A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 77 



in France and Germany. At an early meeting of 

 the British Association, one of these progressive 

 foreigners treated poor Henry during a chemical 

 discussion with a contemptuous disrespect that 

 wounded him deeply; an affront he probably never 

 afterwards forgot. 



Among engineers, the great firm of Sharp, 

 Roberts & Co. was still in active operation, though 

 Roberts himself, the inventive partner, was no longer 

 what he had been when his new machinery was so 

 materially influencing the cotton-spinning processes. 

 Sir William Fairbairn was not yet culminated, 

 though he and his mathematical co-worker, the late 

 Eaton Hodgkinson, laid from time to time, before 

 our Society, observations on the strength of various 

 materials that have wonderfully facilitated modern 

 constructive operations. Less frequently Whitworth 

 was present ; he was then perfecting machines cap- 

 able of measuring a bar to the minutest fraction of 

 an inch, and already making those self-acting tools 

 and standards of measurement that are now in use 

 in every part of the world. 



In the various branches of natural science, how- 

 ever, Manchester even at this period had its devotees. 

 One Mr. Blackwall, an entomologist, came to the 

 front, and was our highest authority respecting the 

 species and classification of spiders. Mr. James 

 Aspinall Turner, at one time Parliamentary member 

 for Manchester, was accumulating a fine collection of 

 foreign Coleoptera. 



