84 BIOGRAPHICAL [CHAP. xn. 



During this period one lecture was delivered before the 

 " Institute of Agriculture," at South Kensington, in April, 

 1883, in the Lords of Council lecture hall, where as usual 

 she was in a state of trepidation as to what might happen. 

 The audience numbered about five hundred two hundred 

 and fifty of whom were Government students. The subject 

 was " Insect Injuries to Farm Crops, and their Prevention." 

 A number of minor incidents were nevertheless disturbing. 

 To begin with, the driver who had been engaged to take the 

 lecturer first to South Kensington and again in the evening to 

 Isleworth, started on the wrong journey first, but the mistake 

 was discovered before he had gone very far astray. Then a 

 chairman had failed to appear and another had to be 

 anxiously watched for at the door. A most suitable person 

 was at last found in the President of the Entomological 

 Society. All went well for a time until Miss Ormerod's sight 

 on the left side wholly failed. Being subject to attacks of 

 migraine from overwork, she thought one of these had come 

 on, but on moving a little to the right she discovered that a 

 brilliant light had been arranged to fall on the diagrams, and 

 that to her great discomfort she had got into the line of it. 



A rather amusing incident occurred as the last dis- 

 traction. The object was to place the elements of Ento- 

 mology before the students in the simplest form possible, 

 but a few definitions were first necessary. They were told 

 to realise in the words of Professor Westwood that insects 

 were " Annulose animals, breathing by tracheae, having the 

 head distinct and provided in the adult stage with six 

 articulated legs, and antennae, subject also to a series of 

 moultings previously to attaining perfection, whereby wings 

 are ordinarily developed ! " 



The audience burst out cheering, thinking, as Professor 

 Tanner x explained afterwards, that the scientific terms were 

 being used as a joke. 



Apropos of this experience she wrote on October 14, 

 1890, to Mr. Robert Newstead, " If I could find time I 

 would like to form an instructive book, on the plan of 

 which I enclose a few lines so as to proceed gradually 

 from a foundation well known to the pupils thus : 



"Q. What is an insect ? A. A fly is an insect, so is a 

 moth or a butterfly, or a wasp, or a grasshopper, or a 

 cricket. 



" Q. Is a spider an insect ? A. No. 



1 The organiser of and first Senior Examiner in the Agriculture 

 Department, South Kensington. 



