She received a medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and transformed her house in Boston into a free hospital for the poor, however she died from influenza contracted from one of her patients.

[2] In 1881, while in Paris, Michael purchased and read a used copy of Hermann von Helmholtz's Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik which sparked her interest in science.

[1] Her first cousin, William Louis Abbott, was an explorer and naturalist whose collection of furs, skins, birds and plants contributed to multiple museums.

However, during her second year, she withdrew from the school due to injuries obtained when she fainted during observation of a medical procedure and struck her head on a marble hearth.

[5] While recovering, she became interested in the chemical properties of plants after reading about an incident in which children ingested poisonous roots that they mistakenly thought were wild carrots.

In Washington D.C., she was allowed access to the government greenhouses for research after a presentation at the Philosophical and Anthropological and Biological Societies at the United States National Museum.

In 1891, Helen and Arthur moved to the English coastal town of Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight for four years and conducted chemical research in a private, self-equipped laboratory.

[13] Michael predicted in a lecture on "Plant Analysis as an Applied Science" that chemists of the future would be able to produce, through synthetic means, the proteins, sugars, and starches needed in the human diet.