532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
say was descended from ancestors well above the average intellectu- 
ally and in scientific pursuits, and he was well aware that he owed 
to them his calling and his ability as a chemist. 
Having begun his studies in his native city, Ramsay went to com- 
plete them in Germany, at first at Heidelberg, with Bunsen, and 
afterwards in Tubingen in the Fittig laboratory, where after some 
researches on the ammonia compounds of platinum, he studied the 
toluic acids. Organic chemistry attracted him by the flexibility of 
its combinations and the ingeniousness of its structural theories. On 
his return to Glasgow, where he secured a post as assistant, he stud- 
ied specially the pyridic group, doubtless attracted by the problem 
of the synthesis of the cinchona alkaloids. Let us recall the synthe- 
sis of pyridine itself by the direct union of cyanhydriec acid with 
acetylene, the production of the different pyridinic acids by the oxida- 
tion of the bases of Anderson, the production of the same acids (in 
collaboration with Dolbie) from quinine, from cinchonine, etc., an 
important observation which directly related these alkaloids to 
pyridine. 
In 1880, at the age of 28, given the title of professor of chemistry 
at the University of Bristol, Ramsay began, in collaboration with 
his assistant, S. Young, a series of works on physicochemistry which 
were not slow in being noticed. They had for an object the revision 
of the physicochemical properties of a certain number of liquid types, 
water, alcohols, ethers, hydrocarbons, etc., with a view especially of 
determining exactly the relation of these properties to the atomic or 
molecular weights. A vast field was thus explored: the densities of 
steam, the tensions of steam, thermic constants, dissociation, critical 
points were studied and many new and interesting observations were 
made. For the execution of so many delicate researches, all kinds 
of new apparatus had to be designed and constructed, with the re- 
sult, extremely fortunate for the following of his career, that Ram- 
say became a very adroit blower of glass. Many of these contrivances 
are to-day in every-day use in laboratories. — 
It was in 1887 that Ramsay was called to the University College 
at London, to succeed Williamson in that chair of chemistry already 
renowned, which he was by his efforts to make shine with a great 
light. For 30 years in fact, Ramsay was to display in this post of 
honor the most fertile and brilliant activity. His peculiar qualities 
as an experimenter and his originality stood out in striking relief in 
a work which he published in 1893 in collaboration with Shields. 
Following a remarkable series of researches on surface tensions and 
densities at different temperatures, Ramsay gave to science the first 
experimental method of determining the molecular weights of sub- 
stances in a liquid state. 
