Abstract
THE council of the Royal Dublin Society at its meeting on December 15 decided, on the recommendation of the Committee of Science and its Industrial Applications, to confer the Society's Boyle medal on Prof. Paul A. Murphy, professor of plant pathology at University College, Dublin, for his important contributions to plant pathology. Prof. Murphy's researches on the fertilisation, cytology, and life history of the potato blight (Phytophthora infestans), and his investigation on the infection of the new by the old crop, have been at once an important contribution to pure science, and an advance of high economic value. He early recognised the economic importance of mosaic virus, and pointed out the close connexion between the deterioration of new varieties and their infection with virus. He also established the compound nature of mosaic and recognised the fact that the disease might be transmitted by symptomless carriers. This knowledge has greatly facilitated the finding and propagating of virus-free plants. His researches have also very materially increased our knowledge and means of control of onion mildew (Peronospora Schleideni) and of dry rot in swedes (Phoma lingam).
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Boyle Medal of the Royal Dublin Society. Nature 130, 990 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130990b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130990b0