248 JVOMAN IN SCIENCE 



insects. She might have devoted herself to theoretical 

 work, or bent her energies towards the general advance- 

 ment of the science, like Fabricius, Swammerdam, West- 

 wood and Burmneister ; but she preferred to forego all 

 the glory that might accrue from pursuing such a course, 

 and to direct her efforts in such wise as to be of most 

 service to humanity. 



Like the great Pasteur, after his long and laborious ex- 

 perimental researches on silkworm diseases, Miss Ormerod 

 could, at the end of her illustrious career, declare with 

 truth : 1 1 The results which I have obtained are, perhaps, 

 less brilliant than those which I might have anticipated 

 from researches pursued in the field of pure science, but I 

 have the satisfaction of having served my country in en- 

 deavoring, to the best of my ability, to discover the remedy 

 for great misery. It is to the honor of a scientific man that 

 he values discoveries which at their birth can only obtain 

 the esteem of his equals, far above those which at once con- 

 quer the favor of the crowd by the immediate utility of 

 their application ; but, in the presence of misfortune, it is 

 equally an honor to sacrifice everything in the endeavor to 

 relieve it." 1 



Miss Ormerod 's labors were not, it is true, instrumental 

 in rescuing from destruction a nation's chief industries, as 

 were Pasteur's in the case of his famous researches on the 

 phyloxera of the grape vine or the pebrine of the silkworm. 

 Nor had they to do with such frightful industrial disturb- 

 ances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest or 

 by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845. 



This is true in so far as any one pest is concerned. But 

 when one reflects on the scope of Miss Ormerod 's investi- 

 gations and considers how far-reaching were her researches 

 and how many and diverse industries were embraced by the 

 remedial and prophylactic measures which she proposed, 



1 In his preface to Les Maladies des Vers a Soie. 





