Abstract
BY the death of Prof. Louis Compton Miall, emeritus professor of biology in the University of Leeds, there passes away the last but one of the small body of teachers—less than a dozen in number—who, as members of the professoriate of the Yorkshire College, may be said to have laid the foundations of the University and, in a measure, to have fashioned its aims and destiny. The Yorkshire College, the progenitor of the University, was established in Leeds in 1874. Miall, who at that time was secretary and curator of the Museum of the Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds, had acquired more than a local reputation as a geologist and botanist, and was then embarking upon the biological inquiries upon which his position as a man of science mainly rests. He was known throughout the West Riding as an excellent teacher and an admirable lecturer who could always command the interest and sympathetic attention of his audience. It was inevitable that the college should seek to secure his co-operation as a member of its staff. He joined it first as lecturer, and afterwards as professor of biology in its second session, and his appointment marks a turning point/in its history. In its earliest days its governing body had no clearly defined policy concerning its scope and functions. It had been established partly in response to a demand for greater facilities in technical education, and partly from a desire to see in Yorkshire an institution similar in character to that of Owens College in Manchester. One section would make it a technical or trade school pure and simple, whilst another section, of more liberal views and with more sympathy towards the literae humaniores, hoped it might develop upon broader lines. The accession of Miall determined the issue; biology had no immediate or obvious “place in the curriculum of such a trade school as was then contemplated. Professors of art subjects were thereafter added as quickly as the finances of the struggling institution permitted, o and the college was thus fairly placed upon lines that directly led first to its inclusion in the federated Victoria University, and eventually to its independent establishment as the University of Leeds.
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THORPE, T. Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S. Nature 107, 17–18 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107017a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107017a0