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NA TURE 



[December 16, 1922 



William Thiselton Dyer, Dr. A. C. Haddon, Sir Walter 

 Hartley. E. Hull, Dr. G. T. Morgan, T. F. Pigott, and 

 Sir Wyville J. Thomson. 



Following upon the establishment of the College 

 in its new building 5, thi re has been a steady and pro- 

 increase in the number of its students, and 

 its several courses oi study are becoming appreciated 

 more and more fully throughout the whole of Ireland. 

 Moreover, the past students have been winning success 

 in the several fields of industry and education for 

 which their courses have fitted them. 



In the Faculty of Agriculture the scientific courses 

 given at the College have been the basis of consider- 

 able improvement in agricultural practice in the 

 country, for in the majority of cases the young Irish- 

 men who have attended these courses at the College 

 have found their way into the service of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture as Agricultural Instructors, 

 located in various rural districts, where the)- act as 

 scientific advisers to the farmers. Others put their 

 knowledge to account in the management of large 

 farms and estates. 



In the Faculty of Applied Chemistry many highly 

 trained voung men have been turned out and have 

 found scope for their training as assistants and research 

 workers in many chemical industries, such as the 

 manufacture of dyes, explosives, and synthetic drugs. 



In the Faculty of Engineering the increase in the 

 number of students following upon the development 

 of tlie new laboratories has been specially marked, 

 and already the demands for admission are taxing 

 tin- accommodation to its utmost. The majority of 



these students find employment with the large 

 engineering concerns in the British Isles ; and prior 

 to the present condition of depression, there was a 

 regular demand each year for capable students from 

 • nine oi the leading establishments. The output of the 

 engineering and chemistry departments of the College 

 should be of great and essential service to Ireland. 

 if a policy of industrial reconstruction is undertaken. 



The equipment of the College is excellently suited 

 for active research in many directions. Indeed, 

 already after a few years' occupation of the new 

 premises, upwards of one hundred researches were 

 in hand or had been carried out, many of them 

 being on subjects of direct benefit to the industries 

 of freland. While research thus holds a high place 

 us its activities, the College is, nevertheless, specially 

 noted for the thorough attention that is devoted to 

 the effective teaching of its students. Its success is 

 due to the devotion and energetic service of its able 

 staff, as much as to the modern conditions under 

 which their labours are carried out. 



It would not only be a national calamity but also 

 a matter of the greatest concern to progress in applied 

 science if this great institution, that has taken many 

 years of devoted service of its staff to bring to its 

 present high standard of excellence, should be rendered 

 unavailable for the young men and women of Ireland, 

 ft is. therefore, greatly to be hoped that the present 

 difficulty will be but a passing cloud, and that the 

 College will sunn be permitted to reopen its doors, 

 and will find its true place in the industrial develop- 

 ment of Ireland. 



Obituary. 



Sir Isaac 1i.wi.ev Balfour, K.B.E., F.R.S. 



TSAAC BAYLEY BALFOUR, son of the late Dr. 

 -L John Hutton Balfour, professor of botany in tin 

 University of Edinburgh from 1845 to 1879, was born 

 in Edinburgh on March 31, 1853. Educated at the 

 Edinburgh Academy, then as now one of the foremost 

 of British public schools, young Balfour proceeded to 

 the University, in which he graduated as D.Sc. in the 

 department (not yet a faculty) of physical and natural 

 science. He also matriculated in the faculty of medicine, 

 and while still an undergraduate in that faculty was so 

 fortunate as to be attached to the party which in 1874 

 visited the island of Rodriguez to observe the transit 

 of Venus. 



Resuming his medical studies, Balfour graduated as 

 M.B. with honours in 1877, and thereafter continued his 

 botanical studies in the Universities of Strasbourg and 

 Wiirzburg. In 1879 he was appointed professor of 

 botany in the University of Glasgow, and in 1S80 under- 

 took botanical survey operations in the island of Socotra. 

 In 1883 he obtained the degree of M.D., being awarded 

 a University gold medal for his thesis, and in 1884 he 

 was elei ted Sherardian professor of botany at Oxford 

 and given charge of the Oxford Botanic Garden, he- 

 coming at the same time a fellow of Magdalen. In 

 1888 he was elected professor of botany in the- Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, in succession to the late 1 >r. 

 Alexander Dickson, and was appointed King's Botanist 

 for Scotland and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic 



NO. 2772, VOL. I io] 



Garden. From these posts Balfour retired in March 

 last after having held them, as his father did, for a 

 period of thirty-lour years. 



If Balfour, as regards youthful environment, was 

 fortunately situated, he showed at an early age that he 

 had made good use of his opportunities. In 1874 Dr. 

 J. D. Hooker, then director of Kew, considered one of 

 Balfour's letters from Rodriguez sufficiently interesting 

 for communication to the Linnean Society. Among 

 the results of this journey we owe to Balfour a finished 

 study of the genus Halophila and an important con- 

 tribution to the natural history of the difficult genus 

 Pandanus. The elaboration of the material secured 

 during his visit to Socotra involved sustained study for 

 nearly eight years ; the result was a work that has 

 already become a floristic classic. But Balfour's 

 systematic interest was equalled by that taken in 

 economic questions, and his Socotran studies enabled 

 him to determine the sources of more than one famous 

 drug "i which the geographical provenance was assured 

 though the botanical origin was uncertain. From the 

 outset of his career he realised the importance of his- 

 torical study in the held of applied botany. 



Short though Balfour's tenure of the Sherardian 

 chair was. the success with which he discharged its 

 duties led to results of permanent advantage to Oxford 

 and to botany. Under his care the historic " Physick 

 Garden " regained its old consequence. The part he 

 played in the provision of an English version of De 

 Bary's Fungi, Mycetozoa. and Bacteria earned for him 



