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Professor Haughton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

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By the death of Professor Haughton, which took place on October 31, 1897, the University of Dublin has lost one of its most remarkable ornaments and Irish social life one of its most striking figures. Haughton was a man who, under more favourable circumstances (viz., most especially if he had been blessed with a lesser measure of early success), might have been capable of almost any intellectual feat. His versatility and the agility of his intelligence alone amounted to genius. In the humdrum region of university teaching in which unhappily he early lost himself he always seemed the most brilliant pioneer. Unfortunately he yielded to the temptations—to diffusion and lack of concentration—to which a versatile genius is particularly exposed, and consequently he did not really lead in any of the numerous subjects which he illuminated. One example is afforded by his ill-fated remark on Darwin's epoch-making work that it contained nothing new that was true and nothing true that was new. Haughton's knowledge, often profound, always acute, dies with him, for he has written little that will last: his sparkling wit and genial good-fellowship will survive in the memory of those who were favoured with his personal acquaintance. One great work will, we hope, long bear testimony to his zeal for knowledge and his disinterested public spirit. To him is due the revival of the so-called “School of Physic in Ireland” (Medical School of Trinity College, Dublin), and we trust the debt which that school owes him will never be forgotten. Dr. Haughton exhibited much interest in the work of our Association at the Dublin meeting of 1894, though the feeble condition of his health even then precluded his taking any active part in our proceedings.

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Obituary
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1898 
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