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Prof. J. J. Alexandre Laboulbene died in the first week of December last at 

 the age of 73 years. He was born at Agen (Lot et Garonne), France, on August 

 3rd, 1825. Destined for the medical profession he became house physician 

 ("interne") in 1849, after a brilliant career as a student. In 1875 he w^s elected 

 Member of the Academy" of Medicine in Paris, and in 1879 he was appointed 

 Professor of the history of medicine and surgery. He was equally prominent as an 

 entomologist. Elected into the Societe Entomologique de France so long ago as 

 1846, he became its President on three separate occasious, viz. : 1860, 1872, and 

 1889, and the greater part of his very numerous entomological publications appeared 

 in its " Annales." The celebrated Leon Dufour was a friend of his family, and his 

 influence on the manner of work of Laboulbene was strikingly apparent throughout 

 the latter's career. Of systematic work he did but little : the chief was the part he 

 took with his friend and survivor, Leon Fairmaire, in the Coleoptera of the 

 " Faune Entomologique Franeaise " in 1854-56. Almost all his work lay in the 

 direction of habits, economy, anatomy, &c., and each of his many papers on these 

 subjects is a raonogi*aph in itself, illustrated by his own pencil : perhaps Coleoptera 

 and Diptera attracted him most, but parasitism in all its forms was specially 

 attended to. Personally he was one of the most affable and courteous of men, always 

 acting up to the words pronounced by him at a meeting of the Soc. Ent. de France, 

 on October 14th, 1863, which were chosen as the motto for the cover of this Magazine 

 at its commencement in 1864, and have continued ever since : — " J'engage done tous 

 a eviter dans leurs ecrits toute personnalite.toute allusion depassant les limites de la 

 discussion la plus sincere et la plus courtoise." 



Charles Stuart Gregson died at Liverpool on January 31st, 1899, in his 82nd 

 year. He was born at Lancaster on May 29th, 1817, and for some years was in 

 business in Liverpool as a ship painter. With him passes away probably the last of 

 the old school of collectors of British Lepidopiera in the northern counties of England, 

 amongst which the names of Gregson, Greening, Hodgkinson, and N. Cooke were 

 prominent, a group that undoubtedly did much to investigate the British Fauna, 

 and to elucidate tlie life histories of many species. Like most of his colleagues — or 

 shall we say rivals ? — Gregson was a man of great powers of endurance, and in this 

 lay much of the secret of his success. He appears to have commenced writing so 

 long ago as 1842, when he published a note in the " Annals of Natural History " on 

 that essentially Liverpool insect Ni/ssia zonaria, and he seems to have written over 

 50 notes and papers considered sufficiently valuable to have secured a place in the 

 Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific papers, but these are exclusive of innumerable 

 shorter contributions to the various periodicals. He took a warm interest in the 

 Natural History Societies of his district, and at one time, as secretary of one of them, 

 issued reports of the meetings lithographed by himself, the orthographical 

 peculiarities of which caused him to be good-humouredly bantered by some of his 

 southern brethren, a proceeding which he resented. The secretive side of his 

 nature in matters entomological, and which was largely shared by many collectors 

 of the time, also brought him into wordy conflict, and notably the almost historic 

 coup inade by him in buying up certain birch trees in North Wales, believed to 



