely to 
 the left, where are seen the coast line and the setting sun; to 
 the right is a vast expanse of sea. A mistiness pervades the 
 picture; the sky and sea blend to shut off forever from the 
 soul the knowledge of what lies beyond. 
 
 Another extraordinary picture is No. 198, "Fog Effect near 
 Dieppe." The sandy bank and trees are to the right. The 
 technique and coloring of these trees are startling; straight 
 lines mark the canvas, reproducing this mood of nature with 
 a masterly insight. The sea dashes with violence against the 
 coast. A faint light shines through the waves, and the foam 
 rests on their proud, crested heads, like a bridal wreath. On 
 just such a coast-line might life have originated, as the sport 
 of accident, by the cruel sea, indifferent to the origin, progress, 
 and destiny of this life to which she had given birth. The 
 color-tints of pinks and grays delineate the outlines. 
 
 Monet's pictures are noticeable for the psychological effect 
 they produce by their coloring. His colors are like an orchestra 
 of instruments in perfect tune, and the pitch of his scale is 
 given by the foundation tone of his pictures. 
 
 On close examination, it would be reasonable to conclude 
 that the canvases were first coated by a uniform tint of paint ; 
 this is the pitch to which all the other colors are tuned, and 
 the different effects in his pictures are produced by heavy 
 straight lines of suitable colors, according with the pitch. 
 
356 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 For Monet's pictures are essentially harmonies of color-tones, 
 in distinction to Renoir's pictures, which are color discords. 
 
 The color-scale of Monet's pictures is original, and essen- 
 tially calculated to produce upon the observer an intense psy- 
 chological impression. As the pitch is high or low, so his colors 
 vary in strength. Some of his most beautiful water and sea 
 effects are reached by combinations of pale Nile green, blue 
 and violet tints, of varying shades. 
 
 Some of his views are bathed in an atmosphere of magic 
 grace and purity. The tone pitch is often taken from the visual 
 forms. In No. 131, "Cap D'Antifer," the prevailing tones 
 are violet and lilac colors. It is a late afternoon scene; the 
 cliff stands out with wonderful distinctness; along its rugged 
 edge runs the road, twisting and turning, but always true to 
 a parallelism with the coast-line, our line of dissymmetry. The 
 light through the picture follows the same line, though the 
 light is symmetrical with regard to the oblique line, for it is 
 equal in intensity on both sides, and it fades away equally 
 towards the right of the picture. 
 
 To obtain their full effect, the pictures of the Impression- 
 ists should be studied in the light in which the scene was 
 painted; and this is a very important point to be remembered 
 in judging the works of these artists. A noticeable example of 
 this was a picture by Besnard, "By Candle Light." The light 
 of day detracts a great deal from the beauty of this painting. 
 
 Not only does Monet excel in painting water in motion, 
 but also in representing it when at rest. No. 28, "Breaking 
 of Ice on the Seine," is an example. The middle distance is 
 the point to which the eye is attracted. We -feel how cold the 
 water must be. Its marvelous transparency and depth are 
 startling, and in contrast with the opacity of the blocks of 
 ice floating on its surface. It is like a silvered mirror, with 
 here and there the coating effaced. The foreground is rough, 
 and in blue, green, and gray tints. The picture is constructed 
 on the principle of dissymmetry, and the effects of distance, 
 depression, and rising ground are well portrayed. The valley, 
 between the lines of trees which follow the bend of the river 
 and the distant hills, is observable only after long study. 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 357 
 
 "The Low Tide at Pourville," by Claude Monet, shows 
 the facility of this artist. The cloudy sky is reflected in the 
 moist sands, and the eye is carried along the beach to the 
 distant blue sea, which is painted with much distinctness. 
 
 In many of Monet's pictures, the middle or far distances 
 are brought out with great force. It is a natural inclination 
 of the mind, on viewing a scene, to gaze beyond the immediate 
 foreground. Consequently, Monet's foregrounds are usually 
 indistinct, and especially in his highest psychological studies, 
 where this indistinctness of foreground has a philosophical 
 bearing. 
 
 In point of fact, it is impossible to see clearly more than 
 one object at a time; all surroundings are less distinct, or re- 
 flect the color of the focal visual object. Monet's " Cabin at 
 Pourville," No. 169, illustrates this statement. The central 
 object of interest is a little shrimp-colored house. The atmo- 
 spheric conditions doubtless influence the mind of the observer, 
 but the tone most deeply impressed on the house is reflected 
 on the entire scene, on the hill beyond, and even in the sky. 
 The same idea is brought out in Renoir's pictures, where the 
 background, though often very indistinct, echoes the pre- 
 vailing rich colors of the figure which occupy the foreground. 
 
 Monet's No. 168, "The Seine at Giverny," is a picture 
 which at once attracts attention. The view suggests calmness 
 and purity. A delicious fragrance steals over the senses, and 
 the delicate perfume of lilacs permeates the mind. The trans- 
 parency and depth of the water are finely represented. The 
 shadows of the trees growing along the banks are reflected 
 in the water, and again carry out the theory of dissymmetry. 
 For clearness and crispness of coloring, this picture is excelled 
 by none in the collection. 
 
 No. 108, "Scene at Port Villers," carries out several of the 
 originalities of Monet's style. The canvas is covered by a thin 
 layer of a pale-gray tint. In places there is apparently an 
 absence of all color, and the canvas itself shows. The pre- 
 vailing tones are pinkish grays. The last layers of color are 
 laid on very heavily, and thus the scene is admirably repre- 
 sented. The theory of triangulation and dissymmetry is clearly 
 
358 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 expressed by the lines of trees to the right, forming the hypo- 
 tenuse. The edge of the bank is a transverse line, prominently 
 shown, and the ground rises above it in ragged outline against 
 the sky, broken, dissymmetrical. The hill is reproduced in 
 the river by reflection. This general effect is one of the best 
 illustrations of symmetry in any of Monet's works. The sub- 
 jective side of this picture is produced by adherence to sim- 
 ple and exact principles. The ground- plan is triangular, and 
 the tints are in those colors which subjectively produce the 
 sensations of chilliness. 
 
 Monet's "Morning at Pourville," No. 216, is an interest- 
 ing study of shadow effects. The rock that boldly rises in 
 the foreground is reflected in the rolling sea as a triangle. 
 Here let us note how frequently any distinct object in the fore- 
 ground of Monet's pictures is sure to be inorganic, inanimate, 
 massive, stable, recalling the blind, immutable forces of un- 
 sympathetic nature. The extraordinary sheen of the water 
 is most noticeable; straight lines of light aid the mind to realize 
 that it is real water upon which the observer looks. The de- 
 lusion is complete. The gallery and all surroundings vanish, 
 and the sea spreads before you, with its restlessness. Inno- 
 cence is depicted upon the siren's countenance. In the past, 
 how many adventurous mariners she has lured on to repose 
 upon her trustful bosom, only to drag them to her distant 
 abode, the dwelling of death! 
 
 When Monet obtains his best water effects for depth and 
 transparency, he employs thin, delicate colors. Pale green 
 and blue exert a marked psychological influence upon the 
 aesthetic emotions, reviving peaceful or agitating thoughts in 
 the soul, as the conditions of the picture exact. For late even- 
 ing effects, salmon pinks and dark greens are used with telling 
 results, as in No. 219, "Evening on the Seine." 
 
 The "Wheat Field," of Monet, No. 158, will instantly attract 
 the observer, as more than a landscape; in fact, in the ordi- 
 nary sense, none of Monet's pictures are landscapes, but men- 
 tal studies. 
 
 The middle distance is the field of wheat, ripe, and await- 
 ing the labor of man, to be applied to its greatest usefulness. 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 359 
 
 The rich salmon coloring of the wheat inspires the feeling of 
 hope in the human breast, and encourages the struggle of toil. 
 The sky above echoes this happy thought of effort being re- 
 warded. The few red poppies at the sides of the immediate 
 foreground add to the brilliant scene of the present, and it 
 seems as if for the minute nature had relented, and given 
 promise to the weary worker of a haven of eternal joy. The 
 strong red hues of the foreground, tinged with this most potent 
 of colors, are suggestive of the vigor of life, the plentitude of 
 the powers; and soon they fade into the uncertain shades, 
 the feebler tones of the farther distance. 
 
 The eye travels beyond the wheat, past trees and green 
 fields, to the distant blue hills, and just beyond the salmon- 
 pink color is discernible, also suggesting the thought of toil. 
 The pinkish haziness of the far distance suggests a town and 
 busy industries, they in turn some day to be silenced and dead, 
 even as the wheat-field after the harvest will leave only stub- 
 ble and straw. The wheat will relieve the immediate hunger 
 of man, and the industry that of his soul's longing, but only 
 as a temporary aliment. This picture, a color poem, is a step 
 in advance of art; it is the cry of humanity. 
 
 Wagner, in his operas, has used with telling effect his tone 
 motifs. Our ear always tells us what our eye should see on 
 the stage ; the motif is indicative of the personality of his char- 
 acters, or forewarns us what we have to expect. So with these 
 creations of Monet, his tone motifs are his combinations of 
 colors. He has certain color-scales which he uses, and to 
 which the mind responds. This is too well marked to be passed 
 over, and in so many of his pictures, which are eminently 
 philosophical studies, his use of reds and peculiar greens is 
 constant. 
 
 "A Farm," No. 135 of the catalogue, is a study in red-orange 
 tones. The axes of dissymmetry are the lines, lights and shad- 
 ows of the picture, and are so used as to be suggestive of mo- 
 tion. The key-note of the scene is force. In the foreground 
 is a marshy pond, on which are floating some ducks; a road- 
 way limits the extent of the water, and the row of piles which 
 support the side of the road is one of the diagonal lines. The 
 
 
360 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 fence back of the road, the trunks of the trees, the lights and 
 shadows, the rising ground, the outline of the roofs against 
 the sky, and the clouds, all follow the direction of the hypo- 
 tenuse. The visual focus is, as usual, dissymmetrical, and in 
 the diagonal. It is to the left of the centre of the scene. The 
 strong sunlight pouring down upon the side of the farm-house, 
 and the intense shadows of the trees upon it, all indicate energy, 
 the very power of the cosmic forces themselves. The reddish- 
 orange color of the roof contrasted with the sky gives to the 
 latter a greenish tinge, which adds to the color harmony of 
 the whole. The two sides of the picture differ as to intensity 
 of coloring and distinctness of form, and in these respects 
 further illustrate the dissymmetrical principles which underlie. 
 
 Monet's Nos. 270, " Poppies in Bloom," and 212, ''Land- 
 scape at Giverny," are companion pictures, inasmuch as one 
 is the continuation of the other, and an expression of philo- 
 sophical thought. The prevailing color-tones of the two pic- 
 tures are brilliant reds and peculiar bluish-greens. Attention 
 was called above to this color rule, as being used in what are 
 most properly the highest philosophical studies of this artist. 
 As art expressions of scientific and philosophical thought, 
 these two pictures occupy the most prominent place of any 
 in the collection. 
 
 No. 270 is the best illustration of the theory of triangula- 
 tion to be found in Monet's pictures. From the foreground 
 and running diagonally from left to right is the poppy-field, 
 and the ground rising above it forms a green, grassy amphi- 
 theatre, closing out from sight all objects beyond the fore- 
 ground, thus inviting to progress. The narrow expanse of sky 
 is seen above the hilly bank. Its depth is interminable, and 
 a sense of solemnity steals over the observer. He is brought 
 most terribly near the source and origin of things. The sky 
 is in marked contrast to the poppy-field and hill, where it is 
 the present that offers. Here is the beginning of life's course. 
 Unconscious of what is back of the hill, the soul is absorbed 
 by the immediate; though she may step forward, through the 
 gay- flowered field, onward to her future, the past is locked 
 in mystery. Nature throws no obstacle to her progress; there 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 361 
 
 is no warning hand to hold the soul from running to her own 
 destruction; and the indifference of nature to suffering or 
 happiness is terrible to contemplate. The grassy bank is cov- 
 ered with many colored grasses, the different colors giving 
 the effect of light and shadow. These different patches are 
 formed like triangles. The entire picture can be looked upon 
 as the interior of a geometrical solid. The poppy-field is a par- 
 allelogram; diagonal lines run across it from one to the oppo- 
 site corner, and these large triangles can in turn be divided 
 into smaller ones. The effect of triangulation can be well 
 seen at a distance, but is very much plainer by a near inspec- 
 tion of the canvas. It is significant that in one of Monet's 
 highest expressions of thought the unbending principles of 
 geometrical form are the most clearly discernible. It may 
 be claiming too much to say that mathematical principles are 
 the basis of all truth, but that the two are nearly related must 
 be acknowledged. 
 
 No. 212, "A Landscape at Giverny," is an expression of 
 hopelessness, of the unattainableness of absolute truth, and 
 a confirmation of science's teachings, in the ultimate useless- 
 ness of human effort. To the appreciative such a picture 
 would be unbearable as a constant companion ; though it is 
 the crowning effort of Monet's genius, and proclaims him the 
 philosopher of the Impressionist school. 
 
 The mathematical principles are fully expressed in this 
 picture, and vivify the thought that geometry is soulless, and 
 that natural forces are relentless and pitiless. In the imme- 
 diate foreground runs a gay poppy-field, which might well be 
 the poppy-field of No. 270 continued, and we may accept it 
 as the continuation of the soul's history. Bounding this field, 
 along a diagonal line, are some deserted houses; beyond, and 
 to the right, are a series of fields and lines of trees alternating. 
 A bright light strikes one of these fields, and gives the effect 
 of water. On and on the eye travels to the right corner of the 
 background, where the deep blue of the hill range looms up. 
 Above all lowers a heavy gray sky, blank and cheerless. 
 Speculation can go no further; what is beyond these hills may 
 never be known. The heart weakens and the soul is faint at 
 
362 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 what she sees. It is the end of the struggle of the human race; 
 all work and thought have been of no avail; the fight is over 
 and inorganic forces proclaim their victory. The scene is a 
 striking reality. Nature is indifferent, and her aspects are 
 meaningless, for what indications of the unavoidable end come 
 from seeing that gay- flowered field ? It is a mockery, and that 
 mind which has once felt the depth of the thoughts expressed 
 in this painting, can only seek safety in forgetfulness. 
 
 Monet does not offer any solution to the result to which 
 his pictures lead. He is occupied in giving expression to the 
 most serious truths of our life. He is recording the chronicles 
 of modern thought. 
 
 The pictures of Renoir and Sisley are of great interest, as 
 offering solutions to the ideas that run through Monet's 
 pictures; or, if not solutions, at least those painters may be 
 considered in the light of physicians, who are engaged in alle- 
 viating human suffering, so that the patient may forget the 
 incurableness of his malady. 
 
 Renoir offers a course which so many of our day gladly 
 follow. "The Breakfast at Bougival" and his studies of the 
 nude clearly show the direction of his thought. The latter 
 are void of expression. The idea of the immediate present in 
 its sensual aspects is expressed by subject and treatment. The 
 figures are prominently in the foreground. The coloring is 
 rich and intense, and the backgrounds are indistinct, and 
 echo the coloring of the objects of the foreground. He would 
 teach us not to look into the distant, for all there is indiffer- 
 ent; we can never outline the forms of the future. Life is im- 
 penetrable, and why should we trouble ourselves with what 
 will only result in failure and disappointment? Renoir has 
 presented this side of the situation with a masterly hand, but 
 the dangers of his teaching are great, and the character who 
 hopes to forget, by these means, is utterly lost to himself and 
 to others. 
 
 Sisley 's pictures offer scenes of industry, home life, and the 
 peace that results from leading an honorable and pure career. 
 He sings the song of work. His pictures are beautiful, and 
 if examined in this spirit, are powerful lessons. 
 
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 363 
 
 In the Eternal City built on Seven Hills there is a piazza 
 from which three streets lead into different districts of the 
 city. This great piazza, with its open gate and plashing foun- 
 tain, is the expression of the reality forced upon us by scien- 
 tific thought, and the wearied pedestrian, who cannot rest here, 
 must decide which of the three streets he will follow. Who can 
 say by what accident his steps may be turned to the way which 
 Renoir has depicted, or to the flower-strewn path of Sisley, 
 or to the embrace of dogma? Each one of these three vias 
 leads across Rome, and at a life's close, when standing on the 
 walls of that city, and the hour for the fatal plunge into the 
 moat has come, who can say, but the soul alone, if the choice 
 has been well? 
 
THE DRAMA IN RELATION TO TRUTH 1 
 
 THE patriotic spirit, or love of country, as an incidental senti- 
 ment leading upward to a wider love embracing all countries 
 and races, has its place in the individual's and nation's de- 
 velopment. 
 
 The fond striving of the patriot should be a means, not the 
 end of endeavor. Lotze, in his last work, which is a summary 
 of his comprehensive system, opposes strenuously "the dei- 
 fication of the state, a manifestation of which he sees in the 
 fact that the state is conceived of as an end in itself." 
 
 A patriotism limited exclusively to any particular land is 
 not desirable in itself, since this kind of patriotism is a species 
 of selfish love, and must tend to contract certain sides of the 
 human character which are very important sides to expand. 
 But the love of country, or a localized patriotism so strongly 
 innate in the hearts of many, is a divine germ which will grow, 
 if nurtured, into a perfected bloom of universal love. 
 
 The advance of peoples is correlated with rightly directed 
 individual effort. The progressive unfolding of the state and 
 nation depends upon the earnestness of the effort and the 
 highest possible development of the individual. To find out 
 the paths leading to truth, love, and charity, and to reverence 
 the high endeavor of others, whether at home or abroad, is 
 a goal for individual effort. This effort of the individual is 
 the first step toward a free and noble life. Once to have 
 attained these vistas, is to realize the inseparableness of the 
 development of the multitude from that of the individual. 
 
 In the cause of truth, the drama and stage may be used as 
 strong levers in overturning false idols. 
 
 1 Paper read before the New England Women's Club, December 10, 1894. 
 The subject given to be treated was, "The Relation the Drama has to Patriot- 
 ism." Printed in Poet-Lore, pp. 149-154, March, 1895. 
 
THE DRAMA IN RELATION TO TRUTH 365 
 
 The history of the drama shows that dramatic art has been 
 a means used to depict events in the religious and historic 
 development of nations. The stage may serve as a reflector 
 for the customs and manners of the times. It is a chronicle 
 of action. A writer regards the stage as an "agency of civili- 
 zation," and indeed it may not inappropriately be called the 
 school-house of the world. 
 
 The drama has also been a favorable mode of popular di- 
 version and instruction, by strongly appealing to the emo- 
 tions as well as to the finer faculties of human perception. 
 Numerous are the play-writers of the past who dwell upon 
 the records of deeds of heroism and conquest, and who, by 
 recitals of the horrors of bloodshed and crime in the name of 
 patriotism, have more often pictured the greed of gain. 
 
 The drama of Greece was intimately blended with the re- 
 ligious and patriotic sentiments of the nation. No less were 
 these sentiments present in the No plays of Japan. The origin 
 of the drama in Japan is attributed, early in eleven hundred, 
 to Iso- no-Zenji, called the " mother of the Japanese drama," 
 although these so-called dramatic performances were, doubt- 
 less, exhibitions of dancing. True dramatic representations 
 may be said to have begun at a later date. Learning in those 
 days was in the hands of men and women who composed the 
 court circles; women were prominent as writers, and many 
 beautiful fragments of their literary skill have come down to 
 us. Originally the nobles took part in the performances of 
 the No plays. The imperial theatre was attached to the court, 
 and the ladies of the household attended. The brocaded cos- 
 tumes of the actors, even to the present day, are historical 
 monuments of the past, and keep alive the traditions of those 
 ideal heroes so dear to the Japanese patriot. Likewise in China, 
 the drama, theoretically, was elevated in tone, and the penal 
 code threatened those who misused their talents with pun- 
 ishment in purgatory after death. Among the masterpieces 
 of Chinese dramatic art, is one, "The Sorrows of Han," which 
 appeals to patriotism. 
 
 Along the gamut of dramatic writings might be cited nu- 
 merous plays written especially with the purpose of noting 
 
3 66 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 some patriotic event. It must suffice here to take for granted 
 the existence of a large dramatic literature bearing on the 
 subject. National drama occupies a conspicuous place in a 
 nation's literature; but to be truly great, dramatic creation 
 needs to treat of noble subjects which shall stand as truths 
 for all races and times, irrespective of party feeling or creeds. 
 
 An old writer has said, "You will do the greatest service to 
 the State if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the 
 souls of the citizens; for it is better that great souls should 
 dwell in small houses, than for mean slaves to lurk in great 
 houses." Again, the same writer says: "Truth is a thing im- 
 mortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty which fades 
 not away in time nor does it take away the freedom of speech 
 which proceeds from justice." 
 
 Among later dramatic writers, to Browning may be given 
 the appellation of the apostle of truth. Of truth he says, 
 
 "Truth is the proper policy: from truth 
 Whate'er the force wherewith you fling your speech, 
 Be sure that speech will lift you by rebound, 
 Somewhere above the lowness of a lie!" 
 
 And elsewhere he writes, "Love bids touch truth, endure 
 truth, and embrace truth; though, embracing truth, love 
 crush itself." 
 
 In many passages of his dramatic writings, he insists upon 
 the full play of truth in word and action; and if truth be veiled, 
 or perverted from its direct course, the results are fatal. In 
 the long range of Browning's writings is the obligation in- 
 sisted upon again and again that he who would be a neophyte 
 of the noble way, must learn to pick out truth from the tan- 
 gled meshes of the life around him. Truth is the first, the 
 middle, the last of things. 
 
 In the dramatic poem of "In a Balcony," at the final scene, 
 where Norbert, Constance, and the Queen meet, and the Queen 
 hears Norbert's words to Constance, "Now you know that 
 body and soul have each one life, but one: And here 's my 
 love, here, living at your feet," Constance is terrified at the 
 thought of the climax in affairs which this disclosure to the 
 
THE DRAMA IN RELATION TO TRUTH 367 
 
 Queen will produce. As she cries, "See the Queen!" Norbert 
 notices that the Queen is grasping the balcony. He addresses 
 her: "Madam why grasp you thus the balcony? Have I 
 done ill? Have I not spoken truth? How could I other?" 
 At the end he says, "I am love and cannot change: love's self 
 is at your feet!" As death is nearing, he reassures Constance, 
 "Sweet, never fear what she can do! We are past harm now. 
 . . . Men have died trying to find this place, which we have 
 found." 
 
 Here was the mutual recognition of the high abstractions 
 of love and truth : indestructible ideals which even death could 
 not shatter. 
 
 Many quotations might be made from the dramas of Brown- 
 ing in illustration of the necessity to be through and through 
 a seeker of truth. One more illustration will suffice. The 
 scene is after the murder of Henry Mertoun. Mildred asks, 
 
 " You let him try to give 
 The story of our love and ignorance, 
 And the brief madness and the long despair 
 You let him plead all this, because your code 
 Of honor bids you hear before you strike." 
 
 And Tresham answers, 
 
 "No! No! 
 
 Had I but heard him had I let him speak 
 Half the truth less had I looked long on him 
 I had desisted! Why, as he lay there, 
 The moon on his flushed cheek, I gathered all 
 The story ere he told it: I saw through 
 The troubled surface of his crime and yours 
 A depth of purity immovable; 
 Had I but glanced, where all seemed turbidest 
 Had gleamed some inlet to the calm beneath; 
 I would not glance: my punishment 's at hand 
 There, Mildred, is the truth!" 
 
 There are probably few things society at large is less will- 
 ing to do than to hear and accept the truth. Public opinion 
 and conventionality more often than not serve as veneering 
 to right and direct vision. This state of affairs is taken up by 
 
368 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 Ibsen in " An Enemy of the People," a play eminently adapted 
 for study and representation in any community. From the 
 beginning to the end, the action of the play is a crusade in 
 the cause of truth. 
 
 The situation is drawn with an unsparing hand. The in- 
 difference of the many and the cowardliness of others in not 
 openly living up to their convictions are equally delineated. 
 Refreshingly contrasting is the picture of Dr. Stockmann and 
 his daughter Petra, who would willingly sacrifice all self-in- 
 terests to stand on the rock of truth and freedom. Pathetic 
 is the utterance of the doctor, when, in answer to his wife's 
 solicitude for the materialities of life, he replies, "That 's my 
 least concern. Now, what does trouble me is, that I don't see 
 any man with enough independence and nobility of character 
 to dare to take up my work after me." To this Petra hope- 
 fully suggests that others will come, and tells her father he is 
 not to " bother about that." 
 
 In "The Doll's House" is shown that woman has duties to 
 herself as well as to others. In fact, duty to self is first. Only 
 by a knowledge of self and by developing her own character 
 may she hope with a stronger personality to live for some per- 
 manent good. The obligation that evolution imposes on her 
 to think out for herself her own problems is a text Ibsen often 
 reads from. In the last scene between Nora and Helmer, where 
 she tells him she has other duties equally sacred with those 
 of wife and mother, the duties to herself, Helmer reiterates, 
 "Before all else you are a wife and a mother." She replies, 
 "That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am 
 a human being just as much as you are or, at least, I will 
 try to become one. I know that most people agree with you, 
 Torvald, and that they say so in books, but henceforth I can't 
 be satisfied with what most people say, and what is in books. 
 I must think them out for myself and try to get clear about 
 them." 
 
 Many critics, as well as a not deep-thinking public, have 
 cavilled and reviled Ibsen's plays, and this because he dares 
 to raise the curtain on true situations not uncommonly met 
 with in life. Truly these situations may be unpleasant ones 
 
THE DRAMA IN RELATION TO TRUTH 369 
 
 for some persons among his audience to face. But the truth 
 should be "greeted with a cheer," no matter in what shape 
 it comes. The sooner this is realized and the remedy applied, 
 then the sooner will the necessity to think on many of these 
 unpleasant situations be over. 
 
 This occasion will not permit of a fuller treatment of the 
 subject. The purport of this brief sketch is to suggest that 
 the drama may be used as a medium to elevate women and 
 men, and to educate them equally to a knowledge of truth. 
 From truth will all of the noblest sentiments radiate. Action 
 in the name of patriotism, which includes love of self, State, 
 or land, exclusive of other selves, states, or lands, partakes of 
 an attribute not truly noble. The patriot who would be truly 
 noble must work for the world. 
 
 Ibsen, in a paragraph to which my attention has been called 
 lately by a friend, remarks, "The State is the curse of the in- 
 dividual. How has the national strength of Prussia been pur- 
 chased? By the sinking of the individual in a political and 
 geographical formula. The State must go. That will be a 
 revolution which will find me on its side. Undermine the idea 
 of the State, set up in its place spontaneous action and the idea 
 that spiritual relationship is the only thing that makes for 
 unity, and you will start the elements of a liberty which will 
 be something worth possessing." 
 
 The spiritual relationship is the thing. 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 1 
 
 FROM the many rich utterances of Whitman on Woman and 
 Freedom, the reader naturally feels himself at a loss when 
 called upon to repeat selections to others. At best, within the 
 limits of a paper, the merest sketch or outline of Whitman's 
 conception of these subjects can be drawn. 
 
 During his early childhood and youth Whitman spent many 
 of his days in roaming along Paumanok's shores, where his 
 vision and soul were enthralled by the vistas of sands and sea 
 stretching outward. And, if the sea winds blowing along the 
 coast-line and the shining stars or the sunlit-crested waves 
 had not as yet taught him fully to know their voices, still he 
 had begun to think "a thought of the clef of the universe and 
 of the future." And he was not unmoved by the tirelessly 
 tossing white arms when from the sea they beckoned him 
 to launch his craft upon "the wild unrest," the limitless 
 waters of "eternal progress" and freedom. 
 
 His early impression of woman was gathered from his own 
 family circle, whose women-folk were strong in character and 
 purpose. The halo of motherhood illumined his homely abode 
 And the fact, too, that he was the outcome of a vigorous 
 woman ancestry had not failed to leave an indelible mark 
 upon the poet. 
 
 He begins his songs in recognition of self and personality 
 as first, "One's self I sing, a simple separate person;" then, 
 placing his voice where the resonance is most clear and beau- 
 tiful, he sings, removing all obstructions, that his tones may 
 be distinct and pure : 
 
 1 Read before the Walt Whitman Fellowship, Boston, November 19, 1896. 
 Printed in Poet-Lore, April-June, 1897; also in pamphlet form, Boston Poet- 
 Lore Company, 1897. 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 371 
 
 "The Female equally with the Male I sing. 
 
 Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, 
 Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine, 
 The Modern Man I sing." 
 
 Whitman's passages on woman convey the embodiment of 
 .her under practical aspects; also ideally as the typification 
 of some of his noblest forms, as in the "Santa Spirita" and 
 "Victress on the Peaks." Comprehensively he addresses 
 woman, "You womanhood divine, mistress and source of all, 
 whence life and love and aught that comes from life and love." 
 The mother, wife, sister, daughter, nurse, comforter, the ad- 
 ministrator in sickness and health, the artiste, the working 
 woman or the woman of wealth and power, in all these capa- 
 cities is she described. Even as the lowest prostitute she is 
 not slurred by; in her, Whitman sees "the divine woman." 
 He tells women, "Be not ashamed your privilege encloses 
 the rest, and is the exit of the rest." 
 
 Following the words, "A woman's body at auction," are 
 these lines : 
 
 "She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers, 
 
 She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers. 
 
 Have you ever loved the body of a woman?" 
 
 Whitman's universal love for humanity did not permit him 
 to withhold his heed and sympathy from one or all of these 
 woman-types. 
 
 The personal touch of woman's presence is very dear to 
 him; he relates that, starting betimes for a day's outing at 
 the seashore, fortified by a good breakfast, cooked by hands 
 he loved, his "dear sister Lou's," how much better it made 
 "the victuals taste and then assimilate," the whole day's 
 comfort afterwards resting upon this little service. 
 
 In the hospital wards, too, the magnetic touch of hands, the 
 expressive features of the mother, the silent soothing of her 
 presence, her words, her knowledge and privileges, arrived 
 at only through having had children, are the precious and 
 final qualifications. It is a natural faculty that is required, it 
 
372 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 is not merely having "a genteel young woman at a table in a 
 ward." 
 
 He tells of "Girls, mothers, housekeepers in all their per- 
 formances. The group of laborers seated at noon-time with 
 their open dinner kettles, and their wives waiting;" of the 
 prison visitor leading her children by each hand, who brings, 
 with the rustling folds of her silken gown, balm to heal the 
 convict's woe. Whether as the woman containing all, nothing 
 lacking, in the one who "waits for me," or in those lines 
 relating to a city where all is forgotten but the woman who 
 detained him for love of him; or women old and young; or 
 the sleeping mother, Whitman studies them "each and all, 
 long and long." 
 
 Thus in labors and charity, abroad or in the home, Whitman 
 sees "male and female everywhere." But Whitman de- 
 scribes woman, too, standing alone; she it is, the dusky wo- 
 man from Ethiopia who salutes the flag, who recognizes the 
 banner, the colors assuring freedom. The one-time slave, 
 who, knowing the lament of servitude, welcomes liberty "and 
 courtesies to the regiments," though through men's strife 
 freedom comes. Whitman also does not forget the "young 
 American woman," one of a large family of daughters, who 
 has gone out from her own home to gain her own support; 
 who, unstained, preserved her own independence, and by her 
 own efforts sustains herself and helps her parents and sisters. 
 Nor is he silent as to the woman who "from taste and neces- 
 sity conjoined, has gone into practical affairs, carries on a 
 mechanical business, partly works at it herself, dashes out 
 more and more into real hardy life, is not abash'd by the coarse- 
 ness of the contact and will compare any day, with supe- 
 rior carpenters, farmers, and even boatmen and drivers. For 
 all that, she has not lost the charm of the womanly nature." 
 Then there is the woman "physiologically sweet and sound, 
 loving work, practical. She yet knows that there are intervals, 
 however few, devoted to recreation, music, leisure, hospital- 
 ity and affords such intervals. Whatever she does, and 
 wherever she is, that charm, that indescribable perfume of 
 genuine womanhood, attends her, goes with her, exhales from 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 373 
 
 her, which belongs of right to all the sex, and is, or ought to 
 be, the invariable atmosphere and common aureola of old as 
 well as young." 
 
 Then there is the Peacemaker, "the resplendent person" 
 his dear mother once described to him, "the neighborly, sen- 
 sible, and discreet woman, an invariable and welcomed favor- 
 ite." Whitman admits that these three last portraits are " fright- 
 fully out of line" from the models, "the stock feminine char- 
 acters of the current novelist, or of the foreign court poems, 
 . . . which fill the envying dreams of so many poor girls and 
 are accepted by our men, too, as supreme ideals of feminine 
 excellence to be sought after." Whitman says of his ideals, 
 "But I present mine just for a change." 
 
 But above all, Whitman lingers with most affectionate 
 touch at motherhood: "O the mother's joys! The watching, 
 the endurance, the precious love, the anguish, the patiently 
 yielded life," to him the womanly attribute, at once the 
 most potent and divine, to him the consummation of the early 
 promise in the eons of the past when the structures of organic 
 life, emerging from cosmic forces, bore characters of femi- 
 ninity. The sweet and joyous recollections of his own mother 
 tinged with a sacred flame all relationships of mother and 
 child, and in no other of her roles is woman more warmly 
 described by him than as mother. "O ripened joy of wo- 
 manhood! O happiness at last!" 
 
 The mother stands as symbol and seal of immortality. 
 
 In his glowing tribute to his mother's memory, Whitman 
 graves a monumental line: "To her, the ideal woman, prac- 
 tical, spiritual, of all of earth, life, love, to (him) the best." 
 
 A truly beautiful attribute is that of mother and child, to 
 Whitman, and when extended to broader horizons on the 
 planes beyond the bodily motherhood, the thought grows to 
 noble proportions. Woman considered as the mother of great 
 intellectual and spiritual progeny. The giver out of the fluid 
 of true life. A mother for humanity verily; in this sense the 
 human motherhood of Whitman is impressive, she exists for 
 the race at large, she is the impersonification of the demo- 
 cratic idea, a thought of fullest possibility. The human mother 
 
374 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 receptive of all noblest traits, she, freed from systems and rules, 
 gives forth offspring of body and thought, noble as she is, 
 permeated as she is through and through with noblest aspira- 
 tions. She is alive to the requirements of others for sympathy 
 and comprehension. What she absorbs from the cosmos, she 
 gives out in generous plentifulness. Whitman enumerates 
 the women who are the theme of writers from the earliest 
 time to the present, then he says, "Yet woman portrayed or 
 outlined at her best or as perfect human mother does not 
 hitherto, it seems to me, fully appear in literature." 
 
 But there is one aspect of motherhood which does not seem 
 to have been touched on by Whitman perceptibly, that is, the 
 mother who might be named the impersonal mother, she 
 who, whether for her own offspring or another's, holds out 
 to the tender being her care and love because she is actuated 
 by the highest motives of kindliness based upon universal 
 brotherhood. These motives are not akin to the motives due 
 to the mother's instinct. Their roots are centred in currents 
 deeper by far, if less turbulent, than the mother's instinct; 
 in steady flowing currents destined to speed towards seas of 
 promise. This impersonal motherhood obtains irrespective 
 of any special claims of ownership because the child is of one's 
 own flesh and blood. This child has, as have all other chil- 
 dren, the claims to its own being, its own rights; it stands 
 independent, and towards such the impersonal mother stands 
 independent. Ibsen has brought out this point in the closing 
 scenes of his drama, " Little Eyolf." The husband and wife 
 meet on a plane of sympathy and action, to bring joy and hap- 
 piness to the hearts of the innumerable homeless children 
 of the poor, who are now to occupy with them their home. 
 The wife, in contrast to the mother's exclusive love, of the 
 early scenes of the play, opens her heart to these other chil- 
 dren of the poor. They are to use the belongings of little Eyolf, 
 their own child, who was enticed so mysteriously into a watery 
 grave. It needed the shock of this child's death to develop the 
 characters of Alfred and Rita Allmers to this impersonal 
 parental feeling. 
 
 Ibsen has also made an attack on the modern family, cen- 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 375 
 
 tring around the mother's instinctive love, in the "Doll's 
 House," where, in the development of the plot, and for mo- 
 tives displayed, Nora leaves her children. 
 
 Turning our thoughts towards Jerusalem and the events of 
 that memorable day on Mount Calvary, at the moment when 
 Jesus from the cross saw his mother and the disciple whom 
 he loved standing by, and whom he addressed in these words : 
 "Woman, behold thy son!" and to the disciple, "Behold thy 
 mother!" we bring to ourselves from this scene an imprint 
 beyond the mere interpretation of the words, which are that 
 Mary and John should cling to each other in mutual sustain- 
 ment and comfort." Much more is meant by these words of 
 Jesus. They stand as the utterance of one who, out of the 
 depth of agony and love for humanity, foresaw in spiritual 
 relationship the horizon of a richer and more glowing dawn. 
 
 If Whitman tacitly accords to woman, in the vigorous out- 
 lines of many of his poems, the rights to freedom, self- eman- 
 cipation, and the individual life, he does so more generally 
 by including her under the impersonal cognomen of man. 
 In the verses where her sex is especially spoken of, the poet 
 seems to have restricted her spheres, with few exceptions 
 (among these "Mediums" maybe noted), to those capacities 
 serving the ends of practical life. 
 
 Whitman pauses less upon his touches of woman leading 
 an individual life apart from sexuality, maternity, domestic- 
 ity, and toil. All of these activities being by no means meant 
 by me to be excluded, one and all, from her individual life; 
 they may form a part of it, but not one and all are consequently 
 essential to woman's individual development. The exercise 
 of the woman's special functions just enumerated are, indeed, 
 accidental and quite separate from her real life, just as much 
 as the claims of paternity and laboring for the support of a family 
 are apart from man's. The real life of man or woman may 
 be conceived of as being the mental and emotional life, which 
 may or may not inclose for woman aspects of maternity, do- 
 mesticity, and toil. In other words, the individual life is the 
 life of self, denuded of all externalities. 
 
 Whitman is not insensible to woman's needs, nor to her 
 
376 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 possibilities as a future power in the greater development of the 
 race, apart from her maternal qualities; everywhere is claimed 
 for her equality and equal share in the freedom she is to be the 
 co-worker with man to gain. In comparatively few parts of 
 the poet's works are the concrete affairs of life in the lines just 
 mentioned discussed; but when Whitman is moved to give 
 expression to his aspiring opinion, he does so forcibly, with 
 the least weight on the material properties, which he indeed 
 considers insignificant before the higher gains of character 
 and personality. 
 He tells us that - 
 
 "The place where a great city stands is not the place of stretch'd wharves, 
 docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely, 
 
 Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings or shops selling goods 
 from the rest of the earth, 
 
 Nor the place of the best libraries, and schools, nor the place where money 
 is plentiest;" 
 
 but where " common words and deeds " exist as monuments 
 to heroes, there thrift and prudence are in their places, - 
 
 " Where the men and women think lightly of the laws, 
 
 Where the slave and the master of slaves ceases, 
 
 Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of 
 
 elected persons, 
 Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside 
 
 authority, 
 Where the citizen is always the head and ideal, and President, Mayor, 
 
 Governor, and what not, are agents for pay, 
 Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on 
 
 themselves, 
 
 Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs, 
 Where speculations on the soul are encouraged, 
 Where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as the 
 
 men, 
 Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the 
 
 men." 
 
 And as a blow against making gods of all the relative 
 acquisitions on the material plane, he adds, "and nothing 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 377 
 
 endures but personal qualities." And does he not say, too, "A 
 great city is that which has the greatest men and women?" 
 If it be a "few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the 
 whole world." Whitman, in accord with the sages of past 
 times, brings his message into relation with our day and ex- 
 istence; and though we are divested and stripped in our strife, 
 and go out naked and alone into the world, we are yet the 
 possessor of all riches and all gain in the possession of the 
 freedom of soul which is Whitman's everlasting theme. 
 
 It cannot be disputed that Whitman allows for women all 
 constitutional rights in state and country; and if stress on 
 my part is laid on this point, it is out of deference to those 
 who believe woman's complete emancipation will come through 
 suffrage. 
 
 Whitman more than once refers to the subject: but, speak- 
 ing on general suffrage, elections, etc., he expresses himself 
 as doubtful whether these will ever secure officially the best 
 results. " Officers, candidacy for them, caucusing money, the 
 favoritism, the interest of rings, the superior manipulation 
 of the ins over the outs," are indeed at best the mere busi- 
 ness agencies of the people, are useful as "formulating neither 
 the best and highest, but the average of the public judgment 
 (or sometimes want of judgment)." But he says, "as to the 
 general suffrage, after all, since we have gone so far, the more 
 general it is the better. I favor the widest opening of the 
 doors. Let the ventilation and area be wide enough, and all 
 is safe." 
 
 In Whitman's plea for equality, and in all due considera- 
 tion of material rights, which to him are only substrata to in- 
 crease man's and woman's height towards spirituality, and 
 in his greetings to worldly prosperity and material comforts 
 and progress, he declares that "the soul of man will not with 
 such only nay, not with such at all be finally satisfied; 
 but needs what (standing on these and on all things, as the 
 feet stand on the ground) is address' d to the loftiest, to itself 
 alone." 
 
 The basis of Whitman's plea for equality is his belief in 
 immortality. He leaves the earth and its belongings below 
 
378 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 him. Immortality is the flux which resolves all inequalities 
 into equalities. 
 
 "Why, what have you thought of yourself? 
 
 Is it you, then, that thought yourself less ? 
 
 Is it you that thought the President greater than you? 
 
 Or the rich better off than you? or the educated wiser than you? 
 
 Because you are greasy or pimpled, or were once drunk, or a thief, 
 
 Or that you are diseas'd, or rheumatic, or a prostitute, 
 
 Or from frivolity or impotence, or that you are no scholar and never saw 
 
 your name in print, 
 Do you give in that you are any less immortal?" 
 
 This unity with that undying principle unites us all in 
 this life and beyond, wherein we are equals. Whitman asks : 
 "What is it, then, between us? What is the count of the 
 scores or hundreds of years between us ? Whatever it is, it 
 avails not, distance avails not, and place avails not." 
 
 In woman's equality as a political or economic being, Whit- 
 man seems less concerned; his eye is directed towards the 
 opening future; woman's equality with man's lies in her 
 spiritual aspirations, aim, and purpose. But he believes what- 
 ever is done in life counts towards immortality. 
 
 "I believe of all those men and women that filPd the un-named lands, 
 every one exists this hour here or elsewhere, invisible to us. 
 
 In exact proportion to what he or she grew from in life, and out of what 
 he or she did, felt, became, loved, sinned, in life." 
 
 But Whitman tells of mutterings of which he says, "We 
 will not now stop to heed them here, but they must be heeded" 
 of something more revolutionary. "The day is coming 
 when the deep questions of woman's entrance amid the arenas 
 of practical life, politics, the suffrage, etc., will not only be 
 argued all round us, but may be put to decision and real ex- 
 periment." Then, as if heeding the insufficiency of our pre- 
 sent state of affairs and conditions, he projects the "types of 
 highest personality . . . entirely recast . . . from what the 
 oriental, feudal, ecclesiastical worlds bequeath us. Of course, 
 the old, undying elements remain. The task is, to successfully 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 379 
 
 adjust them to new combinations, our own days." He de- 
 scribes the community he conceives of, a possibility for to- 
 day, where "perfect personalities without noise meet;" where 
 "best men and women of ordinary worldly status have by 
 luck been drawn together, with nothing extra of genius or 
 wealth, but virtuous, chaste, industrious, cheerful, resolute, 
 friendly, and devout." He conceives "such a community organ- 
 ized in running order, powers judiciously delegated, farming, 
 building, trade, courts, mails, schools, elections all attended 
 to, and then the rest of life, the main thing freely branching 
 and blossoming in each individual;" and he sees there in 
 "every young and old man and in every woman a true 
 personality developed, exercised proportionally in body and 
 mind and spirit;" and this case he imagines "in buoyant 
 accordance with the municipal and general requirements of 
 our times." 
 
 It is not possible to pass over in silence the practical side 
 of woman's life on matters of equality, which our poet asks 
 for her, though, in view of present-day systems, Whitman is 
 silent in directing her how she is to obtain this equality. He 
 says, "I seek less to state or display any scheme or thought, 
 and more to bring you, reader, into the atmosphere of the 
 theme or thought, there to pursue your own flight." 
 
 To discuss the rhythmic rise and fall in woman's develop- 
 ment through the times is beyond these bounds, nor can these 
 limits include a review of woman's history from any point of 
 view. It conceded, as a wise biologist has said, that man is 
 the result of what woman has made him; likewise is it true 
 that man has not been entirely inactive in woman's construc- 
 tion. We must take woman, in any consideration of the sub- 
 ject, as we find her to-day, in the light of a modern civiliza- 
 tion, as the resultant of a long series of conditions, as more 
 or less the creature of her environment, physically, men- 
 tally, and spiritually. 
 
 I have to omit, for want of space, the discussion in any de- 
 tail of woman's inequalities, and I will merely mention those 
 upon which Whitman dwells. However, it would scarcely be 
 fair to my subject to leave out mentioning one other inequal- 
 
380 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 ity; this is the inequality of duties, which is sorely felt by many 
 women. The loading of all domestic cares upon the woman, 
 to the exclusion of other duties to herself. The arbitrarily 
 established customs of society that men should labor for the 
 support of families and women should devote themselves to 
 the domestic work of the households, is an unequal position 
 from the point of view that either sex is lowered from its sphere 
 if assuming the scope of the other. A writer has said that this 
 fact of forcing household duties upon woman as a specialty 
 "is alone a proof of the inferiority which society ascribes to 
 woman, since it assigns her duties which it confesses are be- 
 neath the dignity of male labor.'' 
 
 One other inequality is the inequality in the making of the 
 laws. Men make the laws, and, by voting, select the rulers 
 and representatives of women as well as themselves. If hap- 
 piness depends upon enlarged sources of activity, then truth 
 rests in these words : " It is quite certain that in all distribu- 
 tion of happiness, the stronger sex has seized the lion's share." 
 
 The words just quoted are worth remembering when studied 
 in company with the utterances of one party among writers, 
 who maintain that masculine force has had no share in wo- 
 man's subjection, and who believe that woman alone has put 
 herself into bondage. 
 
 Perhaps nowhere is woman's inequality more marked than 
 in her limited opportunities for experiences in the life sur- 
 rounding her. Whitman has given expression to woman's 
 longings for wider experience when he presents, in the " Song 
 of the Broad Axe," the shape of her who is to know all, pass 
 through all, untouched and spotless, a law to herself. It may 
 be said in general terms that, from the cradle to the grave, 
 woman is debarred by social restrictions from taking her share 
 either as observer or actor in the activities of the community 
 in which she resides. The freedom of men to go and come 
 as they please, and liberty in all their relations with their fellow 
 beings, is a factor, and a large one, in man's present vantage 
 ground. When woman attempts to step aside from her nar- 
 rowing spheres, she exposes herself not only to other incon- 
 veniences, but also to the anomalous criticisms of a binary 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 381 
 
 system of moral standards which is at work in the world in 
 judgment on man and woman. 
 
 The suffrage already referred to is a cause Whitman cham- 
 pions for the attainment of woman's rights in civil and politi- 
 cal affairs. 1 
 
 The persistent withholding of these rights is one of the cry- 
 ing disgraces of the day. If the political system of represen- 
 tation by suffrage is the chosen form of a country's govern- 
 ment, then withholding these rights from even one woman, 
 if she wants them, clearly shows that she is not regarded worthy 
 of citizenship, and " woman's position has reached the lowest 
 and most dependent state." 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter here into a discussion of the rights 
 and wrongs of universal suffrage, and the majority rule, or 
 of those systems with divergent paths leading on one side to 
 Authority, and on the other side to Freedom. It is enough to 
 recall to memory those ancient systems where women at cer- 
 tain periods rose to places of eminence before the law, and 
 then to ask: If universal suffrage is admitted to be such a 
 dangerous weapon as the opposers to woman suffrage contend 
 it is, why do not those who oppose woman's claims on the 
 ground that her ignorant vote will help to bring about gen- 
 eral destruction, wage war against the entire system of suf- 
 frage? If it contains such germs of terror, why bring these 
 arguments to eliminate woman simply because she is a wo- 
 man, when the voting list is being yearly increased by foreign, 
 ignorant voters, controlled by bosses and demagogues ? Point 
 out to me where freedom is to be found in this state of af- 
 fairs. 
 
 I cannot pass over just here the words of John Stuart Mill, 
 
 -words in harmony with Whitman's words, which I shall 
 
 repeat later. Mill, in reference to the United States, calls 
 
 1 To the movement for the eligibility and entrance of women amid new 
 spheres of business, politics, and the suffrage, the current prurient, conventional 
 treatment of sex is the main formidable obstacle. The rising tide of 'Woman's 
 rights,' swelling, and every year advancing farther and farther, recoils from 
 it with dismay. There will, in my opinion, be no general progress in such eligi- 
 bility till a sensible, philosophic, democratic method is substituted. Whit- 
 man's Prose, p. 304. 
 
382 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 attention to our "democratic institutions" resting avowedly 
 on the "inherent right of every one to have a voice in the gov- 
 ernment." He points to the statement with which our De- 
 claration of Independence commences, "that all men are 
 created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, gov- 
 ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed." And he does not imagine 
 that any "American democrat will evade the force of these 
 expressions by the dishonest or ignorant subterfuge that men, 
 in the memorable document, does not stand for human beings, 
 but for one sex only and that 'the governed' whose con- 
 sent is affirmed to be the only source of just power is meant 
 for that half of mankind only, who in relation to the others, 
 have hitherto assumed the character of governors." 
 
 It is unnecessary to go into the arguments for and against 
 woman's intellectual equality here. They have been discussed 
 during past years threadbare. I will quote only a few words 
 more from Mill on this theme; he has been speaking of the 
 deleterious effects of forcing women into careers which are 
 devoted to trivial details, to the exclusion of combining with 
 them other activities or professions ; he adds : 
 
 "Not to be misunderstood, it is necessary that we should 
 distinctly disclaim the belief that women are even now in- 
 ferior in intellect to men. There are women who are the 
 equals in intellect of any men who ever lived; and, compar- 
 ing ordinary women with ordinary men, the varied though 
 petty details which compose the occupation of women call 
 forth probably as much of mental ability as the uniform rou- 
 tine of the pursuits which are the habitual occupations of a 
 large majority of men." 
 
 Whitman's words, to which I referred in this connection, are 
 these (he is speaking of democracy and its ideals of women) : - 
 
 "The idea of the women of America (extricated from this 
 daze, this fossil and unhealthy air which hangs about the word 
 lady), develop'd, raised to become the robust equals, workers 
 and it may be even practical and political deciders with the 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 383 
 
 men greater than man, we may admit, through their divine 
 maternity, always their towering emblematical attribute 
 but great, at any rate, as man, in all departments; or rather 
 capable of being so, as soon as they realize it, and can bring 
 themselves to give up toys and fiction, and launch forth, as 
 men do, amid real, independent stormy life." 
 
 The physical inequality of woman is one that Whitman 
 would wipe out. His lines repeat themselves again and again, 
 urging women on to robustness. He deprecates dyspeptic 
 womanly amours. He calls for the "athletic American ma- 
 tron speaking in public to crowds of listeners." In jubilant 
 song he announces the " horsewoman's joys." He encourages 
 woman to fill her being with the great world ideas, " events 
 and revolutions," sweeping in waves of immense passion 
 across the earth. 
 
 Something of this spirit has filtered its way to-day into 
 France. Woman's physical inequality is to be met by espe- 
 cial attention to the culture of her physique, and as a part of 
 the solution of the sex problem, as well as the problem of 
 society, the indispensableness of woman standing with man as 
 physical peer is recognized. 
 
 Whitman urges both women and men to action; he tells 
 them: "As for you, I advise you to enter more strongly into 
 politics always inform yourself; always do the best you 
 can; always vote. Disengage yourself from parties." Whit- 
 man exults in independence. "What is independence? Free- 
 dom from all laws or bonds except those of one's own being, 
 controll'd by the universal ones. To lands, to man, to woman, 
 what is there at last to each but the inherent soul, nativity, 
 idiosyncrasy, highest poised, soaring its own flight, following 
 out itself?" 
 
 Whitman is not blind to the fact that these States are not 
 true to what he believes the real spirit of their constitution to 
 be, "for all this hectic glow and these melodramatic scream- 
 ings." He sounds the alarm, and cautions political and busi- 
 ness readers "against the prevailing delusion that the estab- 
 lishment of free political institutions and plentiful intellectual 
 smartness, with general good order, physical plenty, indus- 
 
384 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 try, etc. (desirable and precious advantages as they all are), 
 do of themselves determine and yield to our experiment of 
 democracy the fruitage of success. Society in these States is 
 canker' d, crude, superstitious, and rotten. Political, or law- 
 made society is, and private, or voluntary society is also. . . . 
 The spectacle is appalling. We live in an atmosphere of 
 hypocrisy throughout. The men believe not in the women, 
 nor the women in the men. The aim of all the litterateurs is 
 to find something to make fun of. A lot of churches, sects, 
 etc., the most dismal phantoms I know, usurp the name of re- 
 ligions." 
 
 He tells of the business depravity of our country: that it "is 
 not less than has been supposed, but infinitely greater." He 
 speaks of all official services and departments as "tainted" 
 and saturated in "corruption" and "falsehood." These are 
 the sins that men have to answer for. Woman's share of all 
 this purification is her part in "fashionable life, flippancy, 
 tepid amours, weak infidelism, small aims or no aims at all." 
 These things are all untruth, soul-unsatisfying. All these ex- 
 crescences are to be cut away, and in their stead arise " char- 
 ity and personal force the only investments worth any- 
 thing." 
 
 Whitman would favor the financial independence of wo- 
 man as part of his scheme. He says, "my theory includes 
 riches and the getting of riches," and he maintains that, after 
 the rights of property have been listened to and acquiesced 
 in, the liberalism of these United States asks "for men and 
 women well off, owners of houses and acres, and with cash 
 in the bank." Thus he would extend wealth to all, giving to 
 men and women money, products, and power as a base upon 
 which to raise the edifice of personal liberty. He does not sug- 
 gest how these riches are individually to accrue, although he 
 condemns modern business methods and despises materiality 
 as the aim of all effort; still he is not in sympathy with the 
 idea that "property is theft," for in other passages than those 
 just quoted he perceives "clearly that the extreme business 
 energy, and this almost maniacal appetite for wealth preva- 
 lent in the United States, are parts of amelioration and pro- 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 385 
 
 gress indispensably needed to prepare the very results" he 
 demands. 
 
 Whitman's idea is one of endless material and spiritual 
 progress. We are constantly being told by students of social 
 matters that we are developing, and slowly approaching a 
 better state of human affairs. In a few of our States some of 
 the inequalities of woman which we have been reciting are 
 met by reform measures. Woman has been granted suffrage 
 in these exceptional States; in one or more States the married 
 woman stands as owner of herself. Acceptable as all reforms 
 are, they are not enough singly, or isolated here and there 
 throughout the land. The field of the world at large is too 
 wide to be protected by one piece of reform artillery. And 
 those of us who are happy in living in the more enlightened 
 community of our own ideas, or actually in these exceptional 
 spots on the earth's surface alluded to a few moments ago, 
 must not disregard the fact, in thinking of woman the world 
 over, that to-day she stands far below the knoll where Whit- 
 man would carry her. 
 
 Whitman speaks of this land as "the great women's land, 
 the feminine, the experienced sisters and the inexperienced 
 sisters." He salutes woman and invites her to a place of equal- 
 ity with man, and he bids one and the other to be free. The 
 situation takes on an awe-inspiring aspect as well as a grue- 
 some one when we consider the conventional idols across the 
 pathway which must be cast aside in this search for equality 
 and freedom. 
 
 By some writers it has been stated that from evolution to 
 revolution is only a hurried step in the process of human af- 
 fairs. Indeed, revolution has been named a hurried evolution. 
 In our present consideration, revolution more particularly 
 applies to bringing the woman question to an issue. But 
 woman's deliverance may be more intimately blended with 
 a social reconstructive scheme than has seemed evident to 
 woman's warmest adherents. 
 
 Whether this general revolution is to be accomplished by 
 violent or pacific means, rests upon the vigor of individual con- 
 victions. If either man or woman is convinced that the exist- 
 
3 86 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 ing state of human affairs is so utterly wrong as to be righted 
 only by destroying it and starting anew, then comes the per- 
 sonal justification of a revolutionist. 
 
 Certain passages in Whitman's prose writings point to his 
 expressions of revolution being meant in a symbolic sense. 
 Possibly his poetic expressions of revolt may be likewise 
 meant. 
 
 "Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long-accrued retribution? 
 
 Could I wish humanity different? 
 
 Could I wish the people made of wood and stone ? 
 
 Or that there be no justice in destiny or time ? 
 
 O Liberty! O mate for me! 
 
 Here too the blaze, the grape-shot and the axe, in reserve, to fetch them 
 
 out in case of need, 
 
 Here too, though long represt, can never be destroy 'd, 
 Here too could rise at last murdering and ecstatic, 
 Here too demanding full arrears of vengeance." 
 
 "Courage yet my brother or my sister ! 
 
 Keep on Liberty is to be subserv'd whatever occurs; 
 
 (Not songs of loyalty alone are these, 
 
 But songs of insurrection also, 
 
 For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over, 
 
 And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him, 
 
 And stakes his life to be lost at any moment)." 
 
 Again Whitman tells us: 
 
 "What we believe in waits latent forever through all the continents, 
 Invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive 
 
 and composed, knows no discouragement, 
 Waiting patiently, waiting its time." 
 
 And Whitman extends his sympathy to those who, abiding 
 the truths that rest in all things, " neither hasten their own 
 delivery nor resist it." Whitman stands for each in warm 
 sympathy. He looks to the time when the "People themselves 
 are lifted, illumined, bathed in peace elate, secure in peace," 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 387 
 
 and he would do "away with themes of war! away with war 
 itself! . . . And in its stead speed industry's campaigns," 
 and in the work to be done, "For every man to see to it that 
 he really do something, for every woman too." 
 
 A writer has said, if ever any class on earth has had cause 
 to revolt, it is woman, be the causes of her limitations from 
 many factors, or what you please. In simplest terms, it may 
 be asked, what is to be gained by this revolution ? The answer 
 is Freedom. Freedom is the end which revolution and revolt 
 through truth have in view. It is a liberation from all the 
 chains which are holding back the human being from greater 
 expansions of mind and soul. By Freedom is meant a state 
 wherein all the shackles from preconceived ideas of the rights 
 and wrongs of a question, are cast aside; when the being 
 stands unhampered to view each question on its own merits, 
 to let each concept to which the human mind is open work 
 out through a sequence to its logical conclusion; where the 
 individual's action need not necessarily be one with the full 
 possibilities of the conceptional outgrowth, but where the in- 
 dividual may partake of equal actional with theoretical liberty 
 if so he or she desires. In Freedom each being must stand 
 alone, and the conduct of another cannot be prescribed by 
 you or by me. 
 
 Freedom is also a state wherein we are surely not free to 
 give ourselves up to unbridled passions, license, and vices. 
 For once we have resigned our own leadership into their law- 
 less hands, we can call ourselves free no longer; but we be- 
 come enslaved men and women. Perhaps the man and woman 
 ruled by even the noblest themes, lose in their devotion to 
 any one absorbing idea something of the essence of liberty. 
 Any enslavement thus becomes incompatible with Freedom. 
 Freedom also does not mean restrictions which condemn 
 and kill the energies and activities from and to the higher 
 nature. To be free means a just use of all functions and all 
 powers leading to a fine and unfolding future of individuality 
 and race. In one sense perhaps we can never obtain perfect 
 freedom, but the freest man or woman is the one who main- 
 tains an equilibrium amidst the contending storms of desires. 
 
3 88 
 
 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 But to "the self that knows" truths take on in this knowing 
 self an effulgence incomparably bright with former states. 
 To truth's justification in each soul and guidance to its 
 own freedom, must self look to self alone, and be its own 
 guide to that point which makes each particular individual 
 free. 
 
 How incompatible is this state with the social world around 
 us! From reading Whitman, especially those portions of his 
 works bidding us bow in obedience to law, I have understood 
 him to be speaking of universal spiritual laws. To these, when 
 recognized, we owe allegiance and obedience. In conforming 
 and bringing our spiritual nature into touch with our psychi- 
 cal environment we become freest men and women. These 
 thoughts, which are found scattered through Whitman's 
 writings, as it were like jewelled stars in the vast sky, are pre- 
 sented concisely in his prose under the title " Freedom." He 
 says : 
 
 "It is not only true that most people entirely misunder- 
 stand Freedom, but I sometimes think I have not yet met one 
 person who rightly understands it. The whole Universe is 
 absolute Law. Freedom only opens entire activity and license 
 under the law. To the degraded or undeveloped and even 
 to too many others the thought of freedom is a thought of 
 escaping from law, which, of course, is impossible. More 
 precious than all worldly riches is Freedom freedom from 
 the painful constipation and poor narrowness of ecclesiasti- 
 cism freedom in manners, habiliments, furniture, from 
 the silliness and tyranny of local fashions entire freedom 
 from party rings and mere conventions in Politics and 
 better than all, a general freedom of One's-Self from the 
 tyrannic dominations of vices, habits, appetites, under which 
 nearly every man of us (often the greatest bawler for freedom) 
 is enslaved. Can we attain such enfranchisement the true 
 Democracy, and the height of it? While we are from birth 
 to death the subjects of irresistible law, enclosing every move- 
 ment and minute, we yet escape, by a paradox, into true free 
 will. Strange as it may seem, we only attain to freedom by 
 a knowledge of, and implicit obedience to Law. Great 
 
WOMAN AND FREEDOM IN WHITMAN 389 
 
 unspeakably great is the Will! the free Soul of man! At its 
 greatest, understanding and obeying the laws, it can then, 
 and then only, maintain true liberty. For there is to the highest 
 that law as absolute as any more absolute than any the 
 Law of Liberty. The shallow, as intimated, consider liberty 
 a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise see 
 in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws, namely, the 
 fusion and combination of the conscious will, or partial in- 
 dividual law, with those universal, eternal, unconscious ones 
 which run through all Time, pervade history, prove immor- 
 tality, give moral purpose to the entire objective world, and 
 the last dignity to human life." 
 
 Walt Whitman charges us here, and elsewhere in his writ- 
 ings, to see to it that we seek this freedom. He gives, too, so 
 beautifully the progress of souls as the means of gaining im- 
 mortality. But the soul with its germs of unfolding possibili- 
 ties can only bud and blossom in free fields. 
 
 This thought finds expression by Whitman in these words : 
 
 "O sight of pity, shame and dole! 
 O fearful thought a convict soul! " 
 
 I think I shall not only express my own but the thoughts 
 of others when I say that after all Whitman has said on 
 woman there remains a feeling of dissatisfaction. Woman in 
 many characters accompanies the poet, but there comes a 
 moment in the life of his poems when his path seems to di- 
 verge from hers. He goes on his way to heights and out- reach- 
 ing vistas alone. Nature becomes more and more a source 
 of his inspiration. In his spiritual growth and aspirations 
 woman is not found, in his poems, by his side. Later and 
 later she is more and more out-distanced, till in "Sands of 
 Seventy, " with the exception of the lines in tribute to "My 
 science friend, my noblest woman friend," woman's influ- 
 ence seems nigh dead. 
 
 Nowhere among his writings do I find woman standing out 
 in bold relief as the embodiment of great emotions, no- 
 where does she rise up as a form inspiratrice. Nor has Whit- 
 man embodied woman's thought, passion, and power in such 
 
390 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 frames as Ibsen and Browning have here and there placed 
 their womanly creations in. 
 
 Of a spiritual womanly ideal, Whitman has reached in 
 these words his highest one: "Prophetic joys of better, loftier 
 love's ideals, the divine wife, the sweet, eternal, perfect com- 
 rade." In the passages cited, however, where he treats of 
 woman in the lower planes of life, he has been full and clear 
 in his utterance. 
 
 Woman divested of her corporeal attributes as a reality in 
 comradeship, has not become a part of the poet's theme. And 
 the vast areas of the regions of the super- sensuous he has not 
 explored with her. Whitman has not met woman on a plane 
 of reciprocity where truth, liberty, and love re-echo from soul 
 to soul here on earth or in thoughts of death, and where the 
 soul of man and woman are entwined and live as one enfold- 
 ing form. Nor has Whitman been touched by the quivering 
 light from that unseen and far-away realm where thoughts 
 on life and immortality pass from hand to heart, from lips 
 to soul, to that blessed unity awaiting man and woman, which 
 is eternity's own! 
 
 But this silence of Whitman's mind is not inharmonious 
 with his plan. In his writings he distinctly says that he is 
 describing his own personality, the personality of its own 
 time and place. And there are chords of harmony in these 
 relations of the sexes which Whitman never touched or 
 heard. 1 
 
 To me, Whitman's idea of comradeship even does not 
 clearly stand for the mutual development of man towards 
 woman or woman towards man, which may exist and be the 
 outcome of a state resting on perfect freedom and liberty. It 
 may be that woman herself alone is capable of giving the 
 truest utterances about herself; and in turning to the pages 
 
 1 Man and woman are parts of one and the same humanity, "the human 
 integral," each brings something which is specially pertinent to individual 
 sex. Hope for humanity in the future would seem to rest on the co5peration of 
 the sexes. This cooperation may or may not be based on unity in aspiration 
 and reciprocal sympathy, but when these elements arise, they do not inter- 
 fere, on the contrary they aid the force of cooperation for the good of others. 
 Whitman's position towards love in this broadest sense is a negative one. 
 
THE CONCEPTION OF TRUTH AMONG THE 
 GREEKS AND IN BROWNING. 1 
 
 THE poem of "Ixion" suggests the aspirations of a soul 
 racked on the fiery wheel of life's troubles and despair, but 
 a soul that looks beyond the torments of time into the region 
 of purity, hope, and truth far away; for in all conditions 
 this life's journey is crowded with anxieties, griefs, and care. 
 
 It is impossible to escape from under suffering's yoke. But 
 in reality, these so- considered barriers to happiness may be 
 made the means to elevate the soul to higher planes; and the 
 burden of the yoke, through truth and hope, is changed to 
 a silken scarf, if the eye be but fixedly turned upward. All 
 sorrow melts, to joy when the realization comes to the toiler 
 that true hSppiness is reached through pain. Grief may be 
 termed an essential factor in the evolution of character. Suf- 
 fering is the seasoning of life, the necessary condiment of 
 existence. There is no tinge of pessimism or despair in the 
 candid heart that acknowledges woe as the common heritage. 
 But in recognition of poison one must also recognize that 
 an antidote is to be applied. From the world's healers many 
 formulae have descended to us to save the human heart from 
 utter annihilation. 
 
 The Blessed One spoke at Benares: "He who recognizes 
 f the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy, and its cessa- 
 tions has fathomed the four noble Truths: 
 "The Truth of suffering. 
 "The Truth of the cause of suffering. 
 " The Truth of the cessation of suffering. 
 "The Truth of the path which leads to the cessation of suf- 
 fering." 
 
 1 Read before the Boston Browning Society November 17, 1895. Preceded 
 by the reading of " Ixion." 
 
394 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 Again he spoke: "The world is full of sin and sorrow, 
 because it is full of error. Men go astray because they think 
 the delusion is better than truth. Rather than truth they fol- 
 low error, which is pleasant to look at in the beginning, but 
 causes anxiety, tribulation, and misery. . . . The truth is 
 the end and aim of all existence, and the worlds originate so 
 that the truth may come and dwell therein. . . . Those who 
 fail to aspire to the truth have missed the purpose of life." 
 "Truth is the essence of life. Truth cannot be fashioned. 
 Truth is one and the same; it is immutable. Truth is above 
 the power of death; it is omnipresent, eternal, and most glo- 
 rious." Numerous passages of the "Dharma" are of the 
 same purport. "And again I would say, Truth sweeps the 
 world of error; its breath scorches the false and untrue. It 
 is the great Agni, the fire god, whose emblematic flames 
 point heavenward." 
 
 The religious writers denounce the liar and the lying life: 
 "A false balance is abomination to the Lord; but a just 
 weight is his delight." 
 
 The teachings of Christ and his apostles battle against 
 falsehood in the relations of man to man; and in the account 
 of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, for an illustration, the 
 lie and fraud which stand for lying and perjury against our 
 own higher nature and the God within us are justly punished 
 by death, the figurative total extinction of all progressive 
 powers. 
 
 The lode-star of philosophy is Truth: Truth the unified 
 principle through all and in all. From Truth our being 
 emanates and returns by Truth to its source. Truth is thus 
 glorified by its transitions, defeats, and victories. At each 
 tone of Truth's gamut rests Browning, who emphasizes as 
 no one else its beauty and power. 
 
 A rapid mental survey seems to show that the writings of 
 the past lead in a direct line to Robert Browning; in none 
 of these writings, epics though they be in Truth's cause, 
 does the Truth obtain in such a marked degree, under so 
 many aspects and varieties of conditions, as in our poet's 
 works. In every state and degree Truth is studied from its 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 395 
 
 earliest manifestation "deep down in a lie .. . and every 
 lie quick with the germ of Truth," to its highest query, - 
 
 "Friend, did you need an optic glass, 
 
 Which were your choice? a lens to drape 
 
 In ruby, emerald, chrysopras, 
 Each object or reveal its shape 
 
 Clear outlined, past escape, 
 
 "The naked very thing? So clear 
 
 That, when you had the chance to gaze, 
 You found its inmost self appear 
 
 Through outer seeming truth ablaze, 
 Not falsehood's fancy-haze? " 
 
 Not only once or in any limited number of his poems, but again 
 and again, with a persistent effort born of the firmest convic- 
 tion' and intuition, Browning whispers, pleads, nay thunders 
 the truth of Truth, the religion of Truth, salvation by Truth; 
 Truth in all worldly relations, and the infinite and absolute 
 Truth, that deepest of all Truth which Shelley calls image- 
 less. Browning makes no compromise with diplomacy and 
 social usage. Our poet's admiration for Shelley does not cease 
 with approving words. Browning carries onward the torch of 
 Truth from him he calls " Sun-treader," who teaches, "There is 
 one road to peace, and that is Truth." And the flame grows 
 brighter with the onward march, for our poet tells us that 
 
 " the troubled life 
 
 Of genius, seen so gay when working forth 
 Some trusted end, grows sad when all proves vain. 
 How sad when men have parted with truth's peace 
 For falsest fancy's sake! " 
 
 It seems almost needless to mention the fact, well recognized 
 by all Browning readers and portrayed in his poems, of the 
 deep impression made upon Browning's mind by his wide 
 and careful reading of Greek literature. Browning not only 
 made transcriptions from the Greek drama, but he also se- 
 lected Greek topics as subjects for several of his poems. 
 The pearls of Greek philosophy and higher thought he set 
 
396 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 in verse and made his very own. The ethical life of the Greeks, 
 their Gods, religion, belief in immortality, and thoughts on 
 life and death he brought before us with remarkable clear- 
 ness. 
 
 In the earlier Greek writings, Homer, for example, the 
 notion of Truth is not so exalted as in later Greek writings. 
 Its appli cations are more generally to concrete objects, and 
 Truth is used more in our sense of verity in relation to some 
 particular situation, as when Sarpedon addresses Glaucus, 
 "But now, for a truth ten thousand fates of death press upon 
 us;" or in another passage, "Thine of a truth will shame 
 and disgrace now be, O Menelaus, if the swift dogs tear the 
 faithful companion of illustrious Hercules beneath the walls 
 of the Trojans." Hector interrogates the maids of the palace 
 thus, "I pray you, 'maids, tell me truly whither went white- 
 armed Andromache from the palace?" Him then the active 
 housewife in turn addressed, "Hector, since thou biddest 
 me to tell the truth, she has not gone to any of her husband's 
 sisters but she went to the lofty tower of Ilium." 
 
 Very frequently similar passages occur in the Iliad and 
 other Homeric writings. When the Gerenian Knight says, 
 "Shall I speak falsely or say the truth?" doubtless his hesi- 
 tation arose from fears lest his forebodings should dampen 
 the courage of his companions. Nestor well comprehended 
 the imperfections of our senses and the relativity of Truth 
 depending upon the senses as its source, and the need of 
 cooperation when resorting to such experience. He says, 
 " Truly, my friend, thou hast spoken all these things aright, 
 for when two go together, the one perceives before the other 
 how the advantage may be. But if one being alone should 
 observe anything, his perception is more tardy and his judg- 
 ment weak." 
 
 It was a Greek principle in warfare that stratagem, deceit, 
 and cunning were legitimate means to employ in overcoming 
 an enemy, although treaties with the enemy were concluded 
 and ratified upon oath and were binding. Ulysses is openly 
 addressed as "Jove-sprung son of Laertes, much-scheming 
 Ulysses," "Ulysses of many wiles," "Cunning Ulysses," and 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 397 
 
 again he is "the divine Ulysses," who although divine un- 
 hesitatingly promises to save the life of the weeping Trojan, 
 Dolon, if he but tells correctly why he comes alone from the 
 camp towards the fleet. The reply given, Dolon is speedily 
 dispatched; promises avail naught, falsehood is in confor- 
 mity with custom. 
 
 The gods held similar principles, for Agamemnon com- 
 plains how Zeus, the son of Chronos, entangled him in a 
 grievous calamity. He calls him "cruel" for his "plottings" 
 and evil " fraud." Asius, who was slain by Idomeneus, groaned, 
 smiting both his thighs and exclaiming indignantly, "Father 
 Zeus, now at least thou hast become utterly deceitful." 
 
 That Zeus was quite capable of appreciating the inconve- 
 niences arising from deception is fully depicted by Homer in 
 a little scene where Here figures prominently. No doubt some 
 such thoughts as these were in the mind of Zeus on that occa- 
 sion. 
 
 "Womanhood, 'the cat-like nature, 
 
 False and fickle, vain and weak,' 
 What of this sad nomenclature 
 Suits my tongue if I must speak." 
 
 The Truth ideal evolves and announces itself with bolder 
 outline as the centuries roll on. But here and there in the 
 old Greek literature occur passages suggestive of the coming 
 cumulative height of Truth which found full expression in 
 Plato and later writers. Hesiod extols the man who is sincere 
 with his friend. The eye of Apollo is described as "piercing 
 beyond all other eyes." The sun-god is "the guardian of 
 moral life and the expression of moral purity and exaltation." 
 He thus stands for light, enlightenment, the coming of Truth, 
 as Orestes says, "For night is the time for thieves, the light 
 for Truth." 
 
 In the early courts of justice the necessity for Truth in 
 political and legal life was recognized, and the Heliastic oath 
 concluded with these words, "May much good befall me if 
 I keep my oath, but if I prove false to it may destruction fall 
 upon me and my family." However, the system of the Heliaea, 
 we read, led to much uncertainty in the administration of 
 
398 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 justice, and a crop of sycophants at Athens made their liv- 
 ing by levying blackmail, which their victims were afraid to 
 refuse. 
 
 From the dramatic writers passages bearing on Truth in 
 its relations with practical life may be culled. Many of these 
 passages refer specifically to Truth. In the words of Poly- 
 nices, "The speech of Truth is simple and those things which 
 are just need not wily interpretation; for they have energy 
 themselves; but the unjust speech, unsound in itself, re- 
 quires cunning preparation to gloze it." The writings of the 
 dramatists besides are replete with passages containing the 
 truths of Truth in sympathy with much present-day thought. 
 Imperfect though words be to express the full purport of the 
 idea, nevertheless, in the mouth of Eteocles Euripides shows 
 what power he thought they might possess uttered in Truth's 
 cause. Eteocles addressed his mother Jocasta thus: "But 
 he ought to effect a reconciliation not by arms, for speech 
 does everything which even the sword of the enemy could 
 do." 
 
 Many other passages might be pointed out in which occur 
 beautiful eulogies to Truth, showing the dawn in the Greek 
 mind of the idea of universal Truth. 
 
 But too often a feeling that truth is inexpedient is manifested, 
 where revenge, hostility, or the relations of the sexes are con- 
 cerned. Falsehood and deception have full play to gain some 
 other end considered good in itself. Again, some truths were not 
 considered decorous to tell. Electra pleads with Orestes that 
 it is not becoming a virgin to tell why her most unholy mother 
 slew her husband Agamemnon. 
 
 Deception and falsehood are often practiced in Greek drama 
 in connection with the preservation of the life or the prestige 
 of an individual; apparently untruthfulness in such a cause 
 was not opposed to the ethics of the time. Iphigenia by the arts 
 of Ulysses, under pretense of being wedded to Achilles, was 
 drawn to Aulis. Later on, her escape from Tauris was ef- 
 fected by a plot against her preserver. Even Pylades in the 
 Greek play concealed the identity of himself and companion. 
 It is interesting to note just here what an advance Goethe has 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 399 
 
 made in the treatment of the same situation. In Goethe's 
 drama Iphigenia could not be false to her own ideals or un- 
 truthful to Thoas, her king and preserver. Also in Goethe's 
 version Orestes cannot deceive by uttering a false word. He 
 exclaims to Iphigenia, " Between us let there be Truth!" 
 
 The proposal of Electra to the two friends Orestes and 
 Pylades, to entrap Hermione by falsehood, murder Helen, 
 and hold the virgin for hostage as a means of saving their own 
 lives, is not only considered a laudable stratagem worthy of 
 applause, but it brings down upon Electra the weighty mantle 
 of Orestes' words, "O thou that hast indeed the mind of a 
 man, but a form among women beautiful, to what a degree art 
 thou- more worthy of life and death ? " 
 
 Stratagem was the keynote of the situation, and a moral 
 standard where cunning and lying were tolerated was also 
 accompanied by a lower estimate of woman. The chorus 
 laments, "Women were born always to be in the way of what 
 may happen to men to the making of things unfortunate." 
 That woman was made to feel this of herself, is mentioned 
 more than once by the old tragedians. In Ion, Creusa laments, 
 "For women's condition is a difficult one among men, and the 
 good being mixed up with the evil, we are objects of hatred. 
 So unhappy are we by nature." 
 
 Inasmuch as the Greek notion of Truth up to this point 
 includes belief in the ethical necessity of true speaking and the 
 binding qualities of an oath and true living where the con- 
 ditions of life- motives are not complex, it also includes the set- 
 ting aside of Truth when circumstances according to the Greek 
 method of justice demand vengeance or revenge, in warfare, 
 and for other reasons, where Truth is not considered expedient. 
 Also hospitality, so strong a Greek characteristic, would take 
 precedence to Truth, as illustrated in the situation between 
 Admetus and Hercules in Euripides' "Alkestis." 
 
 Browning nowhere approvingly considers setting Truth aside 
 for expediency. As a seeker after Truth he starts on the quest 
 with the clear understanding that he will carefully and con- 
 scientiously give to the world the details of his search and his 
 conclusions on the problems concerning life and death, and 
 
400 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 his forecast of what is to be. Oft with him it is "the pain 
 of Truth's deliverance troubling all within me." But with 
 courage from knowing and loving he speaks. And even at the 
 last he would face Truth whate'er presents. Those words of 
 his in "Prospice" spur on the soul to pass "Arch Fear" for 
 the Truth, "for Light," and for the "Soul of his soul." 
 
 "I was ever a fighter, so one fight more, 
 
 The best and the last! 
 I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forebore, 
 
 And bade me creep past. 
 No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers 
 
 The heroes of old, 
 Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears 
 
 Of pain, darkness, and cold. 
 For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, 
 
 The black minute 's at end, 
 And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave, 
 
 Shall dwindle, shall blend, 
 Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, 
 
 Then a light, then thy breast, 
 O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, 
 
 And with God be the rest!" 
 
 Browning is all patience with the weak, even with the false and 
 untruthful; but the lying soul is hateful to him. His far sight 
 helps him to see that in the distance all will become true and 
 truthful. With his penetrating vision he discerns all evils 
 blending into the good. He says, " So may a glory from defect 
 arise." But he urges action as essential to the real regen- 
 eration. Action towards the relatively true were better than 
 stagnation in the absolute. And all evils are as the waters of 
 the ocean whose waves in turn and time will surge over the 
 shores of Goodness and Truth. Yes, through the evil the good 
 is found, through the false the true, and in "Fifine at the Fair" 
 he tells us 
 
 "We must endure the false, no particle of which 
 Do we acquaint us with, but up we mount a pitch 
 Above it, find our head reach truth, while hands explore 
 The false below." 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 401 
 
 So it is in the consideration of phases of life which may 
 be classified among those opposed to the customs of society, 
 convention, or morals. Under all these conditions the poet 
 teaches, be true to ourselves, no matter if this trueness is in 
 conflict with all outside. This truthfulness to ourselves may 
 not be rightful action as we may some day see when we have 
 journeyed farther on; but it is the right course for us if in all 
 conscience we cannot see anything better and truer at the 
 moment. And such a thought should inspire in all hearts 
 toleration, pity, and love towards our fellow beings slower than 
 ourselves in the upward climb. 
 
 Perhaps it is not well to hurry the climber too rapidly in 
 his climb. The head must be steady and the pulse-beats 
 strong. Browning gives this warning: 
 
 "Are you adventurous and climb yourself? 
 Plant the foot warily, accept a staff, 
 Stamp only where you probe the standing-point, 
 Move forward, well assured that move you may. 
 Where you mistrust advance, stop short, there stick! 
 This makes advancing slow and difficult?" 
 
 He also tells us, 
 
 "Weakness never needs be falseness: truth is truth in each degree, 
 Thunder pealed by God to Nature whispered by my soul to me." 
 
 "It was not strange I saw no good in man, 
 To overbalance all the wear and waste 
 Of faculties, displayed in vain, but born 
 To prosper in some better sphere; and why? 
 In my own heart love had not been made wise 
 To trace love's faint beginnings in mankind, 
 To know even hate is but a mask of love's, 
 To see a good in evil, and a hope 
 In ill-success; to sympathize, be proud 
 Of their half-reasons, faint aspirings, dim 
 Struggles for truth, their poorest fallacies, 
 Their prejudice and fears and cares and doubts; 
 All with a touch of nobleness, despite 
 Their error, upward tending all though weak, 
 Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, 
 
402 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 But dream of him, and guess where he may be, 
 And do their best to climb and get to him. 
 All this I knew not, and I failed." 
 
 Effort in any direction is better than the greatest of evils 
 inaction. 
 
 Take the situation in "The Statue and the Bust," where 
 the poet tells that the lady, resolving on her course, though it 
 be to break her vow, 
 
 "Turned on her side and slept. Just so! 
 So we resolve on a thing and sleep: 
 So did the lady ages ago." 
 
 By flight, she thought, 
 
 " ' I save my soul but not to-morrow ' 
 (She checked herself and her eye grew dim) 
 ' My father tarries to bless my state; 
 I must keep it one day more for him.' " 
 
 Thus how often consideration for the sensitiveness of others 
 defeats prompt action! 
 Later in the poem listen to the poet's own words, 
 
 "I hear you reproach, 'But delay was best, 
 For their end was a crime.' Oh, a crime will do, 
 As well, I reply, to serve for a test, 
 As a virtue golden through and through, 
 Sufficient to vindicate itself, 
 And prove its worth at a moment's view!" 
 
 Browning insists upon the wrong there is in the silence 
 which makes the lie. A procrastinating soul sounds its own 
 death warrant. He exclaimed, 
 
 " If you choose to play, 
 Let a man contend to the uttermost 
 For his life's set prize, be it what it will ! " 
 
 The sin he imputes 
 
 "To each frustrate ghost 
 Ts the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, 
 Though the end in sight was a vice, I say." 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 403 
 
 In this poem Browning carries out the idea of Truth to 
 self to the extreme verge of its limit. He does not place the 
 given incident of the poem as a model of virtue nor one that 
 the highest living would contain; but he shows the hateful- 
 ness of subterfuge and indecision, and the soul-perjury of this 
 woman who could take an unmeaning nuptial vow. Even if 
 death followed her words, she had not courage to speak and 
 be true to herself. Browning does not advocate vice instead 
 of virtue; but the greater of the evils is the life wasted in 
 unliving resolutions. 
 
 "Aspire, break bounds! I say, 
 Endeavor to be good, and better still, 
 And best! Success is naught, endeavor 's all." 
 
 Sin, punishment, and the recognition of past sins and evils 
 which it is the lot of innumerable beings during their evo- 
 lutionary passage to experience, are the prelude to hope and 
 the eternal progressive translations of the soul. 
 
 " Strive, mankind, though strife endure through endless obstruction 
 Stage after stage, each rise marred by as certain a fall!" 
 
 but out of the wreck "to rise" where light is in aspiration and 
 hope. Thus it is in the long outlook when the false resolves 
 itself into the true. Falsehood, deceit, duplicity, and lies are 
 the weights and hindrances to character and soul building; 
 while open avowal, sincerity, and truthful action and speaking 
 under all circumstances to the degree of individual know- 
 ledge are the props to the higher planes. 
 
 What may often be considered defects and the reverse of 
 virtue may indeed be but the accidents of character and 
 tolerable when combined with truthful action. The poet's 
 meaning in the preceding words is not distorted, for in his 
 schedule of true living, duty's place and share are fully ex- 
 pressed over and over again. In "Saint Martin's Summer" 
 he says 
 
 "Give my frank word pardon! 
 
 What if I somehow, somewhere 
 
 Pledged my soul to endless duty 
 
 Manv a time and oft?" 
 
404 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 In "Bifurcation" he says: 
 
 " Duty and love, one broad way, were the best 
 Who doubts? But one or other was to choose, 
 I chose the darkling half." 
 
 Where duty and sentiment conflict and duty is chosen, love 
 should not be simulated. Life's "worn causeway" should 
 not be walked "arm in arm with friend," while caressing the 
 ear with words of "truth turned falsehood." "How I loathe a 
 flower, how prize the pavement!" It is right that the one for 
 whom we choose duty should know how few of heart's flowers 
 we have to offer. Dead fruit as well as sacrifices are not always 
 acceptable gifts : this should not be forgotten by altruists. 
 
 The Truth is often painful to tell; it is painful to hear. 
 
 Truth in whatsoever way it comes, even if it brings a shock, 
 is better than a lie. Browning speaks of the 
 
 "rough but wholesome shock, 
 And accident which comes to kill or cure. 
 A jerk which means a dislocated joint! 
 Such happy chance, at cost of twinge, no doubt, 
 Into the socket back again put truth, 
 And stopped the limb from longer dragging lie." 
 
 And for those who have grown indolent with "maws out of 
 sorts" he prescribes a healthful cure. 
 
 " Don't nettles make a broth 
 Wholesome for blood grown lazy and thick ? " 
 
 Very few pages of Browning's works do not contain some 
 reference to Truth. It is always to the same purport; death 
 were better than untrue life; for death will bring the truth of 
 many a thing to the surface. This is reasoned over in the poem 
 " Before and After." Willingness to die for the truth is brought 
 out witr/telling power in "Ned Bratts" and "In the Balcony." 
 
 To give up worldly honors for Truth is beautifully and 
 simply expressed by Colombe. "I take him, give up Juliers 
 and the world." And in "Daniel Bartoli" the wife of but an 
 hour, to save her husband's "honor" and her "soul, " gives up 
 the duke, and wealth. How little are the materialities of life, 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 405 
 
 in comparison with right action, prompted by Truth! Even 
 words which poorly express our thoughts and are susceptible 
 of misunderstanding, when Truth is back of them, fire nearer 
 the bull's eye. 
 
 "From truth 
 
 Whate'er the force wherewith you fling your speech, 
 Be sure that speech will lift you, by rebound 
 Somewhere above the lowness of a lie!" 
 
 In those forcible lines in Francis Furini to the "Bounteous 
 God, deviser and dispenser of all gifts " the poet exclaims, 
 
 " True true all too true 
 No gift but, in the very plenitude 
 Of its perfection, goes maimed, misconstrued 
 By wickedness or weakness : still, some few 
 Have grace to see thy purpose, strength to mar 
 Thy work by no admixture of their own, 
 Limn truth not falsehood, bid us love alone, 
 The type untampered with, the naked star!" 
 
 Browning is for Justice too. He is neither arrogant nor 
 falsely modest. He is Aristotelian in considering the aim of 
 man to be happiness, in its highest and purest sense, and he 
 believes that this aim can be reached only through virtue, 
 man being born with a natural capacity for virtue. He will 
 have nothing to do with those worldly philosophers who 
 would call Truth "the lancet of the heart " and say "not all 
 truths can be spoken and 't is dangerous, yet a good man 
 cannot avoid speaking the truth." 
 
 He tells us of the liar being so from habit, lies being a part 
 of his stock in trade, and in harmony with a lying character 
 which can reason itself into believing its own lies; Browning 
 expresses a thought akin to Plato's of the romancing metier 
 of poets, "who sing how Greeks that never were, in Troy 
 which never was, did this or the other impossible thing!" 
 nor does he countenance good conduct and truthfulness 
 when these arise for the reward or praise of fellow men. 
 
 Browning is in accord with Aristotle in denouncing abstract 
 falsehood as bad and blamable and in declaring truth as honor- 
 
4 o6 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 able and praiseworthy. He shows if the character is thoroughly 
 impregnated with truth the outward expressions are truth- 
 ful, and the man " who is cautious of falsehood for its own sake 
 will surely be cautious of it as being disgraceful." Aristotle 
 advises to decline "from the truth rather on the side of de- 
 fect; for this appears to be in better taste because excesses 
 are hateful." This means that it is not truthful to volunteer 
 true statements regarding persons or affairs for the sake of 
 talking, as this tends towards arrogance, unless by withholding 
 information through false modesty harm should befall our 
 neighbor. 
 
 The individual conscience alone can be the guide to the mid- 
 dle path oj Truth. To give one's own conscience into the keep- 
 ing of another must in the end prove baneful. A close study 
 of Browning's poems and the application of their ethics to 
 every- day life will prove useful in aiding the growth of the 
 individual conscience. Many conditions of woman's social 
 state have seemed to justify her in resorting to deceit and false- 
 hood, the weapons of the weaker, for these alone were her 
 means to sustain and defend herself. Indirectness is the neces- 
 sary outcome of inequality. If women had once seen this 
 and combined for equality and truth, no matter what the 
 results, Browning need not have remarked upon man's truth 
 subduing 
 
 "for sake of chivalry and ruth 
 Its rapier edge to suit 
 The bulrush-spear womanly falsehood fights with!" 
 
 Just here scientific training is of value in strengthening 
 the character and in guiding the senses to a nicer percep- 
 tion of the Truth. Any one may prove this to himself by going 
 for the first time into a physical laboratory and attempting 
 to carry out even the simplest experiments requiring the per- 
 fect adjustment of muscular action with vision. The inability 
 of the novice will be proven in almost every case. Likewise 
 such training, while aiding the cultivation of more exact touch 
 and sight, is of value as bringing the Will into concentrated 
 action and coordination with muscular movement. Scientific 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 407 
 
 research is the effort to reach a new point of view. The in- 
 vestigator requires a preliminary training of the senses, and 
 he needs an endowment of well-developed mental qualities, 
 especially judgment. 
 
 Above all the worker must give his allegiance to Truth. 
 He works to find the absolute Truth. Many times failure 
 rewards his pains, even the slightest grasp at Truth eludes 
 him, and the reality is never reached. But the scientist in 
 dedicating his life to the search for the Truth stands in the 
 relation of one who would bring his world of relativities into 
 touch with the world of the ideal, into the actual world of 
 living Truth. Thus he unifies his outer and inner life. He 
 becomes not only one who says, "I still must hoard and heap 
 and class all truths with one ulterior purpose; I must know!" 
 but also his truth teaches him to know that Truth, God, and 
 Love are one. 
 
 That one whose brow the kiss of the higher imagination and 
 intuition has sealed its own, be he poet, scientist, or artist, 
 is one with a, noble race of bards. 
 
 Truth pertaining to phenomena must be in a measure 
 relative. The relativity of Truth is ever shifting its angle of 
 refraction as the number of its facets increases through ex- 
 perience. In personal experience what may seem' Truth in 
 early years may not remain wholly Truth in later years. All 
 grades of knowledge from a fixed point of view may be Truth 
 in their relation to other objects on the same level. But in 
 the advancing process the point of view will not be the same 
 for those who have watched the Truth's unfolding. Other 
 scenes rise in the vista, truths for the nonce, but the old truths 
 remain on their levels just as much Truth as before. 
 
 They are the foothills on which we once stood and from 
 which we have climbed to the higher lands. Our horizon 
 widens. Our vision embraces the plains as well as the tower- 
 ing peaks ahead with their bold traceries screening the farthest 
 distance. Looking onward from the halfway heights of Truth 
 across the mountain ranges, rising one higher than the other, 
 until the most distant, and last to be traversed, the impen- 
 etrable great Himalayan snow fortresses, loom against the 
 
4 o8 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 sky of eternity, then the wise explorer knows full well that 
 the every- day mountain shoe and axe of these lower ranges 
 will not carry him on to those walls of everlasting white- 
 ness. To scale these summits requires new devices. The 
 would-be pioneer must start on a journey where experience 
 and knowledge from without are of little avail. These ad- 
 juncts have brought him far, but they cannot help him now. 
 
 With Browning's attempt to ascend these altitudes he never 
 loses sight of the lowlands, and from time to time he returns 
 to the level to gain new force in order to advance a step higher. 
 He does not forget the heights from which he has descended, 
 but he reminds his readers of the "resting-place, the C major 
 of this life," and the obligation to use this life's materialities 
 for climbing and the soul's growth. He gathers happiness, 
 too, from earth's favors, as well as from earth's bitters. 
 
 "Through wholesome hard, sharp soft, your tooth must bite 
 
 Ere reach the birdling." 
 He says, 
 
 " Man I am and man would be ... merest man and nothing more," 
 and in the same poem he exclaims, 
 
 "Now on earth, to stand suffices." 
 
 The poet teaches that although he and a chosen few may 
 advance farther on the snows, still those in the valleys who 
 desire to climb must be fed and nourished by the exertions of 
 their stronger fellow men. 
 
 "God thus admonished: 'Hast thou marked my deed? 
 Which part assigned by providence dost judge 
 Was meant for man's example? Should he play 
 The helpless weakling, or the helpful strength 
 That captures prey and saves the perishing? 
 Sluggard, arise; work, eat, then feed who lack!' 
 Waking, 'I have arisen, work I will, 
 Eat, and so following. Which lacks food the more, 
 Body or soul in me? I starve in soul; 
 So may mankind; and since men congregate 
 In towns, not woods, to Ispahan forthwith.' " 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 409 
 
 Browning in his earlier and later poems insists that although 
 work we must, the motives should be Truth and Duty, never 
 gain. The soft voice whispered, "Wilt thou adventure for 
 my sake and man's apart from all reward?" 
 
 "'Why from the world,' Ferishtah smiled, 'should thanks 
 
 Go to this work of mine? . . . Justice says: 
 Be just to fact, or blaming or approving: 
 But generous? No, nor loving! 
 
 "Loving! what claim to love has work of mine? 
 Concede my life were emptied of its gains 
 
 To furnish forth and fill work's strict confine, 
 
 Who works so for the world's sake he complains 
 With cause when hate, not love, rewards his pains. 
 
 I looked beyond the world for truth and beauty: 
 
 Sought, found, and did my duty." 
 
 The impress of Platonic thought concerning truth and 
 ideality are apparent in passages of "Pauline" and "Para- 
 celsus." Indeed the impression is not lost in other poems 
 running with the poet's advancing years, and such thoughts 
 are sprinkled as gems through "Asolando." 
 
 Plato tells us that the kind of rhetoric a wise man should 
 concern himself with is truthful speaking and the cautious 
 denning of words. Words are misleading, and the utmost 
 care must be observed in the rightful appropriation of names. 
 
 Flimsy word architecture of gaudy structure is not for 
 Browning's ideal city. He warns us that " words are but words 
 and wind, why let the wind sing in your ear, bite sounding to 
 your brain?" Not from names but from their essences we must 
 really learn of things. Phaedrus is bid to go and tell Lysias 
 and other composers of speeches Homer, and other writers 
 of poems, Solon and others who compose political discourses 
 called laws he is bid to say to all of them if their compo- 
 sitions are based on knowledge of the Truth, and they can 
 defend or prove them, then they are to be called not only 
 poets, orators, legislators, but they are worthy of a higher 
 name : they are lovers of wisdom or philosophers. This worthy 
 name of lover of wisdom and philosopher is Robert Browning's, 
 
4 io LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 as any one may prove by testing and proving in daily life the 
 poet's far-reaching conclusions. Now what is the meaning of 
 all this externality of true speaking, true living, true searching ? 
 Absolutely meaningless nothings, as external expressions pure 
 and simple; but pregnant, all meaning and powerful as forms 
 in which our thoughts live and breathe. These thoughts to be 
 vital must be centred in the inner shrine of being with God; 
 they must be firmly anchored by intent in the stream of Truth. 
 Then, and not until then, will the outward forms of our speech 
 and activity become vitalized entities, and not prove worthless 
 husks. 
 
 At the moment of death or great danger the veil is often- 
 times raised and delusions vanish. 
 
 "At the word, the woman's eyes, slow wandering till they neared 
 The blue eyes o'er the bush of honey-colored beard, 
 Took in full light and sense and tore to rags some dream 
 Which hid the naked truth O loud and long the scream 
 She gave, as if all power of voice within her throat 
 Poured itself wild away to waste in one dread note!" 
 
 The thought of death brings another thought that beyond 
 death higher Truth abides. When Alkestis in " Balaustion's 
 Adventure" was borne to take her last look at the sun, and the 
 living to look their last at Alkestis, Balaustion says, 
 
 "We grew to see in that severe regard, . . . 
 What Death meant when he called her consecrate 
 Henceforth to Hades. I believe, the sword 
 Its office was to cut the soul at once 
 From life, from something in this world which hides 
 Truth, and hides falsehood, and so lets us live 
 Somehow." 
 
 Often the realization of our true purpose of living becomes 
 known to us by ways and means insignificant in themselves 
 but great as their influences turn us to broader living and 
 knowledge of good and evil. The flight of the Duchess is an 
 incident where this thought finds expression. Events in our 
 past lives may in years after, through memory, be powerful 
 movers in freeing us from the fetters of Ignorance. Then, 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 411 
 
 again, in liberating the desires from worldly strivings and 
 seeking refuge in the domain of thought, the soul becomes 
 strong in distinguishing good from evil, truth from error : 
 
 "And, as in moments when the past 
 Gave partially enfranchisement, he [Sordello] cast 
 Himself quite through mere secondary states 
 Of his soul's essence, little loves and hates, 
 Into the mid-deep yearnings overlaid 
 By these; as who should pierce hill, plain, grove, glade, 
 And on into the very nucleus probe 
 That first determined there exists a globe. 
 As that were easiest, half the globe dissolved, 
 So seemed Sordello's closing truth evolved 
 By his flesh-half's break up; the sudden swell 
 Of his expanding soul showed 111 and Well, 
 Sorrow and Joy, Beauty and Ugliness, 
 Virtue and Vice, the Larger and the Less." 
 
 Browning's standpoint, besides embracing the use of this 
 world's means, includes also the comprehension of the living 
 death of the philosopher, the living beyond the dominion of 
 bodily pleasures and of the senses. And with Plato he would 
 rid himself of eyes and ears and with the light of the mind only 
 behold the light of Truth. For truthfulness is the quality 
 a philosopher should possess and falsehood should be held in 
 detestation. 
 
 There are the two kinds of knowledge, one derived from 
 without, the other from within, the two halves of the perfect 
 whole. 
 
 "Thus: I possess 
 
 Two sorts of knowledge, one vast, shadowy, 
 Hints of the unbounded aim I once pursued; 
 The other consists of many secrets, caught 
 While bent on noble prize, perhaps a few 
 Prime principles which may conduct to much. . . . 
 And I betake myself to study 
 Till patient searchings after hidden lore 
 Half wring truth from its prison." 
 
4 i2 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 Frequent passages in Browning's works uphold the belief 
 that the inner knowledge is the unerring. He writes, 
 
 " Alack, one lies oneself 
 Even in the stating that one's end was truth, 
 Truth only, if one states as much in words ! 
 Give me the inner chamber of the soul 
 For obvious easy argument ; 't is there 
 One pits the silent truth against a lie." 
 
 Browning would not have the training of the senses and 
 the knowledge of outer things neglected. For training will 
 help to perfect what is so imperfect in the crude. But this 
 outer knowledge can never take the place of its higher, purer 
 type. There is no conflict between the two kinds of know- 
 ledge. They are each distinct and parts of the immense 
 scheme of the universe all tending to unity. And he who 
 from the realm of phenomena can gather strength to look 
 and hear where neither body's eye nor ear serve, is he "who 
 hears the poem, therefore sees the play." 
 
 Although Browning has drunk deeply of the philosophic 
 well, and in "Pauline" describes such a personality as one 
 
 "full of bliss, who lived 
 With Plato and who had the key to life; 
 And I had dimly shaped my first attempt, 
 And many a thought did I build up on thought, 
 As the wild bee hangs cell to cell; in vain, 
 For I must still advance, no rest for mind." 
 
 Yet he carries his thought beyond the pale of philosophic 
 systems onward where his soul's eye dimly perceives, yet per- 
 ceives the outer violet border of the infinite dawn. He yearns 
 to stand on the perfect sphere of the universe to look on 
 God, 
 
 "As though naught else existed, we alone!" 
 "Do I not pant when I read of thy consummate power, 
 And burn to see thy calm pure truths out-flash 
 The brightest gleams of earth's philosophy?" , 
 
 To this Truth, the full-orbed Truth of the creative, actual, 
 living universe, all effort tends. The aim of life's journey is the 
 qualification of ourselves through good and evil to unite with 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 413 
 
 the throbbing currents of the Absolute. And life is worth 
 living for the experiences happy or sad which we gather 
 from this world's plane for help of soul's growth and pro- 
 gress. 
 
 But great as these are they are not alone enough; there is 
 yet another power, and this is to bring out and express the 
 Truth within ourselves which lives in greater or less degree 
 and finds expression from intuition in highly wrought results of 
 Science, Poetry, or Art. 
 
 " Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
 From outward things, whate'er you may believe. 
 There is an inmost centre in us all, 
 Where Truth abides in fulness; and around, 
 Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
 This perfect, clear perception which is truth, 
 A baffling and perverting carnal mesh 
 Binds it, and makes all error; and to know 
 Rather consists in opening out a way 
 Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, 
 Than in effecting entry for a light 
 Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly 
 The demonstration of a truth, its birth, 
 And you trace back the effluence to its spring 
 And source within us; where broods radiance vast, 
 To be elicited ray by ray, as chance 
 Shall favor." 
 
 This is a stage we have reached when the eye discerns 
 "truer truths." 
 
 This inner enlightenment and guidance emanating from the 
 very core of the man or woman does not, to me, exclude the 
 thought of the striking in from outward of subtle powers, 
 once the passage is effected by Truth's exit from within. These 
 outer influences react on the hidden forces which they strengthen 
 and reinforce. A similar interplay of powers and intuitions 
 goes on in the plane of the world's knowledge: "A pinch 
 of powder," and " harmless dewdrops," " mixed nothings 
 make somethings," and the "lip's mere tremble," and "cheek's 
 just change of color " effect heart's earthquake. 
 
4 i4 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 Likewise, 
 
 "You let your eyes meet mine, touch what you term 
 Quietude, that 's an universe in germ 
 The dormant passion needing but a look 
 To burst into immense life!" 
 
 Many examples will occur to one, not only in Browning's 
 life and soul studies of those out and in soul flashes, but in 
 the lives of real men and women where this sudden and de- 
 liberate self-dedication of the person to a fixed and noble 
 course quite opposite to the one before led denotes the ap- 
 prehensiveness and readiness of the individual to respond 
 to an inspiring voice. It is the voice of God, whether sound- 
 ing within or without us. It speaks in a language all may 
 learn, and needs no interpreter beyond the individual self. 
 The sinner or saint alike may be spoken to, but the ear which 
 has once heard will be deaf no more. 
 
 Perhaps nowhere is this responsiveness to reaction more 
 markedly portrayed than in the scene between Ottima and 
 Sebald. In that situation the voice of God, by the simple 
 instrument of a young girl's song, penetrates above the words 
 and storms of passion, and the Truth, bursting forth over 
 that scene in all its horror and bareness, strikes, destroys, 
 and creates the man and woman anew. They now possess 
 the knowledge, by Truth, of passion and of the higher Love 
 beyond the material which their own love so dimly fore- 
 shadowed. Instantly was effected the transmutation of earthly 
 love to hatred and the passing over from earthly to heavenly 
 Love and unity with God. 
 
 The sudden flashing and forcible emanation of Truth 
 inspires as the creative God-principle held by every woman 
 and man in common with others, worlds, and universes. Man 
 the creation is also as a spark one with the Creator. 
 
 Browning says, "Truth remains true, the fault's in the 
 prover." Perhaps it may be the fault of our methods of search- 
 ing, if Truth's light is withheld for a time. But with a clear 
 intent and as faithful workers, great or small, all ranking the 
 same before God, with God's lamp pressed close to breast, 
 
THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 415 
 
 striving to be truthful in life and thought, seekers after ever- 
 growing truth and light, we shall become worthy of a wider 
 philosophy and religion including all men and women in 
 ties of loving and truthful sympathy. Truth will not lead us 
 wrong, though for a moment we are plunged "into a dark 
 tremendous sea of cloud. It is but for a time." We shall 
 arise. 
 
 I, for one, do not fear the dangers that many claim will 
 fall if the discrimination of good and evil be left to the indi 1 
 vidual. But these conditions contain an active, quickly mov- 
 ing, truthful, progressive ethics. The man or woman sunk in 
 lowest degradation, sin, or crime is the laggard, and when 
 pathological conditions do not explain the status, then poverty, 
 a deplorable social state, love of luxury, the delights from 
 money possession do. Seekers of vice for its own sake and 
 for its supposed gains are not those seeking Truth for Truth's 
 sake and God's. 
 
 The greatest necessity of life, far beyond any other sort 
 of prosperity, a necessity of our soul and body, is the struggle 
 for the Good, and by research it is our duty to find out what 
 is evil. With the diversity of men's and women's minds, 
 there will be a corresponding diversity of what is good and 
 what is evil. Never mind, let us have all diversities; out of 
 the confusion of many tongues we shall find the middle way 
 paved with blocks of truth leading towards the ultimate good. 
 Every working hour of our lives should be devoted to the 
 pursuit of the Good. When the relative good found has 
 passed over into evil, because we have gained in knowledge 
 and know that what seemed good in ignorance is so no more, 
 then must this former good be spurned as lesser good and 
 the soul must aspire again to dig through error's crust. At 
 last the sparkling transparent stream is found, the soul drinks 
 of the inspiring waters, and pauses never again to define and 
 distinguish the good from the evil. 
 
 It has occurred to some that there is no purer motive than 
 the pursuit of the higher Truth, the ideal Truth; and to ex- 
 press these quests in the thoughts and deeds of every-day life 
 is not only a duty, but an inspiration. Call such motives a 
 
416 LITERARY PAPERS 
 
 religion if you will, but it is a religion so broad and untram- 
 meled as to include all points of view. 
 
 If the composite impression from Browning's poems has 
 led me to gather support from them for these views, be it un- 
 derstood that they are not uttered except as an individual 
 expression, not as criticism other than Browning's own, and 
 these suggestions alone are of interest as the outcome of a 
 soul's experience. I do not deny the need of assistance to 
 the weaker from the stronger, and the weight of greater learn- 
 ing, greater knowledge, should not be lightly thrust aside. 
 
 Browning says all this. But the day comes when the spirit, 
 like the little child who learns to stand and walk alone, rises 
 up and says, "I go to prove my soul; I see my way as birds 
 their trackless way. I shall arrive in God's good time." 
 Who will presume to deny to this soul its power ? 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Helen C. De S., autobiographical 
 fragment, 8-18; lectures, 23; scientific 
 pilgrimage, 26. 
 
 Abbott, James, 5, 8, 12. 
 
 Abbott, Dr. William Louis, 8. 
 
 Absorption, method of, in plants, 235. 
 
 Academy of Natural Sciences (Phila- 
 delphia), 15. 
 
 Acetic ether, action of, 137. 
 
 Acids, table of, 332. 
 
 Acrose formed by Emil Fischer, 321. 
 
 Aldol condensation, 339. 
 
 Aldose, name for aldehyde sugars, 321. 
 
 Algae, relative position of, 245. 
 
 Alizarin, coloring-matter of madder, 202. 
 
 Alkaloids, appearance of, 273 ; distribu- 
 tion of, 112. 
 
 Alps, views of, 74, 77; Drude's, 58. 
 
 American Association for Advancement of 
 Science, n, 14, 22, 101. 
 
 Ames, Joseph S., criticism of, 27. 
 
 Amides, 265. 
 
 Ammidown, E. H., on tariff revision, 
 197. 
 
 Amylomycin, 247. 
 
 Analogies, force of, 258. 
 
 Arabinose, discovery of, 337. 
 
 Aristotle and Browning, 405. 
 
 Armstrong, Professor, 85, 86. 
 
 Aromatic nitrils, new syntheses of, 286. 
 
 Art, Science and Philosophy in (paper), 
 
 349- 
 Ash-ingredients, 240, 243, 261. ' 
 
 Bacilli in chemical change, 344. 
 
 Baeyer, A. von, observations of, 286, 321. 
 
 Bagasse, disposition of, 216. 
 
 Bale, visit to, 78. 
 
 Bartoletti, discovers milk sugar, 341. 
 
 Baumann, Professor, visit to, 78; investi- 
 gations of, 241. 
 
 Beet-sugar, production of, 212. 
 
 Benzole ring, worship of, 47. 
 
 Berlin, Agricultural School, 52; Botanical 
 Garden, 54; Chemical Society, 47; Eth- 
 nological Museum, 49. 
 
 Berne, visit to, 73. 
 
 Berzelius, Professor, 32. 
 
 Beyer, C., experiments of, 297. 
 
 Biedermann, authority of, sustained, 298. 
 
 Bing's Japanese curios, 82. 
 
 Blaschka glass-works, 55. 
 
 Blockley Hospital, accident at, 13. 
 
 Bokorny, observation of, 321. 
 
 Bonn, visit to, 81. 
 
 Botany, chemical basis of, 112. 
 
 Bovallius, Dr., as cicerone, 32. 
 
 Brendel's botanical models, 53. 
 
 Brinton, Dr. Daniel G., 16, 79, 102. 
 
 Brinckmann, Dr. J., 40. 
 
 Browning, Robert, 17; the apostle of truth, 
 
 366; dramas of, 367, 393. 
 Brugsch Bey, 87. 
 
 Buckwheat, nutritive value of, 195. 
 Buddha, quoted, 393. 
 Bunsen, Professor R. W., visit to, 81. 
 
 Calcium in green leaves, 241. 
 
 Candolle, De, cited, 169. 
 
 Carbohydrates, Synthetic Work in (paper), 
 
 318; division of, 322; synthetic work 
 
 in, 88. 
 
 Carlsberg Laboratory, 37. 
 Carmen Silva, 70. 
 Carnaiiba wax, description of, 124. 
 Cascara amarga, 207; solid hydrocarbons 
 
 in, 280. 
 
 Catechin in Saraca, 173. 
 Celin Sabbrin (pen name), 17, 349. 
 Cereal products of U. S., 192. 
 Chalmot, De, theory of, 337. 
 Chemistry, importance of, in botany, 175. 
 Chichipate, analysis of, 21, 22, 281; yellow 
 
 dye from, 206. 
 
 China, use of sorghum in, 215. 
 Chlorophyll, 52; function of, 244. 
 Chocolate, importance of, 190. 
 Cholesterin, 187. 
 
 Ciamician and Silber, experiments of, 316. 
 Clarke, Professor Hugh A., 7. 
 Claus, Professor, visit to, 78. 
 Cleve, Professor, 32. 
 "Coefficient of purity," 221. 
 Coffee, importations of, 192. 
 Cohn, Professor, on production of starch, 
 
 208. 
 
420 
 
 INDEX 
 
 College of Pharmacy (Philadelphia), 14, 10, 
 167. 
 
 Collier, Peter, experiments of, 218. 
 
 Condiments, nutritive value of, 114; table 
 of, 115. 
 
 Coniin, synthesis of, 38. 
 
 Cope, Professor Edward D., 10, 22, 118. 
 
 Copenhagen, Agricultural School of, 37. 
 
 Cortena, visit to, 90. 
 
 Cotton-seed oil, 185. 
 
 Coumarin, occurrence of, 273. 
 
 Cremer on the effect of phlorizin, 343. 
 
 Crookes, Sir William, 27, 28; visit to, 83; 
 on chemical evolution of plant com- 
 pounds, 279. 
 
 Crotonic acid, experiments with, 300; paper 
 on, 300; tabulated results of five ex- 
 periments, 306. 
 
 Darwin, cited, 23, 26, 251. 
 
 Davidson, Thomas, 97. 
 
 Dentistry in Germany, 43. 
 
 Diffusion, methods of, 226. 
 
 Dole, Nathan Haskell, study with, 19. 
 
 Dragendorff method praised, 14, 119, 122, 
 
 126, 176, 184. 
 Drama, Greek, 398. 
 
 Drama in Relation to Truth, paper on, 364. 
 Dresden gallery, 55; Polytechnic, 56. 
 Drude, Professor, 57; visit to, 58. 
 Drugs, Huxley's opinion of, 82; medicinal 
 
 value of, 189. 
 
 Drug trade, table of prices in, 188. 
 Dubois, Dr. Emelie B., 9. 
 Dubrunfaut discovers maltose, 341. 
 Dulcite group, table, 328. 
 Durer, Albrecht, house of, 69. 
 Duret, Theodore, pictures of, 82. 
 Duvernoy, Alphonse, cited, 6. 
 Dye-wood colors, table of, 172. 
 Dye-woods, importation of, 201. 
 Dissymmetry, idea of, 353. 
 
 " Ecstatic Vision" (prose poem), 98. 
 
 Ekman, Professor F. L., 31. 
 
 Elements, association of, 259 ; regarded as 
 compounds, 257. 
 
 Endlich, Dr. F. M., courtesy of, 167. 
 
 Enfleurage, described, 187. 
 
 Environment, importance of, 113. 
 
 Errera, Leo, on cells, 276; on plant de- 
 fenses, 278. 
 
 Euripides, "Alkestis," 399, 411. 
 
 Evolution applied to chemistry, 318; reach 
 of, 259. 
 
 Evolutionary theory at Jena, 67. 
 
 Ewald, Professor, 49. 
 
 Fannie, the colored maid, 22, 39, 52, 64. 
 Fischer, Professor Emil, 68 j experiments 
 
 of, 3 20 > 3 2 4, 33 *> 337, 344 5 obtains glu- 
 
 cosides synthetically, 342. 
 Food, definition of, 114. 
 Fort Scott, experiments at, 198. 
 Fouquieria splendens, 14, 15, 18; paper on, 
 
 117, wax from, 184. 
 Friedlander, experiments of, 297. 
 Fritzsche Brothers, quintessential oils, 190. 
 Fructose, 340. 
 "Full Moon " (poem), 106. 
 Furfurol reaction, use of, 338. 
 
 Gas analysis, 57. 
 
 German students, manners of, 66. 
 Germany, North and South contrasted, 41, 
 Geuther, Professor, visit to, 65. 
 Glass flowers, 55. 
 Glucose, first obtained, 331. 
 Glucosides, position of, 112; reserve food 
 material, 256, 272; made synthetically, 
 
 342- 
 
 Goddard, Arabella, 6. 
 Goessmann, Dr. C. A., experiments on 
 
 bagasse, 217. 
 Goethe, study of, 17; home of, 62; "Iphi- 
 
 genia," 399. 
 Goodale, Professor, 56. 
 Grasse, oil industry in, 186. 
 Green, Edward Lee, quoted, 117. 
 Grindelwald, visit to, 75. 
 
 Haematoxylon, 24; paper on, 171, 
 
 Hamburg, Woman's Art Industrial School 
 of, 40. 
 
 Hansen, Professor, 37. 
 
 Hawaiian Islands, importations from, 197, 
 213. 
 
 Heckel, M. Edouard, scheme of plant clas- 
 sification, 1 68, 248, 267; botanical table, 
 268. 
 
 Hedin, Sven, speech of, 31. 
 
 Hegel quoted, 345. 
 
 Heliastic oath, cited, 397. 
 
 Helmholtz's laboratory, 27. 
 
 Hempel, Professor Walter, 57. 
 
 Henry, Dr. F. P., 19. 
 
 Herder, house of, 68. 
 
 Hermann, L., quoted, 1 14. 
 
 Hexose, explanation of, 323; table, 328. 
 
 Hildebrandt, Professor, 31, 34. 
 
 Hofmann, Professor, visit to, 46. 
 
 Holmes, Professor, theory of, 86. 
 
 Homer, truth in, 396. 
 
 Honorary distinctions, 101. 
 
 Hop extract, 182. 
 
INDEX 
 
 421 
 
 Howell, Mary F., 5. 
 
 Humanity, sympathy with, 89. 
 
 Hunt, T. Sterry, cited, 258. 
 
 Hyde, James F. C., on Chinese sugar-cane, 
 
 2I 5- 
 Hydrocarbons in plants (paper), 280. 
 
 Ibsen, Henrik, 28; reception to, 29; "Little 
 Eyolf," 374. 
 
 Impressionist pictures, 16, 82, 349 et seq. 
 
 Indigo, 203; manufacture of, 204; importa- 
 tion of, 205. 
 
 Ingraham, Dr. Lena, 101. 
 
 Interlaken, visit to, 74. 
 
 Inulin, use of, 342. 
 
 Iron in green plants, 242. 
 
 Japan, drama in, 365. 
 
 Jeanpretre, John, associated with Mrs. 
 
 Michael, 286, 292. 
 
 Jena, visit to, 64; botanical garden of, 66. 
 Jorgenson, Dr. S. M., 37. 
 Jungfrau, accidents on, 76. 
 
 Karson, Alfred (pen-name), 90. 
 Kekule, Professor F. A., 81. 
 Kellner, investigations of, 266. 
 Kiel, University of, 38. 
 Kiliani's method, value of, 340. 
 Kirschhoff, converts starch into grape 
 
 sugar, 331. 
 
 Kny, Professor, 52, 66. 
 Kovalevskaya, Sophia, 30. 
 
 Laboratorrein of Upsala, 33. 
 
 Lactic acid depicted, 325. 
 
 Ladenburg, Professor, 28; visit to, 38. 
 
 Landolt's laboratory, 52. 
 
 Langley, Professor S. P., 23, 25. 
 
 Lanolin, uses of, 188. 
 
 Lathrop, George Parsons, 7. 
 
 "Ledger," Philadelphia, cited, 23. 
 
 Leffman, Henry, laboratory of, 14, 15. 
 
 Leipsic Botanical Garden, 60. 
 
 Lette-Verein, Berlin, 49. 
 
 Lichenin, office of, 341. 
 
 Liebermann, Professor, 46, 48; visit to, 51. 
 
 Liebig, plan for artificial production of 
 
 sugar, 319. 
 Linthal, visit to, 88. 
 Lisbon earthquake, 63. 
 Liszt, house of, 62. 
 London, second visit to, 82. 
 Lotze (Hermann), cited, 364. 
 Lbven, Sven, 31, 36. 
 Lukens, Howard, study with, 19. 
 Lunge, Professor, visit to, 72. 
 
 Madder, importance of, 202. 
 
 Maltose, 341. 
 
 Mandelic Acid and its Nitril, paper on, 229. 
 
 Mannite, use of, 340, 
 
 Maple sugar, production of, 212. 
 
 Margraff, Professor, 46; first obtains 
 glucose, 331. 
 
 Matter, living, 260. 
 
 Maumene, E. J., on Yucca, 126. 
 
 Medical College, Woman's, Philadelphia, 
 9, 10, 12. 
 
 Meehan, Thomas A., advice of, 15. 
 
 Mercaptals, sugar compounds, 337. 
 
 Metabolism, explained, 234. 
 
 Methane, how conceived, 325. 
 
 Meyer, Professor E. von, visit to, 60 ; ob- 
 servations of, 286, 292. 
 
 Michael, Professor Arthur, 87,88; criticism 
 by, 300. 
 
 Microchemistry, 170. 
 
 Mill (John Stuart) cited, 381. 
 
 Mirror image, 345. 
 
 Mitchell, Dr. S. Weir, 19. 
 
 Monet, pictures of, 349 et seq. 
 
 Montelius, name of, 5, 34. 
 
 Morse, Professor Edward S., 23, 35. 
 
 Mosses, constituents of, 248. 
 
 Munich, visit to, 71. 
 
 Murie, Dr., 87. 
 
 "My Star" (poem), 99. 
 
 Na'geli, researches of, 320. 
 
 Napthylphenylacetonitril, 290. 
 
 Naquet and Louguinine, experiment of, 
 
 299. 
 
 Nitric acid, action of, 137. 
 Nitril, experiments with, 286 et seq. 
 Nitrogen supply, source of, 237. 
 N6-plays, Japanese, 365. 
 Nordenskiold, Baron, 30. 
 Nuremburg, visit to, 69. 
 Nuremburg Industrial School, 70. 
 
 Ocotilla (see also Fouquieria), analysis of, 
 178; description of, 118; sap-currents in, 
 238. 
 
 Osazones, 340. 
 
 Paper from bagasse, 217. 
 
 Paris, visit to, 82. 
 
 Parrish, Dr. William H., 13. 
 
 Pasteur, L., suggests grouping of atoms, 
 
 324; on molecular dissymmetry, 353. 
 Pentose, table, 328. 
 Petroleum spirits extracts, Summary I, 
 
 132. 
 Pfeffer, Professor, 60. 
 
422 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Phenylanilidoessigsaurenitril, 295. 
 Phenylchloracetonitril, description of, 293. 
 Phenyltrimethylphenylacetonitril, 289. 
 Philosophy of life, 103. 
 Phloretin, Constitution of (paper), 313. 
 
 Phlorizin, description of, 343. 
 
 Phlox Carolina, compounds in, 282. 
 
 Phloxol, a crystalline camphor, 207. 
 
 Picramnine, a new alkaloid, 207. 
 
 Pinner, Professor, 48. 
 
 Plant Analysis as an Applied Science (pa- 
 per), 175. 
 
 Plant cells, 260. 
 
 Plant chemistry, lecture on, 25; in relation 
 to sorghum sugar, 210. 
 
 Plant forms, chemical basis of, 112, 232. 
 
 Plants, chemical classification of, 23, 169; 
 growth of, 59; Miss Abbott's arrange- 
 ment of, 113; chemical constituents of, 
 1 68, 233, 264; Comparative Chemistry 
 of (paper), 257. 
 
 Plasmodia, explained, 245. 
 
 Plato, influence of, 409. 
 
 Polyclinic, Philadelphia, 115. 
 
 Polyporus, acid of, 247. 
 
 Polysaccharides, explanation of, 323. 
 
 Polytechnicum of Zurich, 72. 
 
 Porro-Mxiller operation, 13. 
 
 Pringsheim, Professor, visit to, 51. 
 
 Progression, law of, 276. 
 
 Protoplasm, living and dead, 232. 
 
 Pyrophaeal, 252. 
 
 Quinine, manufacture of, 190. 
 
 Radiometer, discovery of, 85. 
 
 Rattlesnakes, 22. 
 
 Ree, Frau, 40 et seq. 
 
 Rein, Professor, visit to, 82. 
 
 Religious trend of thought, 93. 
 
 Renoir, pictures of, 356, 362. 
 
 Resins named in al, 137, note. 
 
 Retzius, Professor, 32. 
 
 Rochegrosse, picture by, 391. 
 
 Rohmann, shows use of blood serum 
 
 33 1 - 
 
 Roscoe, Sir Henry, 26. 
 Rotation of crops, explained, 239. 
 Royal Society, meeting of, 85. 
 Rundstrom, Inez C., 30. 
 Rye, nutritive value of, 195. 
 
 Salm-Horstmar, experiments of, 240. 
 
 Salt Lake City, visit to, 12. 
 
 Sand, George, 18. 
 
 Sap, flow of, 238. 
 
 Saponin, study of, 61; discoveries in, 112 
 
 a constructive element, 168; in Saraca, 
 173; distribution of, 174; complexity of , 
 253; presence of, 252, 253. 
 
 Saraca Indica, coloring principle for, 171, 
 205, 255. 
 
 Scheibler, discovery of arabinose, 337. 
 chiff, Hugo, investigations of, 313. 
 
 Schleiden, Dr. J. M., cited, 175. 
 
 Schunck, Dr. Edward, 27. 
 
 Schwendener, Professor, 52; visit to, 54. 
 
 Scientific Notes, 19. 
 Separation" (poem), 100. 
 
 September Day (poem), 94. 
 
 Sewing-machines, 43. 
 
 Shelley, Browning's admiration of, 395. 
 
 Silica as possible living matter, 278. 
 
 Silicic acid, importance of, 242. 
 
 Smith, Dr. W. J., 79; Mrs. Smith, 71, 80. 
 
 Smitt, Professor, 33. 
 
 Snakes, feeding of, 19. 
 
 Sorghum, sugar from, 198; changeable dis- 
 position of, 222. 
 
 Spectroscope, n, 21. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 10. 
 
 Starch in plants, 274. 
 
 Stearns, Frederick, & Co., manufactures of, 
 189. 
 
 Steenstrup, Professor J., 37. 
 
 Stereo-chemistry, 324. 
 
 Stockholm, impressions of, 35. 
 
 Strohmann, Professor, 66; visit to, 61. 
 
 Sugar-canes, wax in, 24. 
 
 Sugars, manufacture of, 196; artificial 
 production of, 320; table of, 334; value 
 of the higher, 337. 
 
 "Sunshine on the Delaware" (poem), 96. 
 
 Sweden, manners in, 29, schools of, 31; 
 Royal Academy of, 33; titles in, 34. 
 
 Swedenborg, E., suggests geometrical form 
 of matter, 324. 
 
 Switzerland, parties in, 76. 
 
 Tannin, appearance of, 270. 
 
 Tartaric acid, depicted, 326. 
 
 Tea, distribution of, 191; importation of, 
 191. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. William, 9, 18. 
 
 Thun, visit to, 74. 
 
 Tolylphenylacetonitril, synthesis of, 287. 
 
 Topelius, Miss, 30. 
 
 Trimble, Professor Henry, 14; discovery 
 by, 280. 
 
 Triangulation, idea of, 350, 352. 
 
 Truth, conception of, 88; among the Greeks 
 and in Browning (paper), 393; as re- 
 lated to the drama (paper), 364. 
 
 Tufts College Medical School, 101. 
 
INDEX 
 
 423 
 
 Upsala, University of, 32, 33. 
 
 Ventnor, concert at, 6. 
 
 Vines's classification criticised, 243. 
 
 Wagner's tone-motifs, 359. 
 
 Waxes, vegetable, 120, 124, 183. 
 
 Weimar, visit to, 62. 
 
 White, Dr. Frances Emily, 10. 
 
 Whitman, Walt, 98, 105; Woman and 
 
 Freedom in (paper), 370. 
 Wiebel, Professor, laboratory of, 39, 49. 
 Wiley, Dr. H. W., 4, 23, in, 214, 221, 
 
 229; on sorghum, 200. 
 Wilhelmi, Eda, 10. 
 Willrock, Professor, 33, 67. 
 Wislicenus, Professor J., 59; hypothesis 
 
 of, 300, 304; mistake of, 308. 
 Witt, Professor, 48. 
 Wohl, discovery of, 338. 
 Wolcott, Dr. Grace, 10. 
 Woman, position of in Germany, 50. 
 
 Woman and Freedom in Whitman (paper), 
 
 37- 
 Wurzburg, visit to, 68. 
 
 Xanthophyll, cause of autumnal coloring, 
 244, 267. 
 
 Yellowstone National Park, visit to, n, 12. 
 
 Yucca angustifolia, 15, 28, 87; (paper), 
 126; studies in, 244, 252, 264; petroleum 
 extracts, 127, 132; ether extracts, 134; 
 ethereal extracts, 142; alcoholic extracts, 
 145, 152; aqueous extracts, 155, 163; 
 carb hydrates, 156, 158, 161; dilute hy- 
 drochloric acid extracts, 165; total quan- 
 titative results, 1 66. 
 
 Yuccal, named, 37, 252; solidified, 138. 
 
 Zinc, constituent of plants, 241. 
 Zinin/discovers the amide of mandelic acid, 
 
 297. 
 
 Zoology, interest in, 9. 
 Zurich, women at, 59; visit to, 72. 
 
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON & CO. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 U.S.A. 
 

 RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 University of California Library 
 
 or to the 
 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station 
 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 (510)642-6753 
 
 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing 
 books to NRLF 
 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 
 days prior to due date. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 flfc. JKNED 
 
 JUL 1 3 1993