( xcvii ) 



A gi-eat naturalist no less than a poet " is born, not made." 

 Science is fortunate in the circumstances which surrounded 

 the youth of Kobert McLachlan : — childhood up to the age of 

 fifteen spent on the borders of Hainault Forest, with all the 

 varied interests botanical and zoological which such surround- 

 ings would awake in those with eyes to see them, — removal to 

 London with its stores of literature within easy reach and 

 kind friends to aid the young student in the search — the 

 experience, so inspiring to the naturalist, of a long voyage, 

 with two months' hard work plant-collecting in Australia — an 

 introduction on the return home to the great Robert Brown 

 who gave first kind help, then sound advice. Then after this 

 broad foundation in natural history as a whole, the stimulus 

 towards special work received at the psychological moment 

 from the writings of Hagen. To this inspiration, when he was 

 about twenty-three, we can trace the growing interest which 

 culminated in the great work of McLachlan's life, the " Mono- 

 graphic Revision and Synopsis of the Trichoptera of the 

 European Fauna" (1874-1880), appearing between the ages 

 of thirty-seven and forty-three. To his early training is due 

 that rare breadth of knowledge and interest which made him 

 so ready and learned a contributor to the discussions at our 

 meetings — so valuable a helper to those who came to him for 

 advice. 



Robert McLachlan was a Fellow of the Society for nearly half 

 a century, having been elected in 1858. He acted as Secretary 

 from 1868 to 1872, as Treasurer from 1873 to 1875 and again 

 from 1891 to the time of his death. He was President in 

 1885 and 1886. I have already spoken of his remarkable 

 devotion to the Society. A certain apparent cynicism formed 

 a veil which to a large extent concealed the real man from the 

 sight of all but intimate friends. But there existed beneath 

 a zeal and a strenuousness in disinterested service which is 

 utterly inconsistent with cynicism. At times when the Society 

 has been divided by conflicting opinion it has been my 

 privilege to know that his own feelings were far less concerned 

 with the subject of dispute or with the success of either party, 

 than they were with the Society itself, in grave anxiety lest it 

 should be injured by the struggle. In thus speaking, as is 



PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., V. 1904. H 



