132 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



It is perhaps not surprising that, during several 

 months following the announcement of the new gas, 

 the feeling generally prevalent in this country was one 

 of curiosity mingled with incredulity. This, however, 

 cannot be considered to justify such remarks as those of 

 the President of the Chemical Society at a meeting of 

 the Society on 6th December : 



" He ventured to say that Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay 

 now could not hope to keep so remarkable a discovery to them- 

 selves much longer. After having been told so much chemists 

 could not be expected to remain quiet under the imputation that 

 they had been eyeless during a whole century, and they would 

 undoubtedly enquire into the matter. Although no one would 

 seek to take the discovery out of the hands of those who had 

 announced it, chemists unquestionably had the right, not only 

 to exercise entire freedom of judgment, but also to critically 

 examine the statements which had been made." 



It may be safely asserted that an exhibition of such 

 impatience did not represent the feeling of the scientific 

 world in general. The discovery was accepted almost 

 immediately on the other side of the Atlantic, and the 

 Hodgkin Prize given by the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Washington was awarded to the authors before the end 

 of the year. 



In the meantime both Rayleigh and Ramsay were 

 hard at work on the numerous problems arising out of 

 the discovery and especially the remarkable properties 

 of the new gas. Lord Rayleigh had also collected a 

 quantity of the gas from the Bath springs, and already, 

 in October, they were discussing the date at which the 



