18 Facts About George Salmon

George Salmon was born in Cork in 1819, to Michael George Salmon and Helen Weekes.

George Salmon remained at Trinity for the rest of his career.

George Salmon died at the Provost's House on 22 January 1904 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.

Meanwhile, back in 1848, George Salmon had published an undergraduate textbook entitled A Treatise on Conic Sections.

George Salmon himself did not participate in the expansions and updates of the later editions.

George Salmon published two other mathematics texts, A Treatise on Higher Plane Curves and A Treatise on the Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions.

In 1889 George Salmon received the Copley Medal of the society, the highest honorary award in British science, but by then he had long since lost his interest in mathematics and science.

George Salmon received honorary degrees from several universities, including that of Doctor mathematicae from the Royal Frederick University on 6 September 1902, when they celebrated the centennial of the birth of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.

George Salmon wrote books about eternal punishment, miracles, and interpretation of the New Testament.

George Salmon's book An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament, which was widely read, is an account of the reception and interpretation of the gospels in the early centuries of Christianity as seen through the writings of leaders such as Irenaeus and Eusebius.

George Salmon participated in the second British Chess Congress and had the honour of playing the chess prodigy Paul Morphy in Birmingham, England, on 27 August 1858.

George Salmon was Provost of Trinity from 1888 until his death in 1904.

George Salmon was provost during the campaign for admission by the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses, in which Alice Oldham was an important figure.

George Salmon continued to attend board meetings up to his death.

At his death, George Salmon had been a familiar figure in Trinity for over 62 years, and was held in affection even by those who disagreed with him.

Just before his death, George Salmon is said to have anticipated this in another apocryphal story.

George Salmon dreamt that he was dead, and his funeral was processing across Front Square, followed by weeping Fellows and Scholars.

George Salmon's coffin was laid in the chapel, "and then", he said, "I sat up in my coffin, whereupon Mahaffy and Trail wept louder than ever".