Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/689

 on his father's retirement from the India House. For some time he had private tuition at Dijon with his sister Antonia (b. 1822). In 1840 he entered Heidelberg University with a view to a medical career. He attended Friedrich Tiedemann's lectures in physiology and those of Leopold Gmelin in chemistry. Finally he decided to give up medicine for chemical research. Four years later he left to study chemistry under Liebig at Giessen University, going into residence with Prof. Hillebrand. He also joined Bischoff's classes in physiology. Williamson was of the opinion that the Giessen laboratory was the most efficient organisation for the promotion of chemistry that had ever existed (see Brit. Assoc. address, 1873). He graduated Ph.D. in 1846.

Willamson spent the next three years in Paris, studying mathematics with Auguste Comte. To his father he wrote, 'If my experience of Comte's superior powers were insufficient to convince you that his lessons were worth their price, John Stuart Mill's saying that he "would prefer him to any man in Europe to finish a scientific education," ought to carry the point and to induce you to consent to my continuing as I have begun.'

In 1849 he was appointed professor of practical chemistry in University College, London, succeeding [q. v.]. In 1855 this post was joined with the professorship of general chemistry, vacant by the resignation of his friend [q. v.]. Williamson occupied the chair for thirty-eight years, earning distinction as a teacher and instigator of research. In 1887 he retired and was made emeritus professor of chemistry (see Life and Experiences of Sir H. E. Roscoe, 1906; portrait of Williamson, and reminiscences). He delivered a farewell address on 14 June 1887, when Sir William Ramsay presided (Chemical News, 8 July 1887).

Owing to Williamson's scientific influence, force of character, and cosmopolitan outlook, he was chosen guardian of a small group of young Japanese noblemen, who came to England in 1863 with a view to familiarising themselves and their countrymen with European culture. Of five who first reached London three took up residence in Williamson's own house. Subsequently the Prince of Satsuma sent over sixteen more youths. The Marquis Ito, Count Inouye, and Viscount Yamao were among those who owed their early training to Williamson.

Williamson's published researches were comparatively few in number, but some of them were of such a character that they influenced profoundly the progress of chemical knowledge and philosophy. His chief chemical investigations were made between 1844 and 1859. While at Giessen he published three papers, which, though written for Liebig's 'Annalen,' appeared originally in the 'Memoirs of the Chemical Society of London' (1844-6). They were: 'On the Decomposition of Oxides and Salts by Chlorine'; 'Some Experiments on Ozone'; and 'On the Blue Compounds of Cyanogen and Iron.'

About 1849 he began his classical research on the theory of etherification, in which he laid the foundations of chemical dynamics, of the theory of ionisation, and of the theory of catalytic action. Embodied firstly in a communication to the British Association (Edinburgh meeting), 3 Aug. 1850, 'Results of a Research on Etherification,' the extended paper appeared in the 'Philosophical Magazine' for Nov. 1850 (see, in reference to priority, Chemical News, 8 July 1904). A chief ultimate fruit of the research was Williamson's theory of the constitution of salts, from which emerged the doctrine of valency and the linkage of radicles (see obit. notice by, Proc. Roy. Soc.). He cleared up, wrote Sir James Dewar, one of the most intricate and recondite of chemical reactions, and in so doing struck at the very root of the chemical problems connected with atomic and molecular weights. The subject was further elucidated in the memoirs 'On the Constitution of Salts' (Journ. Chem. Soc. vol. iv. 1852); 'On Gerhardt's Discovery of Anhydrous Organic Acids' (Proc. Roy. Inst. vol. i.); and 'Note on the Decomposition of Sulphuric Acid by Pentachloride of Phosphorus' (Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. vii.). His papers on Etherification and on the Constitution of Salts were issued as an Alembic Club reprint (Edinburgh, 1902). At the Royal Institution he delivered a lecture, 6 June 1851, 'Suggestions for the Dynamics of Chemistry, derived from the Theory of Etherification.'

Subsequent papers by Williamson of a miscellaneous nature comprised 'On the Dynamics of the Galvanic Battery' (Phil. Mag. 1863-4); 'On the Composition of the Gases evolved by the Bath Spring called King's Bath' (Rept. Brit. Assoc. 1865; see paper by Hon. R. J. Strutt, Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxii. (1904), p. 191); and 'On Fermentation' (Pharmaceut. Journ. 1871). Jointly with Dr. W. J. Russell