VI 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
Professor William Dittmar. By Professor Crum Brown, 
(Read June 19, 1893.) 
William Dittmar was born at Umstadt, near Darmstadt, 15tb April 
1833. He was the second son of Fritz Dittmar, then Assessor 
at Umstadt, afterwards Landrichter at Ulrichstein in Oher-Hessen, 
where his attitude towards the revolutionary party, in 1848, led to 
his retiring on a pension. He removed to Darmstadt, where 
William was apprenticed to the “ Hof-Apotheker.” After passing 
the “ Gehulfe Examen ” with distinction, he went to Miihlhausen, 
where for several years he served as assistant. He returned to 
Darmstadt for the Staats-Examen in Pharmacy, which he passed 
with distinction. 
He then went to Heidelberg to work in Bunsen’s laboratory, 
where he was soon appointed assistant. Sir Henry Eoscoe invited 
him to Manchester as his private assistant, and, on his appointment 
as Professor of Chemistry in the Owens College, took Dittmar with 
him as assistant. In 1861 he became chief assistant in the 
Chemical Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh, under Lord 
Playfair. In 1869 he went to Bonn, where he acted first as “ pri vat- 
docent,” and afterwards as Lecturer on Meteorology at the Agricultural 
College at Poppelsdorf. In 1872 he declined the offer of the Chair 
of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School at Cassel, and returned to 
his old post in Edinburgh. In 1873 he was appointed Lecturer on 
Practical and Technical Chemistry in the Owens College, and in 
1874 succeeded Professor Thorpe as Professor of Chemistry in 
Anderson’s College, Glasgow. This office he held till his death, 
9th February 1892. On that morning he lectured, but not feeling 
very well, went home in the middle of the day, and, after a few 
hours’ illness, died at 11.30. He was a Fellow of this Society 
since 1863, and of the Eoyal Society of London since 1882. In 
1887 the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of 
LL.D. In 1891 the Philosophical Society of Glasgow awarded 
him the Graham medal for his investigation into the quantitative 
composition of water. 
