UNIVEKSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 103 



chemistry instruction in the laboratory was relinquished 

 by him and was placed under the direction of George 

 Fownes, F.K.S., then Professor of Chemistry to the 

 Pharmaceutical Society. Fownes did a good deal of 

 interesting experimental research, but the work by 

 which he was known to many generations of students was 

 his familiar Manual of Chemistry, which in one volume 

 provided all the instruction in physics, as well as inorganic 

 and organic chemistry, which in those days was regarded 

 as sufficient for the majority. Fownes died in 1849 and 

 was succeeded by Alexander Williamson, who six years 

 later was appointed to the chair of chemistry on the 

 resignation of Graham. Williamson was known per- 

 sonally to many of the present generation, and there are 

 still among us a not inconsiderable numberof his students. 

 Williamson, like Graham, was a philosophical chemist, 

 whose mind was occupied with deep and broad views 

 concerning the constitution of matter and the nature of 

 chemical action. Williamson's most famous experi- 

 mental research related to the constitution of the ethers 

 and involved his favourite ideas concerning atomic 

 movement. The theory of types has long since gone 

 the way of all theories, but in its day the introduction 

 of the water type by Williamson was an event of first- 

 rate importance, which facilitated the classification of 

 many compounds and reactions. It was immediately 

 adopted into use by the most active of the contemporary 

 chemists, of whom Gerhardt, Odling and Kekule were 

 among the most distinguished. Williamson's influence 



