Botany at the University of Durham: Prof. Meirion Thomas

Abstract

Mr. Meirion Wio has just succeeded to the chair of Thing's College, University of Durham (Neraffls£le upon Tyne), went directly from Cambridg nat was then Armstrong College, to af Beturer on botany. This post he held until when he was promoted to a readership in plant siology in the same Department. Throughout his stay at King's College, he has conducted with marked vigour and success various researches on the catabolic processes in plants. Most of his results are embodied in a series of papers with the general title “Studies in Zymasis”; in general, theses proceeded from the pen of Prof. Thomas himself, but occasionally they were written in collaboration with research students. In these were described the effects of oxygen, carbon dioxide and hydrocyanic acid in various gas mixtures on the zymasie breakdown of hexose. In addition to anaerobic zymasis, he has demonstrated that other types exist produced by the gases just named, and by injury and senescence. Having come to definite conclusions as to the conditions of the various forms of zymasis, he has examined the relations between the phenomenon and the incidence of physiological diseases. Naturally, during the War, the whole of these researches were suspended, or at least slowed down, by Prof. Thomas's activities in the O.T.C., in which he held the rank of captain. However, during the past year, they have been recommenced along some of the more promising lines, so that there is every probability that his tenure of the professorship will be marked by a steady flow of research papers continuing the investigations which have been so productive of results in the past.