UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 111 



the scene of the usual " bear-garden." By the end of 

 the first term, however, he reduced the class to order 

 and never afterwards had further trouble. 



With regard to the purely chemical students Ramsay 

 was always anxious to encourage original investigation 

 and in many cases allowed them to enter on research 

 before they had secured the Bachelor degree. This 

 naturally interfered with their general reading, and as 

 candidates at the degree examination they sometimes 

 did badly. But the following extract from a letter to 

 Professor Worthington, dated 12th November, 1888, 

 shows what was Ramsay's own state of mind : " My 

 classes are in good order and work well. I am therefore 

 happy so far as they go. We have just had five men 

 through the B.Sc. Of these four are going in for honours 

 next week, and when they have been sufficiently tortured, 

 they will begin research. So now we are in a fair way 

 to get a ' school.' " This letter was dated from " 12 

 Arundel Gardens, W.," which was to be the home of 

 the Ramsays, with their two children, for some fifteen 

 years. 



The following year Worthington was Professor of 

 Physics in the Royal Naval Engineering College, Devon- 

 port, and negotiations were started with the object of 

 joint holiday arrangements between the two families. 

 On 30th June, 1889, Ramsay wrote : 



" The order of nature should have been so adjusted that our 

 holidays might fall contemporaneously. You must get them to 

 alter. Ours are like the holidays of the Medes and Persians. By 



