106 SIR WILLIAM KAMSAY 



When Ramsay first came to University College the 

 number of lectures to be given was very great, as women, 

 medical students and others had separate lecture courses, 

 and consequently the same preliminary lectures had to 

 be given three times over in the session. At this time 

 the Assistant Professor of Chemistry (apart from Tech- 

 nology) was Dr. Richard T. Plimpton. Ramsay was 

 fortunate in having such a man as Dr. Plimpton as 

 chief assistant when he first came. Plimpton was a 

 first-rate teacher, and many of the students of those 

 early days owe a great debt to him for the excellent 

 grounding he gave them in analytical chemistry. 1 



After Ramsay's first session at University College the 

 women students, for whom separate instruction in 

 chemistry had previously been given, were admitted to 

 the same lectures as the men. This was quite in accord- 

 ance with Ramsay's views about the position of women 

 in relation to science. And a few years later, when a 

 somewhat acute controversy arose in the Chemical 

 Society on the subject of admitting women, Ramsay was 

 of the party which would have opened the door to women 

 as well as men on precisely equal terms. 



The two assistants at University College in 1887 were 

 Dr. Samuel Rideal and Dr. J. N. Collie. An additional 

 assistant was not appointed till 1891, when Mr. C. F. 

 Baker, B.Sc., was chosen. He was succeeded in 1892 

 by Mr. H. W. Picton, B.Sc., and both were replaced 



1 In 1894 Plimpton was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry at the Middle- 

 sex Hospital Medical School. He died suddenly on 21st December, 1899. 



