G. F. Fitzgerald, G. Johnstone Stoney 139 



and his generous disposition made him a willing helper of 

 all who were seeking advice. Though his influence on con- 

 temporary thought was all the greater in consequence, the 

 output of his own work was interfered with. 



Scientific education in Ireland owes much to George 

 Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911), the uncle of Fitzgerald, and 

 for many years, up to the time of its dissolution in 1882, 

 the Secretary of Queen's University. During twenty years 

 he acted in the same capacity to the Royal Dublin Society, 

 an institution founded in 1731 for promoting the arts and 

 industries of Ireland. As an original investigator Stoney 

 was distinguished by a philosophical and balanced mind, 

 but his work was suggestive rather than conclusive. He 

 showed remarkable foresight when he interpreted the true 

 significance of Faraday's laws of electrolysis as indicating 

 the atomic nature of the centres of electric action, and he 

 gave the name of " electron " to the ultimate constituent of 

 electricity. 



When the Queen's Universities were founded in 1845, 

 the appointment of first Vice-President at Belfast fell to 

 Thomas Andrews (1813-1885), a man of remarkable gifts 

 and quite exceptional experimental powers. After a course 

 of study of chemistry at Glasgow University and for a 

 short time under Dumas at Paris, he took the degree of 

 Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh, and then returned to 

 practise medicine at Belfast. But the call of science was 

 too strong, and he accepted the appointment at Queen's 

 College, which was combined with the Professorship of 

 Chemistry. Andrews' first paper, published in 1836, dealt 

 with a question which has since acquired considerable 

 importance : "On the conducting power of certain flames 

 and of heated air for electricity." He next devoted him- 

 self to the study of the heat developed in chemical com- 

 binations. His work gained hi importance as he proceeded, 

 and together with Tait he was the first to demonstrate the 

 true nature of ozone, proving it was only an allotropic form 

 of oxygen. The research for which he is most renowned 

 is that dealing with the liquefaction of gases. When Faraday 

 had succeeded in liquefying carbonic acid, chlorine, and other 

 vapours by pressure, the question naturally arose whether 



