ESSAY-REVIEWS 321 



other nations. It is this which has made the vast majority of our statesmen so 

 careless, because so ignorant of the whole frame of mind of the philosopher ; and 

 which has made it possible for men, high in the political estimation of their 

 countrymen, to misconceive the functions of a university." 



Ramsay always placed great weight upon the necessity for encouraging 

 research both in the universities and in industry, and it is very probable that the 

 scheme for founding a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship would have met with his 

 warm approval. 



His views are becoming more and more accepted, and there is yet hope that 

 we may in time produce statesmen and politicians with clear realisations as to the 

 country's needs and, what is more important, with definite scientific plans for 

 carrying them into effect. 



An omission we note in the book is the absence of reference to certain of Sir 

 W. Ramsay's last public acts ; one, the letter to the Times at the beginning of the 

 war, on the cotton controversy, in which he emphasised the necessity for cutting 

 off Germany's supply of cotton for explosives, a question in which he and his old 

 friend, Sir W. Macara, played a prominent part ; another — omitted, perhaps, 

 owing to the modesty of the author — namely, the speech made at a lecture given 

 by Sir W. Tilden in 191 5 on the supply of chemicals to Great Britain, in which 

 Ramsay discussed the unprincipled business methods of the Germans and the 

 necessity for combatting them ; and, lastly, an address on " The National 

 Organisation of Science," given before the British Science Guild in July 191 5. 

 They were probably his last public utterances, and show us, if indeed we needed to 

 be shown, that in him we have lost, not only a great scientist, but a man of clear- 

 visioned statesmanship, seeking, above all, the welfare and progress of his 

 country. 



