Robert Ball (naturalist)

Robert Ball (1802-1857) was an Irish naturalist.

Contents 1 Life 2 Works 3 Family 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links

Life

He was born at Queenstown (today known as Cobh), County Cork. The Ball family lived in Youghal, County Cork. Robert had a brother, Bent, and two sisters Anne, a well-known phytologist, and Mary, an entomologist. The family was Protestant and "involved in trade."

After a career in the civil service he became Director of the Dublin University Museum in 1844. He was a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and President of the Geological Society of Ireland

Dublin University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He became Secretary of the newly founded Queen's University of Ireland in 1851, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Astronomer Royal, is more familiar than his own.^[1]

Works

On the museum

• (1846) First Report on the Progress of the Dublin University Museum, January 1846. Dublin.
• (1847) Second Report on the Progress of the Dublin University Museum, June 1847. Dublin.
• (1848) The Dublin University Museum, December, 1848. Dublin.
• (1853) Evidence. In Dublin University Commission, Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state, discipline, studies and revenues of the University of Dublin and Trinity College. Dublin. 153-169.

Scientific

• 1841. On a species of Loligo, found on the shore of Dublin Bay. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 1 (19). 362-364.
• 1842 Notes of the acetabuliferous Cephalopoda of Ireland, including two species of Rossiae. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 2: 192-194.

Family

Robert Ball was the father of the Astronomer Royal Sir Robert Stawell Ball, and Valentine Ball (1843-1895) C.B., BA,MA, LL.D., F.R.S. a geologist and naturalist, Professor at Trinity College Dublin.^[1]

References

Further reading

• Jackson, P. N. W. 2009. Robert Ball (1802–1857): naturalist. Ir. Nat. J. 30: 15 - 18.

External links

Wikisource has the text of A Compendium of Irish Biography article Robert Ball

• NAHSTE
• Darwin Project

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ball, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Persondata
Name	Ball, Robert
Alternative names
Short description	Naturalist
Date of birth	1 April 1802
Place of birth	Queenstown
Date of death	30 March 1857
Place of death	Ireland