CHAPTEE IV 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 1887 TO 1894 



IT is unnecessary in these pages to relate the history of 

 the college and university to which, in 1887, Ramsay 

 was called. But it is necessary to recall the fact that 

 the chair of chemistry in University College had been 

 occupied from the first by professors of the highest 

 rank and of world-wide reputation. The first occupant 

 of the chair was Edward Turner, F.R.S., the author of 

 a work, The Elements of Chemistry, which in its day was 

 regarded as authoritative. He died in 1837 and was 

 succeeded by Thomas Graham. Graham's name is 

 famous in the history of chemistry, for until quite 

 recent times existing knowledge of gaseous and liquid 

 diffusion and the phenomena connected with the ab- 

 sorption of gases by colloids and by metals was derived 

 entirely from Graham's experimental researches. Graham 

 was the first President of the Chemical Society, which 

 was founded in 1841. In 1855 his connection with the 

 College came to an end, as he was appointed to succeed 

 Sir John Herschel as Master of the Mint. But a few 



years earlier, while continuing his lectures, the practical 



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