6 3 6 



NA TURE 



[November i i, 192: 



The Ramsay Memorial 



IT is a somewhat inhuman trait among British men 

 of science, and in particular among chemists, that 

 they have not sufficiently secured public honour lor 

 their Fathers who spiritually begat them. Boyle's 

 resting-place is unknown, and there is no express 

 memorial to him in the Royal Society, of which he 

 was the greatest founder; and to the chief of his 

 chemical successors, however well remembered in the 

 records of their science, tangible monuments for the 

 most part exist only where purely local pride has 

 preserved or erected them. The ceremony of November 

 3, therefore, when a medallion tablet in memory of Sir 

 William Ramsay was unveiled in Westminster Abbey, was 

 a most welcome manifestation of a world-wide tribute. 



The British nation at 

 large was represented 

 in the person of H.R.II. 

 the Duke of York (the 

 Prince of Wales being 

 prevented by a riding 

 mishap) : Sir Charles 

 Sherringti in, president 

 of the Royal Society, 

 stood for British 

 science, together with 

 a large gathering which 

 included many of its 

 foremost followers ; 

 Prof. Le Chatelier came 

 from Paris as president 

 of the Academy of 

 Sciences ; while the 

 presence of the am- 

 bassadors and ministers 

 of no fewerthan twenty- 

 one countries attested 

 the far-reaching fame of 

 Ramsay's achieve- 

 ments. Lady Ramsay 

 was present, with Mr. 

 W. G. Ramsay, and 1 >r. 

 and Mrs. H. L. Tidy 

 and their children. A 

 short choral service 

 was held in the nave, 

 during which the Duke 

 ol York unveiled the tablet and offered it to the Dean, 

 who in dedicating it referred to the panels commemora- 

 tive of Joule, Kelvin, Hooker. Darwin, and Lister, 

 among which it is to be permanently set. The medallion 

 was provided from the Ramsay Memorial Fund. 



This fund, begun in 1917, consists of nearly 58,000/. 

 raised by private subscription all over the world ; 

 and the capitalised value of the additional endowments 

 by Dominion and foreign governments is as much 

 again. Eleven Ramsay Fellowships, each of annual 

 value at least 300/., enable promising research-studenl 

 to come to carry on work in any selected chemical 

 laboratory in Britain, from Canada, France, Switzer- 

 land, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark. Spain, 

 Holland, and Japan : and there are also British Ramsay 

 Fellowships, including one specially connected with 

 Glasgow, Ramsay's alma mater. From the remainder 

 of the fund, 25.000/. is being devoted to a laboratory 



NO. 2767, VOL. I io] 



in Westminster Abbey. 



of chemical engineering at University College, London, 

 where Ramsay taught and worked for 26 years ; there, 

 also, an annual Ramsay medal has been founded. 



The Abbey bronze, which was executed by Mr. 

 C. L. Hartwell, A.R.A.. is illustrated in the accompany- 

 ing photograph (Fig. i). The artist has been compelled, 

 owing to the nature of the only position available 

 in the Abbey, to give to the eyes a downcast expression 

 which in life they rarely assumed. Probably no 

 medium could convey the inward and outward sparkle 

 which lit Ramsay's eyes under their characteristically 

 lifted brows : and his open glance and the quick 

 charm of his smile defy portrayal. 



As a chemist, Ramsay had three great gifts in 

 nearly equal degree : 

 boldness of imagination, 

 amazing audacity in 

 conceiving experiments, 

 and extraordinary/ con- 

 structional and mani- 

 pulative deftness in 

 carrying them out. Of 

 his earlier researches 

 the importance is ex- 

 emplified by his dis- 

 covery of the nature 

 of Brownian movement, 

 by the work embodied 

 in the Ramsay-Young 

 equation, and by that 

 which gave the Ramsay- 

 Eotvos method for 

 measuring molecular 

 association in liquids. 

 In 1S04. he alone of 

 chemists had the cour- 

 age to see in Rayleigh's 

 abnormal nitrogen-den- 

 sities the indication of 

 a new atmospheric ele- 

 ment and to seek it 

 and find it ; his dis- 

 covery of helium came 

 as a dramatic reward 

 for a search after 

 further sources of 

 argon ; and with the advent of liquid air he, 

 with Travers, drove on with irresistible impetus to 

 the detection and isolation of neon, krypton, and 

 xenon. Only Berzelius has discovered as many new 

 elements ; no one but Ramsay has laid lure a complete 

 and unforeseen group. In radioactivity he found 

 fresh scope ; and the experimental proof that helium 

 is generated during radioactive change founded the 

 era of the transmutation of elements. Possibly the 

 finest example of his skill was given when, with 

 Whytlaw - Gray, he measured the density of one- 

 thousandth of a milligram of gaseous radium-emana- 

 tion — the last member of his own group of inert gases. 

 Like Priestley and Davy, Ramsay opened up a new 

 world for science : and physics, chemistry, and even 

 astronomy are enriched, not alone by the discoveries 

 which he made, but also by the methods which he 

 devised and so freely handed on to others. I. M. 



