July 13, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



31 



A committee has been formed with the object of 

 raising a suitable memorial to the late Professor 

 Sir William Eamsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., by collecting 

 a substantial fund to be utilized for the purpose of 

 promoting chemical teaching and research. 



The committee, after prolonged and careful con- 

 sideration, has resolved to aim at raising a sum of 

 £100,000, and to devote that sum to two principal 

 objects, viz.: 



1. The provision of Eamsay research fellowships, 

 tenable wherever the necessary equipment may be 

 found. 



2. The establishment of a Ramsay Memorial Lab- 

 oratory of Engineering Chemistry in connection 

 with University College, London. 



We should hesitate to ask for so large a sum of 

 money in such exceptionally diiEcult times, were it 

 not that the objects specified are objects of real 

 and urgent national importance. The war has 

 demonstrated in a manner previously unrealized 

 the supreme importance of scientific, and, in par- 

 ticular chemical, research to the national life, both 

 in the conduct of the war and in the pursuits of 

 industry and manufacture. 



The late Sir William Ramsay was himself en- 

 gaged up to within a comparatively short time of 

 his death in various important problems concerned 

 with the bearing of chemistry upon the war, and no 

 one realized more completely than he the poten- 

 tialities of the plans which have since been formu- 

 lated by this committee as a memorial to him. 



It is important that the fund should be raised 

 speedily, so that the plans for the laboratory of 

 engineering chemistry and the scheme for the 

 award of fellowships may be prepared before the 

 end of the war, and so that both schemes may 

 begin to operate with as little delay as possible 

 after the return of peace. 



Accordingly, we desire, through the columns of 

 your paper, to appeal to friends and admirers of 

 the late Sir WiDiam Ramsay, to old students, and 

 to all persons who are interested in chemistry and 

 its application to industry and manufacture, to 

 contribute to this great national and international 

 memorial to the late Sir WUliam Ramsay, and to 

 send their subscriptions to the honorable treasurers 

 of the Ramsay Memorial Fund at University Col- 

 lege, London, W.C.I. 



H. H. ASQUITH, 



D. Llotd George, 



Gainfoed, 



Rayleigh, 



Eeay, 



eosebery, 



H. A. L. Fisher, 



J. J. Thomson, 



President; 



- Vice-presidents; 



Hugh Bell Chairman of the Execu- 



' tive Committee; 



Glenconnek, Treasurer. 



It is stated in Nature that the sum already- 

 subscribed by Eamsay's friends, and through 

 their private efforts, amounts to more than 

 £1-1,000. This includes the generous gift of 

 £5,000 from Messrs. Brunner, Mond, Ltd.; 

 £1,000 each from Lord Glenconner, Sir Hugh 

 Bell, Sir Ealph 0. Forster, Sir Eobert Had- 

 field, Mr. Eobert Mond, and Mr. J. B. Noble; 

 and £500 each from the president of the 

 British Science Guild (Sir William Mather), 

 Mr. Charles Hawksley, and Miss Lilias Noble. 



A memorial tablet, including a medallion 

 portrait of Eamsay, is to be erected in the 

 University of Glasgow, of which he was a 

 graduate and teacher. The TJniversity Court 

 has arranged that the memorial, which is de- 

 signed by Sir John J. Burnet, shall be placed 

 in a conspicuous position at the entrance to 

 the Bute Hall. 



SMITHSONIAN BOTANICAL EXPEDITIONS 



A RECENT pamphlet on the field-work con- 

 ducted by and for the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion states that, while carrying on botanical 

 explorations in Venezuela last fall. Dr. J. N. 

 Eose, associate curator of plants in the 

 National Muse\mi, secured some interesting 

 specimens of " sabadilla," a Venezuelan plant 

 of the lily family, from the seeds of which 

 are produced some of the asphyxiating and 

 tear-producing gases used in the present war. 



The specimens were secured by Dr. Eose 

 through the cooperation of Consul Homer 

 Brett, La Guaira, Venezuela, who stated in a 

 report of the Department of Commerce, some 

 time ago, that this plant is known locally as 

 " cevadilla," a diminutive of the Spanish word 

 " cebada," meaning barley, and occurs in 

 Venezuela and Mexico. Its highly poisonous 

 seeds have long been used in medicine. The 

 substances produced from sabadilla seed are 

 cavadine, or crystallized veratrin, an alkaloid; 

 veratric acid, and sabadilline, a heart stimu- 

 lant. 



Neither the consular report nor the Smith- 

 sonian pamphlet gives the formula for the 

 manufacture of the war gases, but it is stated 



