THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XIV.] JULY, 1881. [No. 218. 



JOHN BLACKWALL, F.L.S. 



(obituary notice.) 



On the 11th of May, 1881, and in the ninety-second year of 

 his age, a veteran in natural science, John Blackwall, passed 

 away from us. The gap made by the loss of a scientific worker 

 at so advanced an age is perhaps less (at any rate it is usually 

 less immediately felt) than that created by the death of one 

 called away in the prime of life and in the midst of work ; still 

 the loss we are now deploring is great, and cannot but be very 

 deeply felt both by science and the more immediate circle of 

 friends and relations. Few lovers of Natural History have 

 enjoyed the advantages of leisure and locality in the abundance 

 enjoyed by the late Mr. Blackwall. From a very early date the 

 ties of professional business gave way to those merely of family 

 affairs, though few, even so disengaged, have left so many 

 marks behind them of an active scientific mind and patient 

 observation. 



Mr. Blackwall was descended from an old Derbyshire family, 

 taking its name and rise from Blackwall (or Blackwell) in that 

 county ; but the family had, previously to the birth of the late 

 Mr. John Blackwall, migrated to Lancashire, where, at Crumpsall 

 Old Hall, near Manchester, he was born on the 20th of January, 

 1789. Here the love of Natural History and Science became 

 very early evident in a devotion of his leisure to Ornithology, 

 as well as to Botany, Astronomy, and Meteorology, on all which 

 subjects he has left published records. 



Various phenomena connected with spiders and their webs, 

 particularly in the form of gossamer, led Mr. Blackwall to turn 



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