CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 5 



interest in chemistry reached far beyond these limits. In 1800 

 he founded the Chemical Society of Glasgow, into which, by the 

 energy of his example and the kindly courtesy of his manner, 

 he brought those of his fellow-citizens who were interested in 

 the progress of theoretical as well as practical chemistry. He 

 was chosen first President, and among his associates were the 

 well-remembered chemist and mineralogist Thomas Thomson, 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Glasgow University, and Walter 

 Crum of Thornliebank. Two years later, on the foundation of 

 a wider brotherhood of science by the establishment of the 

 Philosophical Society of Glasgow, the Chemical Society was 

 voluntary dissolved. . . . William Ramsay's reputation as a 

 chemist spread outside his own country. His house was one 

 of the attractions to foreign chemists who came to Glasgow, and 

 even long after his death his widow received visits from such 

 men as Liebig, who remembered her husband's meritorious 

 work." 



There is evidence that this William Ramsay had a 

 distinct inclination toward experimental investigation, 

 for the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, compiled by the 

 Royal Society of London, contains the titles of three 

 papers under his name, as follows : 



1. On the Solubility of some of the Earths by means of Sugar. 

 Nicholson's Journal, 1807. 



2. On Culinary Salt, with the means of purifying it from 

 substances which contaminate its qualities. Highland Society 1 s 

 Transactions, 1816. 



3. On the Antiseptic Power of Pyroligneous Acid. Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Journal, 1820. 



" In the year 1809 William Ramsay married Elizabeth Crombie, 

 a second cousin of his own, daughter of Mr. Andrew Crombie, 

 writer in Edinburgh. The Crombies, like the Ramsays, had for 



