Samuel Haughton

He proposed that 'In the opinion of the Council, the time has come when the Degrees in Arts of the University should be opened to women, by examination, on the same terms as men' (Thomson, 2004).

Haughton, through his work as Professor of Geology, and his involvement with the Royal Zoological Society had witnessed the enthusiasm and contribution of women in the natural sciences.

In 1866, Haughton developed the original equations for hanging as a humane method of execution, whereby the neck was broken at the time of the drop, so that the condemned person did not slowly strangle to death.

"On hanging considered from a Mechanical and Physiological point of view" was published in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol.

His topics included the laws of equilibrium, the motion of solid and fluid bodies, sun-heat, radiation, climates and tides.

Haughton presumably saw the printed version of the papers and attacked the theory briefly in remarks made to the Geological Society of Dublin on 9 February 1859.

to establish a character for subtlety and skill, in drawing large conclusions on this subject from slender premises, the first requisite is, ignorance of what other speculators have attempted before us in the same field: and the second is, a firm confidence in our own special theory.

Neither of these requisites can be considered wanting in those who are engaged in the task of reproducing Lamarck’s theory of organic life, either as altogether new, or with but a tattered threadbare cloak, thrown over its original nakedness.

In his book Animal Mechanics (1873, page 238) he commented that the "Framer of the Universe" had designed all muscles so they could perform the maximum work possible under given external conditions.