62 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



by letters which have been preserved, some addressed to 

 his parents and some by the same friend. In 1876 the 

 British Association met in Glasgow, and Ramsay's name 

 appears for the first time in the list as an annual sub- 

 scriber, but no communication from him is recorded. 

 The following year he attended a meeting of the Associ- 

 ation Frangaise pour PAvaneement des Sciences at 

 Havre. The following letter to his friend Dobbie gives 

 an account of his doings : 



"LE HAVRE, 

 Monday, the Something or other August, 1877. 



MY DEAR DOBBIE, 



Some fool of a Frenchman has stolen all the paper 

 belonging to the French Association, and has left only this half 

 sheet with Le Havre at the top. From the preceding sentence 

 you will have already guessed that the French Ass. is capering 

 around Havre at present, that I form one of the distinguished 

 foreign members, and that all is going as merrily as a marriage 

 bell. Voici 5 jours that I find myself here. I went to Paris 

 with three spirits more wicked than myself, lawyers a fearful 

 compound 3 lawyers l and a chemist, just like NC1 3 for all the 

 world, liable to explode at any moment. Their names were 

 Mr. Smith from London and two others with less aristocratic 

 designations. I shall sum up all our exploits shortly thus 

 Sleep, grub and amusement, such was the programme. I 

 called on Wurtz, Schutzenberger, Silva and others and heard 

 that there would be no chance of my doing anything in Paris, 

 and that all the chemists would be absent at Havre. So as I 

 was a fortnight too soon I accompanied my friends to Havre, 



1 These were H. B. Fyfe, Guthrie Smith and Charles MacLean. See- 

 Mr. Fyfe's notes, Chapter 1. p. 22. 



