WILLIAMSON.
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liam Henry Cary ; and secondly, in 1865, to Elizabeth, daughter of the late Sir Robert Lush, Justice of the Court of Appeal.
WILLIAMSON, Alexander William, Ph.D., F.E.S., LL.D. Dublin and Edinburgh, born May 1, 1821, -was educated chiefly in his father's house, by masters in Lon- don, Paris, and Dijon, and for a very short time at Kensington Grammar-school, and at foreign schools. From the age of seven- teen he studied in the Universities of Heidelberg and Giessen, under Gmelin and Liebig. At Giessen he published his first chemical re- searches. He afterwards spent three years in Paris studying the higher mathematics. While in Paris he was in frequent intercourse with several of the leading French che- mists. In 1849 he was appointed Professor of Practical Chemistry in University College, London; and, in 1855, on the retirement of Pro- fessor Graham from the chair of Chemistry in the same college, in consequence of his appointment as Master of the Mint, Dr. Williamson was chosen to succeed him in that office, while still retaining the chair of Practical Chemistry. He still retains both chairs. Soon after his first appointment at University Col- lege, Professor Williamson pub- lished his researches on " Etherifi- cation and the Constitution of Salts." The result of these re- searches had a considerable influ- ence on the theories of chemical action, and have been since adopted by the chief English and foreign chemists . For these important and successful labours the Royal Medal of the Royal Society was awarded to the eminent investigator in 1862. He has twice been President of the Chemical Society. In 1873 he was elected President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the annual meeting being held at Bradford. The same year he was elected Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, a Corresponding
Member of the French Academy, and a Fellow of the Berlin Chemi- cal Society. In 1874 he was elected Treasurer of the British Associa- tion, on the retirement of Mr. Spot- tiswoode. In Nov., 1875, the Royal Academy of Science at Berlin elected him a corresponding member of the Section of Physics and Mathema- tics. He was appointed member of the Senate of the University of London, on a vacancy being caused by the death of Dr. Neil Amott. In April, 1876, he was appointed Chief Gas Examiner to the City of London, in. the place of the late Dr. Letheby . The University of Dublin conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1878. The Uni- versity of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of LL.D. since. Pro- fessor Williamson took an active part in promoting the establishment of degrees of science at the University of London j and for some years held, conjointly with the late Professor Wm. Allen Miller, the office of Examiner in Chemistry. He has written " Chemistry for Students" (Clarendon Press series); various papers on " Etherification ;" " The Development of Difference the Basis of Unity," being the inaugural lec- ture to the Faculty of Arte at Uni- versity College on his appointment there in 1849; "On the Atomic Theory ; " " The Composition of the Gases evolved by the Bath Spring called King's Bath" (see British Association Proceedings, 1865) ; a pai)er "On a New Method of Gas Analysis," jointly with W. J. Rus- seU, Ph.D. ; " On the Unit Volume of Gases;" "On the Classification of the Elements in relation to their Atomicities," a Friday evening lec- ture given at the Royal Institution, April 29, 1864; "Experimental Science the Basis of General Edu- cation," a lecture given at Univer- sity College ; " A Plea for Pure Science," being the inaugural lec- ture at the opening of the Faculty of Science ; "Address to the British Association, at Bradford, 1873. 4 B 2
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