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^rofcssar ®HImm 5a:msan, 



Ph.D., F.R.S. 



PROFESSOR WILLIAM RAMSAY, Ph.D., F.R.S., 

 was born at Glasgow, Oct. 2, 1852 ; his grandfather 

 was a manufacturing chemist ; his father, William Ramsay, 

 was an engineer, and his mother, Catherine Robertson, was 

 the daughter of Archibald Robertson, M.D., an Edinburgh 

 physician. He married Margaret Buchanan in 1881. The 

 celebrated geologist, Sir Andrew C. Ramsay, was his uncle. 



William Ramsay was educated at the Glasgow Academy 

 until his fifteenth year, and at the Glasgow University from 

 1867 to 1870. He then proceeded to Tiibingen and studied 

 chemistry under Professor Fittig until 1872, when he 

 graduated Ph.D. From 1872 to 1874 he acted as Chief 

 Assistant to the "Young " Chair of Technical Chemistry in 

 Anderson's College, Glasgow; and from 1874 to 1880 as 

 " Tutorial " Assistant to the Chemical Professor in Glasgow 

 University. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry in 

 University College, Bristol, in 1880, and Principal of the 

 College in 1881. He was President of the Bristol Natural- 

 ists' Society from 1884 to 1887. In the latter year Pro- 

 fessor Williamson resigned the Chair of Chemistry in 

 University College, London, and Professor Ramsay was 

 appointed his successor. 



Professor Ramsay was elected a Member of the Berlin 

 Chemical Society in 1872, a Fellow of the London Chemical 



