188 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



staff and students, who thoughtfully provided a replica, 

 which on the same occasion was presented to Lady 

 Ramsay. Another portrait, by Mr. Dick Peddie, was 

 a gift to the family by Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratan 

 Tata, sons of the founder of the Indian Institute at 

 Bangalore. It was painted in the winter of 1915-16. 



In the previous summer (1913) Ramsay had been 

 to Birmingham to attend the meeting of the British 

 Association and afterwards for a week to Brussels, 

 where he presided over the International Association of 

 Chemical Societies. He wrote 



" it was very hard work conducting affairs in three languages ; 

 but it went off all right, and we separated having done a good 

 deal of useful work." 



A letter of 29th December shows that he had been 

 working at polonium and among other things 



" I am grinding away at old Black's x letters ; I am going to 

 publish a book with Constable ; a short life ; an amplification of 

 the discourse I gave in 1 904. 2 Some of the letters are very interest- 

 ing. Time doesn't hang hea^y on my hands ; to-day I had two 

 hours of proofs of a 2d edition of one of my books in German." 



On the 19th July, 1914, he wrote, " we are now 

 fairly settled in and have some idea of how our new 

 life will pan out." Alas for the vanity of human wishes 

 and anticipations ! The same letter on another page 

 announces that 



" We are going to Havre on Saturday. Do you remember I 

 went on there after the ever memorable visit of Smith, Marshall, 



1 This was, of course, Joseph Black, Professor of Chemistry in the Uni 

 versity of Edinburgh, 1766 to 1797. 



2 In Glasgow. 



