%\\t Canaritarj mntomologist. 



Vol. XLVI. LONDON, OCTOBER, 1914 No. 10 



DR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS, C. M. G. 



On Sunday afternoon, September 13th, after an illness which 

 had continued for nearly two years, and which for a twelve-month 

 had rendered him mentally incapable, Dr. William Saunders passed 

 to his rest at his home in London, Ontario, in the 79th year of his 

 age. He was born in Devonshire, England, and came to Canada 

 with his parents when a boy of twelve. His educational advan- 

 tages were meagre, but he succeeded in obtaining a technical 

 training in Chemistry and set up in business as a retail druggist in 

 London. His agreeable manners, thorough honesty and untiring 

 industry brought him a fair measure of success. His love of 

 nature led him to the collection of wild plants and insects which 

 could be found in abundance in the neighbourhood, and he became 

 an ardent student of Botany and Entomology. Finding many 

 medicinal plants readily obtainable, he began the preparation of 

 fluid extracts, which were so pure and reliable that they soon be- 

 came widely and favourably known among the medical profession, 

 and led by degrees to the establishment of an extensive and lucra- 

 tive business both wholesale and retail. Years later, when he 

 became Director of the Experimental Farms of the Dominion, the 

 wholesale business was transferred to his eldest son, Mr. W. E. 

 Saunders, by whom it is still successfully maintained, and the retail 

 department to two of his younger sons, who, however, afterwards 

 relinquished it for other pursuits. 



During the five-and-twenty years of his business life, Mr. 

 Saunders found time for taking an active part in many other things. 

 Besides his scientific work in Entomology and Botany, he took 

 great interest in fruit-growing, establishing a farm of his own near 

 the city, and becoming a zealous member of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association, of which he was a director for many years 

 and President from 1882 to 1885. In connection with his profes- 

 sional work he was appointed Professor of Materia Medica in the 

 Western University, Public Analyst for Western Ontario, and 



