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Vol. XL. LONDON, DECEMBER, 1908. No. 12. 



DR. JAMES FLETCHER. 



It is with the most profound regret that we record the death of our very 

 dear friend. Dr. James Fletcher, which occurred on Sunday morning, Nov. 

 8th. For the last two years his health had not been entirely satisfactory 

 and for more than a twelvemonth he had been troubled more or less with 

 an internal hemorrhaiie, which caused him much inconvenience and 

 discomfort at times, but which he did not regard as particularly serious. 

 His cheery habit of mind caused him to treat lightly symptoms which 

 would, in most cases, have excited much alarm. In the middle of 

 September he went out to British Columbia on his annual visit, and was 

 absent from home for about six weeks. On his return his colleagues 

 noticed that he had not benefited as much as usual by the trip, and that 

 his appearance was by no means robust. But with characteristic energy 

 he at once set to work to make the arrangements for the Annual Meeting 

 of the Entomological Society of Canada, which he desired should be one 

 of the most successful in its history. As President for the second year in 

 succession he expected to retire from office, but fully counted upon being 

 present at Guelph and occupying the chair at the various sessions which 

 were held on Nov. 5ih and 6th. During the preceding week, however, he 

 wrote saying that he was going to Montreal to consult a specialist, and 

 might after all be unable to attend. He went down on Saturday, the 31st 

 of October, and was at once sent to the Royal Victoria Hospital, there to 

 prepare for an operation. To the writer he sent a letter the following day, 

 expressing his great disappointment at being laid up and prevented from 

 coming to Guelph, but full of confidence in the wonderful power of modern 

 surgery, and with apparently no fears ?s to the result. The operation 

 took place on the following Saturday, but he failed, owing to his weak 

 condition, to rally from it, and the next morning he died. The operation 

 revealed that he had been suffering for some time from a malignant 

 tumour, which had sapped his vitality, and would very soon, in any case, 

 have brought his life to a close. Up to the end he was cheerful and 



