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This paper1 examines the life and career of a man who rose from humble origins to achieve unusual eminence in two widely different fields. David Smyth Torrens was Professor of Physiology and the King's Professor of the Institutes of Medicine at Trinity for more than thirty years (1936-67) — a celebrated figure in the world of university medicine, mainly as a teacher and administrator. He was, however, also a giant of the world of horology, acknowledged by his peers as one of the greatest contemporary horological scholars, owner of perhaps one of the finest contemporary private horological libraries ever assembled, and compiler of an even more remarkable collection of horological tools. Yet this unchallenged reputation cloaked a man of strange antinomies of character — lonely, modest, difficult and most cripplingly shy. He performed great private acts of kindness yet expected no thanks; he rarely admonished, still less threatened, yet was held in trepidation by his students; he sought n
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This paper1 examines the life and career of a man who rose from humble origins to achieve unusual eminence in two widely different fields. David Smyth Torrens was Professor of Physiology and the King's Professor of the Institutes of Medicine at Trinity for more than thirty years (1936-67) — a celebrated figure in the world of university medicine, mainly as a teacher and administrator. He was, however, also a giant of the world of horology, acknowledged by his peers as one of the greatest contemporary horological scholars, owner of perhaps one of the finest contemporary private horological libraries ever assembled, and compiler of an even more remarkable collection of horological tools. Yet this unchallenged reputation cloaked a man of strange antinomies of character — lonely, modest, difficult and most cripplingly shy. He performed great private acts of kindness yet expected no thanks; he rarely admonished, still less threatened, yet was held in trepidation by his students; he sought n
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