( xxxvi ) 



only well-known Fellow who was left to connect us with the 

 far-away past of the foundation of the Society (as his only 

 senior, William Blundell Spence — a son I believe of the 

 original Spcnce of Kirby and Spence — has resided at Florence 

 for a very long time). The break which his death has caused 

 with the past may be realised when I state that the next 

 oldest Fellow left is Mr. John William Douglas (1845), next 

 to whom comes ])r. W. H. Lowe (1850), and Sir John Lubbock, 

 whose title as a Peer I do not know (1850); none of these 

 have been at all familiar to tlie present Fellows of the Society, 

 and I think we shall now have to consider as our doyen, in the 

 sense of one who comes among us, the Rev. Henry Stephen 

 Gorham, who was elected in 1855, because we now rarely see 

 Dr. Frederick Moore, who was elected in 1853. For real 

 long active work and regular attendance at the Society one 

 Fellow stands out pre-eminently, and that is our Treasurer, 

 Mr. Ptobert McLachlan, who was elected in 1858, and who 

 has I believe held every office that this Society could give, 

 including that of President (1885 — 1886); I consider there- 

 fore that the gap with the past, caused by the death of Mr. 

 Samuel Stevens, is really one of 21 years as far as the 

 active work of this Society is concerned. We who are now 

 in this room can only connect back intimately to 1858 instead 

 of to 1837. 



Mr. S. Stevens represented an exceedingly useful type of 

 English Entomologist; though not an eminently scientific one, 

 as his studies were mainly devoted to collecting Coleoptera and 

 Lepidoptera, while trusting to others to assist him in identi- 

 fying his captures, but his value lay in the interest with 

 which he would follow up any supposed rare species which 

 suddenly occurred somewhere in abundance — I remember his 

 trusting to my guidance to find Agrotera nemoralis at Abbotts 

 Wood in Sussex — and in his collection, which has been accu- 

 mulating for about 60 years, and which consequently often 

 produced old unrecognised species, such as Acidalia immoraria. 

 Beyond this Mr. Stevens' acquaintanceship and friendship 

 with so very many Fellows of the Society united him with us 

 and cause us all to deplore his loss. Personally I feel his 

 loss in connection with the Entomological Club even more 



