Professor Louis P. RenoufAuthor(s): F. J. O'R.Source: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan., 1971), pp. 1-2Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25537468 .

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THE IRISH NATURALISTS' JOURNAL

Vol. 17 January, 1971 No. 1

OBITUARY

PROFESSOR LOUIS P. RENOUF

Profesor Louis P. Renouf, who was the first to hold' solely the Chair of

Zoology at University College, Cork, from his appointment in 1922 to his

retirement in June 1953, died in Cork on 20th January 1968. Since no one who

knew him better than I did has written an obituary notice, I feel that his passing should not be left unrecorded.

Born in England, he was educated at St. Thomas Abbey, Eradington and

King Edward VI School at Birmingham from whence with the Walter Meyer Science Prize he went to Cambridge in 1912 as a Scholar of Trinity College. He

took the tripos in biology and also the new and highly regarded Diploma in

Agriculture and was nominated as Director of the newly established school at

Natal, South Africa, a post which World War I prevented him taking up. He

held appointments as Biologist in Glasgow, Bradford and Marine Biologist at

Rotheroy before he took up the Chair of Zoology at Cork. At that time, I

understand that he expected to become later Professor of Agriculture in the

College. The late Dr Southern drew his attention to the interest of Lough Ine, Co.

Cork and starting with a packing case as a shelter, he built up a marine laboratory that became known all over the world although he only published one major paper on the area (Journal of Ecology, 19: 410-438, 1931). He published many notes

and stimulated interest in the region so that much work was carried out there. He

was awarded first the M.Sc (1933) and then in 1939 the D.Sc. degree by the

National University of Ireland for this work.

He was very interested in the philosophical aspects of biology and that

interest lead to his foundation of the Mendel and Pasteur Review which he edited,

published and largely paid for himself. It was a gallant attempt at a very difficult

time for publication and after a few issues it unfortunately ceased publication.

While it was perhaps conservative by todays standards, the Review aroused the

passions of a number of his senior colleagues in Cork and elsewhere, but many

younger people were excited by the problems raised in the interesting papers

published in the Review.

He played a major role in the College Societies especially the Biological

Society and he was President at various times of the Rugby, Hockey, Athletic,

Rowing, Camogie and Swimming clubs. He also took a great deal of interest

in the Cork Public Museum and in the Museum in the College itself.

His past students are scattered throughout the world, many as might be

expected, working in Marine Ecology while Dr Parr-Tate who was the most

distinguished of them held the Directorship of the Molento Institute at Cambridge

before his retirement.

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2

Renouf had a very considerable interest in philately and invested wisely building up a very fine collection of stamps from which he derived great pleasure right up to the end.

We would like to express our sympathy to his ever kind wife, two sons and ;wo daughters.

FJ.O'R.

A CRITICAL REAPPRAISAL OF THE STATUS IN IRELAND OF THE EASTERN HOUSE MOUSE, MUS MUSCULUS

ORIENTAL1S CRETZCHMAR J. S. Fairley

Before 1935 it was widely accepted that house mice in Ireland belonged to a single subspecies, now Mus musculus domesticus Rutty. (M. m. musculus L.

has also been used frequently though, strictly speaking, this should be applied to mice in eastern Europe.). The animal is typically dark fawn-grey on the

dorsal surface and, beneath, a somewhat lighter buffy grey. Most of the guard hairs are, in fact, grey with a subterminal band of yellowish fawn.

In 1935 O'Mahony reported having collected, over some ten years,

specimens (probably six) in Co. Dublin of a different kind. These he described as sandy-brown above and white below, the hairs underneath being slate-grey at

their bases and tipped with white. There was a line of fawn separating the two

surfaces and the upper parts of the feet were white. In the British Museum he examined many other house mouse skins from various parts of the world,

unfortunately in the absence of M. A. C. Hinton, who was curator of mammals at the time, but decided that none were identical with his material. Finally he

acquired two skins from the Zoological Museum, Cairo, which he thought

indistinguishable from his specimens. He therefore concluded that a second

subspecies of house mouse was to be found in Ireland, namely Mus musculus

orientalis.

Later O'Mahony (1937) obtained further individuals of this new race from

Cos. Antrim, Louth and Wicklow and ventured an opinion on their origin

considering that "... the fact that they agree so closely with the subspecies

suggests that they were introduced at no very distant date . . . being confined to

the east coast suggests that they were introduced at aid have spread from Dublin."

This is qualified somewhat by a later statement, "Again, these . . . may be due to

some genetical factor, though so far I have found nothing to suggest interbreeding." He also noted that they appeared "... to be confined to the vicinity of houses."

Moffat (1938), in his well known work on Irish mammals, also accepted, with little reservation, the introduction of a new subspecies in the sentence: "By what means this small Egyptian animal (if not independently developed) has found

its way to Ireland cannot be conjectured". It is probably because of his comments

that this eastern mouse has often been mentioned in subsequent publications on

the Irish fauna right up to the present (O'Rourke, 1970). In the current paper the evidence for the existence of such a foreign race in Ireland is re-examined. I

make no claim for an original approach to such a problem. No doubt others, on

reflection, have reached similar conclusions and, as will be seen, a pair of authors

have indicated as much in passing.

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