77 



Miss Ormerod has accomplished can hardly be estimated at the present 

 time, but she will deserve, at the bauds of posterity, canonization as 

 the patrou saint of economic entomology in England. 



Aside from her annual reports Miss Ormerod has published a large 

 work entitled Manual of Injurious Insects and Methods of Prevention, 

 and numerous smaller works, treating of the Hessian fly, sugar-cane 

 insects, and the injurious insects of South Africa, the last two being 

 devoted to the agricultural interests of the English colonies. 



Within the year the Royal Agricultural Society has made the office 

 of consulting entomologist, or rather zoologist — for they have broad- 

 ened the term — a salaried one, and Mr. Cecil Warburton. an able student 

 of zoology, although not known as an entomologist, has been appointed 

 to the position. Mr. Warburton has published one report, which is 

 mainly compiled and devoted to extracts from the correspondence of 

 the society, but it is too early as yet to judge of his capabilities from 

 our standpoint. 



Miss Ormerod's legitimate predecessor may be said to have been 

 John Curtis, who, from the beginning of Dr. Lindley's Gardener's 

 Chronicle, contributed an important series of essays upon injurious 

 insects to its columns, under the nom de plume " Euricola." Mr. Curtis's 

 connection with this famous agricultural journal was of great advan- 

 tage to him, as it enabled him to secure information and specimens 

 from all parts of the Kingdom. He had also accumulated a large amount 

 of information during the twenty years he was engaged in writing his 

 great work upon British entomology. When the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England was founded, in 1840, the council of the society 

 invited Mr. Curtis to prepare a series of reports upon the insects affect- 

 ing various crops cultivated in Great Britain and Ireland, and in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for the years 1841 to 1857 

 he published a series of sixteen such reports. The matter of these 

 reports, and also of his previously published Gardener's Chronicle 

 articles, was drawn upon largely for, and in fact forms the major portion 

 of, his standard work upon Farm Insects, published by Blackie & Sons, 

 London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, in 1860. Whether Curtis was remu- 

 nerated for his work for the Royal Agricultural Society or not I am 

 unable at this time to state, although he probably received some compen- 

 sation. I learn through the kindness of Miss Ormerod that, chiefly on 

 account of the value of his writings upon economic entomology, Mr. 

 Curtis was awarded a pension from the civil list, which was augmented 

 about three years before his death on account of the sad loss of sight 

 which he experienced. 



In 1877 a strong effort was made to secure the appointment of a 

 Government entomologist. A conference was held at the Society of 

 Arts which was largely attended and was presided over by the Duke of 

 Buccleugh, K. G. The most important paper read was by Mr. Andrew 

 Murray, and after a long discussion the conference resolved: 



