ABEL, JOHN JACOB (1857-1938), American pharmacol ogist and physiological chemist, was born in Cleveland, 0., on May 19, 1857. He began life as a teacher and in 1879-82 was a principal and superintendent of schools in Indiana. In 1883 he graduated from the University of Michigan and, after a year at Johns Hopkins university, he devoted six years (1884-9o) to the study of chemistry and medicine at Berlin, Strasbourg, Vienna and other European universities. He was lecturer on materia medica in the University of Michigan in 1890-91 and then entered the faculty of Johns Hopkins university in which in 1893 he became professor of pharmacology and physiological chemistry. He made extensive investigations of the chemical composition of animal tissues and fluids, and also of the function and isolation of special chemical principles of the animal organism. A note worthy example of the latter was his isolation of the blood pressure-raising constituent of the suprarenal glands (epinephrine) in the form of a benzoyl derivative. He made researches also on carbamic acid, the action of phthaleins, the poisons of mush rooms, albumoses in the tissues, hydrolytic products of proteins, histamin, insulin and various related subjects, in connection with which he has published many important papers. Two of his con tributions to medical science were the isolation of adrenalin and the isolation of insulin in crystal form.