SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 545 
Water,” a subject far enough away from the matters of pure science 
with which he was supposed to be entirely occupied. 
He came willingly into our country. He loved it and counted 
there many friends who have many charming letters from him full 
of a natural simplicity. We have also the remembrance of the excel- 
lent lectures which he gave here on his discoveries. 
Before the war he had also many connections in Germany and 
was there the object of many flattering attentions. During the cele- 
bration of the centenary of the University of Berlin in 1910 the 
delegates of the universities of the whole world were invited for 
the principal ceremony. Ramsay represented the University of 
London. When the Kaiser entered the room with his whole fol- 
lowing, having perceived Ramsay, he stopped the cortege and went 
out of his way to take his hand. 
“The soul of Ramsay,” our colleague, Paul Sabatier, wrote in a 
beautiful study which he has consecrated to him, “the soul of 
Ramsay could not be conquered by such homage, and in many cir- 
cumstances before the war where I have been able to see him from 
near by, I have been sure of his deep distrust of Germany and of 
its inordinate ambitions.” This testimony can be completed by the 
well-known fact that Ramsay was one of the most resolute partisans 
of the “ Entente Cordiale.” 
German science, which he had seen at first hand, had never im- 
pressed him, and he passed on it the severest judgment. In the fine 
response which he addressed in October, 1914, to the manifesto of 
93 German scholars, these lines are found: “* * * Some Ger- 
man individuals have attained the highest summits and merit uni- 
versal admiration. But in spite of these brilliant exceptions, it can 
be said that originality has never been the characteristic of the Ger- 
man race; their special function has been to exploit inventions and 
to put to work the discoveries of others * * *;” and further, 
facing the necessary hypothesis of the complete destruction which 
the German power ought to suffer for the security of the world, he 
added: “* * * Would the progress of science be retarded? I 
do not think so. The greatest works in scientific thought are not 
due to representatives of the Germanic race; moreover, the early ap- 
plications of science do not come from them. As far as we are able 
to perceive, it seems that a restrictive measure on their activities 
would only have the effect of delivering the world from a deluge 
of mediocrities.” At the beginning of the war, during the tragic 
days of 1914, Ramsay was at Havre, where he attended with Lady 
Ramsay and his son the congress of the French Association for the 
Advancement of Science, presided over by M. Armand Gautier. He 
delivered a discourse at the opening session and was present at the 
