178 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



of Ramsay's, some of which he would no doubt have 

 stated somewhat differently at a later date in view of 

 the extension of knowledge which has taken place in 

 the twelve years which have elapsed since the lecture 

 at St. Louis. 



It was in the same year 1904 that Ramsay received 

 the Nobel prize for chemistry in the same year that 

 the Nobel prize for physics was awarded to Lord Ray- 

 leigh. It is perhaps appropriate to recall the fact that 

 names may be submitted to the Nobel Committee of 

 the Swedish Academy only by a strictly limited number 

 of persons, and a statement of the claims of the person 

 whose name is proposed involves the preparation of a 

 carefully considered document. There can be no impro- 

 priety now in mentioning that Ramsay's name was 

 proposed to the Swedish Committee by Lord Avebury, 

 as a member of the Swedish Academy, and the proposal 

 was supported by the signatures of the leading English 

 chemists. But it is probably not known generally in 

 this country that a separate and entirely independent 

 proposal was sent in to the Academy by Professor 

 B. Brauner, of Prague. The statement drawn up 

 by Professor Brauner occupied nine foolscap pages, 

 and gives evidence of the characteristic enthusiasm 

 of its author. Naturally he lays particular stress 

 on " the discovery of one whole missing group of 

 elements in the periodic system of Mendeleeff and 

 the production of helium from or through the radium 

 emanation." 



