PKEFACE 



EVERY reader of this volume will at once perceive that 

 its compilation would have been impossible but for the 

 active co-operation of many friends. Foremost among 

 them was, of course, Lady Ramsay, who has not only 

 placed at the disposal of the writer the immense collec- 

 tion of letters preserved by herself and by members of 

 the family on both sides, but she has contributed many 

 facts and incidents, and with her own pen has set down 

 her recollections of the journeys taken with her husband 

 to the West and to the East. 



The source of quotations inserted in the text has been 

 indicated in each case, but the writer is under special 

 obligations for the use of correspondence and for in- 

 teresting recollections of early days in Ramsay's life to 

 Mr. H. B. Fyfe, of Glasgow, his life-long friend and legal 

 adviser, and to Sir James Bobbie, his early pupil and 

 associate in chemical research, also to Professor Sydney 

 Young, Ramsay's assistant at Bristol and colleague in 

 research during a period of some seven years, while 

 Professor Hicks, of Sheffield, has kindly supplied much 

 information relative to the progress of the movement 



