176 SIR WILLIAM KAMSAY 



are the men who after a few years should readily find 

 employment as works chemists. 



As to the professor, he should know what every man 

 in the laboratory is doing, and it is obvious therefore 

 that the number of workers he can supervise is limited ; 

 Ramsay put the number at 40 or 50. Of course there 

 is nothing to prevent his lecturing to a much larger 

 number. The greater part of his time should be given 

 to research, and this consideration leads to a review of 

 the methods of selecting among candidates for such 

 appointments, and generally to the government of 

 universities. He then proceeded to discuss the question 



to whether graduates only should be made assistants. 

 ''' The older I get the less I believe in university degrees 

 [ as a test of capacity." This utterance is obviously 

 connected with his objection to examinations which are 

 here reiterated. 



The address at St. Louis was entitled " Present 

 Problems of Inorganic Chemistry," and was printed in 

 full by the Smithsonian Institution. He therein 

 declares that 



" the fundamental task of inorganic chemistry is still connected 

 with the classification of elements and compounds. . . . What- 

 ever changes in our views may be concealed in the lap of the 

 future, the great generalisation due to Newlands, Lothar Meyer 

 and Mendeleeff will always retain a place, perhaps the prominent 

 place, in chemical science. 



Now it is certain that no attempt to reduce the irregular 

 regularity of the atomic weights to a mathematical expression 

 has succeeded ; and it is, in my opinion, very unlikely that any 



