(e.2 -) 
A great naturalist no less than a poet “is born, not made.” 
Science is fortunate in the circumstances which surrounded 
the youth of Robert 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 TZvrichoptera 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. Heacted 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 
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