108 



Professor Mac Cullagh has rendered to the cause of science merely 

 by his published works. The School of Mathematics, which was 

 founded in the University by the writings, the example, and the 

 energy of Provost Lloyd, owes much of the success that has con- 

 tinued to attend it, since the death of its founder, to the zeal and spirit 

 of Mac Cullagh. His lectures, first in the chair of Mathematics, and 

 for the last four years in the chair of Natural Philosophy, have 

 undoubtedly given an impulse to the study of the severer sciences, 

 which cannot be regarded without astonishment by those who 

 remember the state of mathematical and physical learning in Tri- 

 nity College when Provost Lloyd began his labours. The change 

 seems almost incredible, when we consider the short period of time 

 in which it has been effected, the great amount of scientific know- 

 ledge which is now common even among undergraduates, and the 

 number of eminent young men who have imbibed the spirit of 

 Mac Cullagh, and are ready to walk in his footsteps. In this more 

 private sphere of usefulness Professor Mac Cullagh has done 

 much to deserve the gratitude of his country, and the affectionate 

 remembrance of his contemporaries in the University. 



The following account of his lectures delivered to the candi- 

 dates for Fellowships, as Professor of Natural Philosophy, is from 

 the pen of one who has deeply profited by his instructions, and 

 who now holds a high and well-merited station in Trinity College. 

 It is contained in a letter written soon after his decease, and ad- 

 dressed to Sir William Hamilton.* 



" I allude to these lectures, because it was in the delivery of 

 them that Professor Mac Cullagh ever appeared to the greatest ad- 

 vantage ; it was there that he used to display the extensive infor- 

 mation, the elaborate research, and the vast acquired treasures of 

 his highly cultivated mind ; and it was there that he turned to ac- 

 count the noble faculty of inventive genius with which he was so 



* This letter was communicated to the Marquis of Northampton, as Pre- 

 sident of the Royal Society, and extracts from it have already appeared in 

 the notice of Professor Mac Cullagh, given by his Lordship in his Address 

 to that body, on the SOth of November last. See London, Edinburgh, and 

 Dublin Philosophical Magazine, for March, 1848, p 219. 



