UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 105 



and somewhat disagreeable circumstances, for Ramsay 

 found in the laboratories the accumulated residues of 

 forty years. Professor Williamson seems never to have 

 allowed anything to be thrown away, and the remains 

 of, for example, the preparation of chlorine had been 

 stored in dozens of jars and bottles with what object 

 no one can now explain. There were also hundreds 

 of paper packages covered with dust and without 

 labels, all of which, amounting to several cart-loads, 

 had to be, examined and cleared away by the new 

 professor and the new assistant whom he had invited 

 to join him. 1 



The students were chiefly medical, and very large 

 classes were preparing for the examination of the Con- 

 joint Board. In the general laboratory there were 

 only about half-a-dozen, but there was another labora- 

 tory, the Birkbeck Laboratory 2 for Chemical Techno- 

 logy, occupied by Dr. Graham. This occupation, how- 

 ever, came to an end two years later when Dr. Graham 

 retired and the laboratory was then devoted to the use 

 of pathology and botany. Mr. Watson Smith was then 

 appointed to succeed Graham, merely as Lecturer in 

 Chemical Technology. This lectureship was abolished 

 in 1894. 



1 J. Norman Collie had been engaged in teaching chemistry at the 

 Ladies College, Cheltenham. He came up to University College in October 

 1887, and, with the exception of six years (from 1896 to 1902) as Professor 

 to the Pharmaceutical Society, he has remained ever since. Since 190 

 Dr. Collie has been University Professor of Organic Chemistry. 



2 Founded in memory of Dr. Birkbeck. 



