38 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



not in the present case accompanied by the usual dedica- 

 tion to parents or friends : 



"In presenting this Dissertation to a highly-distinguished 

 Faculty as candidate for the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences, 

 I take the opportunity of conveying my thanks to Professor 

 Fittig for having suggested the subject and assisted in the work 

 described in this paper and for his great kindness to me during 

 my stay at the University of Tubingen." 



The Autobiography records his obligations, not only 

 to the professor, but to Wilhelm Stadel and Ira Remsen, 

 his assistants, as well as to fellow-students Peter Romer, 

 Emil Kachel, Bottinger and Riigheimer. Professor 

 Remsen has supplied the following short account of the 

 days at Tubingen. In the accompanying letter to Lady 

 Ramsay he adds : 



" After all it must be remembered that your husband was a 

 boy at that time only 18 when he came to Tubingen and I 

 was not far removed from boyhood, so that the things I recall 

 of those days are the things that interest boys for the most part. 

 We were at the beginning of our lives with hopes, with aspirations, 

 with some anxiety for the future, with doubts, and yet I do not 

 remember that we ever discussed such matters. I am thankful 

 for the fact that the lives of our group of English-speaking 

 students were wholesome. They were not goody-goody as a 

 rule, but they were not in any sense bad. They were healthy 

 boys with lots to learn and a strong desire to learn. 



TtJBINGEN DAYS 



In looking over recently some letters from my old friend, 

 Ramsay, I came upon one dated March 23rd, 1904, that began 

 with these words : ' Who would have thought when you opened 



