Obituaries. 
11 
1916-17.] 
mained seven years. From 1887 to 1913 he occupied the Chair of Chemistry 
in University College, London. He is most widely known for his investiga- 
tions into the properties of liquids and vapours, and in 1894 was associated 
with Lord Rayleigh in the discovery of the gas Argon — a new element in 
the air — the presence of which, however, is clearly shown in Cavendish’s 
Experiments of 1785. Ramsay also discovered in the air the element 
Helium, whose existence in the sun had been proved by spectroscopic 
evidence. In the course of further work on Argon other new atmospheric 
gases were discovered — Neon, Krypton, and Xenon. Sir William Ramsay 
was knighted in 1902, and received the Nobel Prize in 1904. He was the 
author of several books, including a work on The Gases of the Air. 
He was elected an Honorary Fellow of our Society in 1905, and died on 
July 23, 1916. 
Charles Rene Zeiller, Professor of Palseobotany in the National 
School of Mines, Paris, was one of the most distinguished workers in the 
field of fossil botany. In 1878 he published a volume on the plants of the 
French Coal Measures, and in 1903 two volumes on the Rhsetic Flora of 
Tonkin. He also added considerably to our knowledge of the Permo- 
Carboniferous Floras of South Africa, Brazil, and India. His skill as a 
morphologist is shown by his researches into the structure of the Palaeozoic 
fern Psaronius and the anatomy of Lepidostrobus. In 1909 he visited 
England for the first time to attend the Darwin Celebration at Cambridge, 
and received the LTniversity Honorary Degree. 
He was elected an Honorary Fellow of our Society in 1913, and died in 
December 1915. 
Sir Stair Agnew, K.C.B., a younger son of Sir Andrew Agnew, 7th 
Bt., was born in 1831. From Edinburgh University he proceeded to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as a Senior Optime in 
Mathematics in 1855. He rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race 
in 1854. For a short time he served in the army, but in 1860 was called 
to the Scottish Bar. He was appointed Queen’s Remembrancer in 1870, 
and in 1881 was appointed Registrar-General and Keeper of Records for 
Scotland. He retired in 1909. 
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1871, 
and on four different occasions served on the Council. His death took 
place at his residence in Edinburgh on July 12, 1916. 
Alexander Russell Brown, M.A., B.Sc., Captain K.O.S.B., was born at 
Longriggend, Lanarkshire, in February 1889. He was educated at his 
