32o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



As is, perhaps, well known, the future chemist's introduction to his life-work 

 arose largely from a desire to make fireworks. He broke his leg at school (playing 

 football), and, to enliven his convalescence, he read Graham's Chemistry, and 

 performed a few simple experiments to while away the time. 



On beginning his studies at Glasgow University, he entered Tatlock's 

 laboratory, and in addition attended the lectures of Prof. T. Anderson. His 

 interests also led him to study physics under Sir William Thomson, and geology 

 under John Young ; but his time was chiefly devoted to chemistry and mathematics. 



On the later stages in his formal education we need not linger, beyond men- 

 tioning that he spent a couple of years at Tubingen, where he graduated under 

 Fittig. Whilst there he met Prof. Remsen, and formed a friendship with him 

 which lasted right to the end. Ramsay was always such an indefatigable worker^ 

 that it is amusing to find him writing to his father from Tubingen in 1872: 

 "You appear to think I don't like chemistry as much as I used to. It is quite a 

 mistake. I only object, as I always do, to too much work. I was up this morning, 

 for example, at 5.30 and studied and took my breakfast from 6-7, — a class from 

 7-8, one from 8-9, from 9-3 laboratory (I lunch now to have more time for work, 

 and don't dine till 6), and from 3-5 I studied, then from 5-6 lecture, and then I 

 dined. And now at 8 I must start again. It is simply all work and no play, 

 ' except on Thursday afternoons ; but Thursday evenings I work as hard as ever." 



His later career can be summarised by noting that he became successively 

 assistant in Anderson's College, Glasgow, Professor of Chemistry at Bristol, and 

 then at University College, London, where he remained until his resignation in 

 1912 — four years before his death, in July 1916. 



Sir W. Tilden has refrained from devoting too much space to details of the 

 purely scientific labours of Prof. Ramsay (which can, after all, be seen by those 

 interested in the pages of the Chemical Society's journal), but has dealt rather 

 with the personal side of the question : the general account given in Chapter V. 

 of his work on the gases of the atmosphere has, indeed, all the elements of a 

 romance, not omitting the villain in the form of anonymous attacks on the 

 authenticity of his results, and his right to claim them. 



The general trend, indeed, of the biography is to show us to some extent 

 Ramsay the man, genial, quick-witted, and far-seeing, rather than simply Ramsay 

 the scientist : his work on the foundation of Bristol University and his unremitting 

 efforts to obtain the much-desired Government Grant, are fully and clearly dealt 

 with, as also his other efforts on behalf of education in this country and abroad. 



In some respects the last four chapters, entitled respectively, " Later Years," 

 " Views on Education," " Notes on Travel," and " The End," are perhaps the most 

 interesting in the book. 



Sir W. Ramsay was always a strenuous opponent of purely competitive 

 examinations, and, in particular, he hated "the further abuse of awarding scholar- 

 ships as the results of examinations. The pauperisation of the richer classes is a 

 crying evil ; it must some day be cured Let scholarships be awarded to those 

 who need them, not to those whose fathers can well afford to pay for the education 

 of their children. ' Pot-hunting : and philosophy have absolutely nothing in 

 common." 



Further, he placed the utmost emphasis upon the need for original investi- 

 gation. " I would give a degree for investigation. It isn't the originality so much 

 that is required ; it is the training in methods of thought and means of executing 

 and realising ideas. That is what tells in life." " It is our carelessness in this 

 respect (of research) . . . which has made us so backward as compared with some 



