William Anderson Syme, the author of this dissertation, was born in
Raleigh, N. C., on July 11, 1879. He was prepared for college at the
Raleigh Male Academy, entered the North Carolina College of Agriculture
and Mechanic Arts in 1896, and was graduated in 1899 with the degree B.
S. He was an Instructor in Chemistry at the same College from January
1st, 1900, until June, 1903, when he received the degree M. S. for
graduate work. In October following, he entered Johns Hopkins University
as a graduate student in Chemistry, and was awarded one of the North
Carolina Scholarships. His minor subjects are Physical Chemistry and
Biology.