44 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



five years of age, then he was able to give himself up to biological 

 work at home and abroad. He spoke French, German, and Italian 

 fluently, and late in life added Spanish and Norwegian to his 

 accouiplishments. An extensive herbarium of British plants was 

 given by him in the year 1916 to the British Museum, Natural 

 History, he having by then definitely devoted himself to 

 Entomology. He lived in succession at Surbiton, Aylsham, 

 Norfolk, Thorpe-le-SoUen, Lindfield, and finally at Cupersham 

 House, llomsey, where he died July 29th, 1917, leaving a widow, 

 six daughters, and one son, Commissioner of Berar, in India. He 

 was elected a Fellow on the 6th April, 1893, and was also a 

 Fellow of tlie Entomological Society since 1889, and a Member of 

 the South Loudon Natural History Society, of which he was 

 President in 1879. 



Some of his other activities are enumei'ated in an appreciative 

 memoir in ' The Entomologist,' 1917, pp. 263-4, from which 

 many of the foregoing facts have been derived. [B. D. J.] 



Sidney Miles Toppin is another loss to the Society arising 

 from the war. An appreciative memoir is given in the Kew 

 Bulletin, 1918, No. 4, pp. 150-157, from which the following 

 particulars are taken. 



He was the younger son of Major-General J. M. Toppin, 

 formerly of the Royal Irish Eegiment, and was born 12th June, 

 1875, at Cloumel, Ireland. He was educated at Clifton College 

 and Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge ; whilst preparing for 

 a medical degree he was offered a direct commission in the Koyal 

 Artillery, and accepting it, he was gazetted in May 1900 and 

 proceeded to India. After qualifying in Hindustani he was given 

 charge of a mountain battery on the Afghan frontier. Stationed 

 at Chitral for two years he spent his spare time in collecting and 

 studying plants, a pursuit he continued when transferred to 

 Burma. On obtaining his company he was appointed to Egypt, 

 and coming home in 1914 he married just before war was declared. 

 Instead, therefore, of leaving for India, he was sent to Ireland, 

 where he formed a battery, and later to France. He saw much 

 hard fighting, was mentioned in despatches, and for services at 

 Loos was awarded tlie Military Cross. He was killed near Tpi*es 

 on the 24tli September, 1917, leaving a widow and infant daughter. 

 His elder and only brother, Capt. H. S. Toj^pin, was killed in the 

 battle of the Aisne on the 14th September, 1914, and his death 

 was reported at first as that of our late Fellow. 



Major Toppin's herbarinm \\ as bequeathed to the Koyal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew ; amongst them are 139 sheets of Impatiens, which 

 were lent to and studied by Sir Joseph Hooker, G. C.S.I. He was 

 elected a Fellow as recently as 2nd December, 1912. [B. D. J.] 



The cause of Science and of genetics in particular loses a good 

 friend in Philippe Leveque de Vilmohin, who died in his prime 

 last June. As a comparatively young man he was called on to 



