In 1834, that is at the age of ten, William Thomson entered the University classes. Though small in stature, and youthful even for a time when mere boys were University students, he soon made himself conspicuous by his readiness in answering questions, and by his general proficiency, especially in mathematical and physical studies. The classes met at that time twice a day--in mathematics once for lecture and once for oral examination and the working of unseen examples by students of the class. It is still matter of tradition how, in his father's class, William was conspicuous for the brilliancy of the work he did in this second hour. His elder brother James and he seem to have gone through their University course together. In 1834-5 they were bracketed third in Latin Prose Composition. In 1835-6 William received a prize for a vacation exercise--a translation of Lucian's _Dialogues of the Gods_ "with full parsing of the first three Dialogues." In 1836-7 and 1837-8 the brothers were in the Junior and Senior Mathematical Classes, and in each year the first and the second place in the prize-list fell to William and James respectively. In the second of these years, William appears as second prizeman in the Logic Class, while James was third, and John Caird (afterwards Principal of the University) was fifth. William and James Thomson took the first and second prizes in the Natural Philosophy Class at the close of session 1838-9; and in that year William gained the Class Prize in Astronomy, and a University Medal for an Essay on the Figure of the Earth. In 1840-1 he appears once more, this time as fifth prizeman in the Senior Humanity Class. In his inaugural address as Chancellor of the University, already quoted above, Lord Kelvin refers to his teachers in Glasgow College in the following words: "To this day I look back to William Ramsay's lectures on Roman Antiquities, and readings of Juvenal and Plautus, as more interesting than many a good stage play that I have seen in the theatre.... "Greek under Sir Daniel Sandford and Lushington, Logic under Robert Buchanan, Moral Philosophy under William Fleming, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy under John Pringle Nichol, Chemistry under Thomas Thomson, a very advanced teacher and investigator, Natural History under William Cowper, were, as I can testify by my experience, all made interesting and valuable to the students of Glasgow University in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century....