AT THE UNIVERSITY 39 



the big, front door of the Tubingen laboratory in 1871 and in 

 answer to my question in questionable German " Konnen Sie 

 sagen wo ist die Vorlesungszimmer ? " you replied after a pause 

 " Oh, I guess you want the lecture-room," that I should now 

 write after 33 years to tell you .' This was one of his favorite 

 stories. I have heard him tell it in public and I have read it 

 in print. That is the way we first met, now 46 years ago. That 

 was the beginning of a life-long friendship. We met perhaps a 

 half dozen times in all these years, but we kept up a fairly active 

 correspondence until the last. I am now asked to give a little 

 account of the Tubingen days. 



In 1870, Fittig, with whom I had worked at Gottingen, was 

 called to Tubingen to succeed Strecker. He invited me to go 

 with him and to serve as one of his assistants. I accepted, and 

 so it came about that I was holding a minor place in the chemical 

 laboratory when Eamsay arrived. It has always been a source 

 of satisfaction to me that it was I who opened the ' big front 

 door ' for him. This fact gives me a feeling that I have been of 

 some service to chemistry. I remained in Tubingen until the 

 spring of 1872, so that our association was only for one year. 

 He came up for examination for the doctor's degree a year later, 

 but of this second year I know little and that is only hearsay. 



Ramsay began in the laboratory by working on a problem 

 which had been suggested to him by Tatlock at Glasgow, but he 

 soon put himself wholly under Fittig's direction. At that time 

 Fittig was still much interested in the aromatic compounds 

 which had given him his first success, and it is not surprising that 

 he should have proposed an investigation dealing with compounds 

 in this field. This had to do with the toluic acids. The results 

 furnished the basis for the dissertation which Ramsay presented 

 to the faculty in 1872. 



In the laboratory I had little to do with him, but out of the 

 laboratory our relations were intimate. I remember that a 

 little group of Englishmen, Scotchmen and Americans then 



