294 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



discovered to have falsified the books and to have mis- 

 appropriated moneys entrusted to him. After his defal- 

 cations were discovered Ramsay, fearing he might con- 

 template suicide, went to see him at his house, urged 

 him to make a clean breast of it, and afterwards did 

 everything in his power to win him back to ways of 

 honesty and give him a fresh start in life. Two other 

 cases of a similar kind may be mentioned. One was 

 that of a friend who met with misfortune in business, 

 took to drink, and gradually sank in the social scale. 

 He emigrated subsequently to America. Many people 

 would have been glad to be quit of a friend who might 

 have become very troublesome. That was not Ramsay's 

 way. When he visited America he sought him out and 

 did what was possible to relieve him. The other was a 

 case of matrimonial trouble. The husband was the 

 flagrant offender. He occupied a good position origin- 

 ally, which he forfeited in consequence of the irregular 

 habits into which he fell. Ramsay spared neither time nor 

 trouble in his efforts to reclaim him, and that at a time 

 when he was immersed in his researches and in university 

 business. Other cases are known to his friends, but 

 for obvious reasons details cannot be given in these 

 pages. But to omit notice of these facts would be to 

 do less than justice to this fine feature of Ramsay's 

 character. He was always on the side of the weaker 

 brethren and ready to take the trouble, from which so 

 many others shrink, to sustain by words of sympathy 

 and to give the practical help, without which words too 



