Abstract
OXFORD.—The Sherardian Botanical Chair at Oxford has at length been filled up by the election of Mr. Bayley Balfour, Professor of Botany at Glasgow. Mr. Balfour has had a distinguished career. Passing his student life at Edinburgh, he finally graduated as a Doctor of Medicine, receiving the University Gold Medal for his thesis, having previously carried off first class honours as Doctor of Science in Botany. Two years were spent in acquiring a practical knowledge of the methods of morphological and physiological research in the botanical laboratories of France and Germany under Profs. De Bary and Sachs. We next find him assisting his father, the Regius Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh, in conducting his classes alike in the lecture-room, in the laboratory, in the herbarium, and in practical field work. For four years he was assistant to the Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, and for six years he lectured on botany to the students of the Royal Veterinary College, until finally he was appointed Crown Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. Of good scientific work done there is an ample record. A valuable paper published in the Philosophical Transactions gives the result of his labours at Rodriguez, where he was sent by the Royal Society in 1874 as botanist and zoologist to the Transit of Venus Expedition. In 1880 we find him making a scientific exploration of the Island of Socotra, the results of which have been published in various periodicals, the final report on the botany of the island being now in course of publication by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Prof. Balfour's wide experience in field, laboratory, and herbarium, will make him a valuable addition to the Natural Science Staff of Professors in Oxford. As Magdalen College has under its new statutes added a Fellowship to the endowments of the Chair, we may congratulate the College on gaining another addition to its already long list of distinguished Natural Science Professors who are members of the Society. Profs. Westwood, Bnrdon Sanderson, Odling, Lawson, Balfour, Daubeny, Phillips, Brodie (now dead), were all members of the College.
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University and Educational Intelligence . Nature 29, 374–375 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/029374b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/029374b0