116 Henry Riddell on 



knowledge of his kind heart or of his eagerness to help a willing 

 student. It was his habit, after every lecture, to remain for a 

 short time at the table to answer any questions students might 

 come to ask him, and I always took advantage of this opportunity. 

 In my time his lectures were models of what was needed. 

 Thorough, in that they dealt with every essential, but not 

 redundant, beautifully clear and illustrated with well chosen 

 experiments always thoroughly prepared and always successful. 

 He suffered somewhat from the kindness of his heart in that he 

 was never able to show that outward sternness which is so 

 needful to keep discipline in a class of youths. There was in 

 my time no general teaching of Practical Chemistry. The 

 accommodation for laboratory work was so scanty that it was 

 necessary to select the few pupils by examination, there being 

 also a possibility of obtaining admission by payment of a heavy 

 fee, which I do not remember to have been much availed of. In 

 this laboratory work I learned to know Andrews thoroughly and 

 to have a great regard and affection for him. He never spent 

 more than a few minutes at a time in our laboratory, but it was 

 the frequent visits which I was allowed to make to his own room 

 in which lay the charm and the delight of my time there. He 

 used often to call me up to help him to set up some piece of 

 apparatus, and I have always been sure he never needed the 

 assistance he called for, that it was his plan to help a man he 

 knew to be anxious to learn. I had many interesting and 

 enlightening conversations with him. I remember on one occasion 

 a whole morning spent in his room' discussing his work and some 

 chemical problems. I asked him if he accepted the idea that all 

 elements had atomic weights with simple numerical )-elation to 

 that of Hydrogen. He said that this could not be unreservedly 

 accepted, as accurate determinations did not support it. At the 

 same time he thought there was evidence that some intimate 

 connection existed. "We physicists,'" he said, I quote the word 

 as illustrating his position, "We physicists look to the future to 

 show that all the elements are built up from the same primordial 



