76 BIOGRAPHICAL [CHAP. xi. 



The need of a Consulting Entomologist was forcibly 

 brought home to the Society, then under the presidency of 

 Mr. J. Dent-Dent, by the disastrous attack in 1881 of the 

 Turnip fly, or more correctly flea beetle, which resulted in an 

 estimated loss of over half a million sterling to farmers in 

 England and Scotland. Leading agriculturists all over 

 the country, but more from the East than the West, supplied 

 information for a report, and special assistance was given 

 by some members of the Royal Agricultural Society, in- 

 cluding Mr. J. H. Arkwright of Hampton Court, Hereford- 

 shire. The results were embodied in the Annual Report 

 for 1881, published in 1882. 



A short time after this event a request was made 

 to Miss Ormerod to indicate whether she would accept 

 the post of Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society. Urged by Mr. Charles Whitehead, 

 Chairman of the " Seeds and Plant Diseases Committee," 

 and by her intimate personal friend Professor Herbert 

 Little, another member of the Council, she accepted, 

 but with hesitation and with considerable reluctance, 

 engendered by the opposition of her sister Georgiana, who 

 believed her strength was not equal to the strain of addi- 

 tional work. The meeting with members of the Council 

 at the Society's offices, 12, Hanover Square, London, at 

 which details were discussed, was unusually trying, in spite 

 of the kindly courtesy of the Secretary (Mr. H. M. Jenkins) 

 for whom Miss Ormerod entertained the deepest regard. 

 She says, writing in 1900, " I was nearly frightened out 

 of my wits in going through the requested ordeal, and 

 the recollections of the experiences remain as uniquely 

 unpleasant. On arriving, I gave my card to the attendant, 

 who led me upstairs, where I expected to meet but two 

 or three people, and I was ushered into a room full of 

 gentlemen standing waiting my arrival, not one of whom 

 except Professor Little was known to me even by sight. 

 I advanced about two feet, my sole thought being of the 

 awkward fix in which I had so suddenly been landed, 

 and how I should get out of it. Scarcely a word was 

 spoken when I was led down again to the Secretary's 

 room, where a discussion took place with Professor Little, 

 Mr. Whitehead, the Secretary, and the President of the 

 Society, the others remained absent. In the discussion 

 the President attempted a slight examination of my qualifi- 

 cations, but it amounted to little more than eliciting the 

 length of time during which attention had been devoted to 



