120 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



OBITUARY. 



We regret to announce the death of Gerald George Hodgson, 

 who was born in Brighton on October 10th, 1860, and was educated at 

 the College there, and at King's College, London. House Physician at 

 King's College Hospital ; House Surgeon at the Brighton and Hove 

 Dispensary ; and afterwards House Physician and House Surgeon at 

 the Sussex County Hospital. Succeeding his father, he was in pri- 

 vate practice for eight years in Brighton, and for the last eight years 

 had been attached to the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark. 



A very busy and strenuous life left him but few opportunities of 

 pursuing his favourite studies of botany and entomology, the latter 

 for many years being most intermittent, but this dearth of oppor- 

 tunities caused him to note more particularly the habits of the 

 creatures he met with, and he studied closely those little things that 

 incline to the paucity or abundance of insect life, so frequently 

 neglected by the mere collector. In 1898 his health broke down, 

 after a severe illness brought on by overw^ork and a bicycle accident, 

 and upon his partial recovery he was peremptorily oi'dered to give up 

 his profession and go for a long sea voyage. This culminated in his 

 settling for a time in Queensland, where he took up some land and 

 regained health in its culture. As opportunity served, he again used 

 his net and obtained many rare arid interesting butterflies whilst in 

 the colony. 



Upon his return home, he took up his last medical appointment, 

 and in his spare time arranged his cabinet of Lycasnidas upon a plan 

 of his own, namely, to exhibit at a glance over the drawer similar 

 aberrations and varietal forms of each species. Thus the columns 

 represented the species, and the cross-files the aberrations, either 

 common to all or only to a few of the butterflies, placed together as 

 a group. 



Hodgson was a very hard worker in the field, and the toil he 

 wilHngly underwent would deter many men, but with it all he was 

 very successful, and his "luck" in obtaining varieties almost phe- 

 nomenal. He was not a prolific writer, but his lectures and papers 

 show much original work ; as witness an address given to the City 

 of London Society, 1909, opening an intended discussion upon the 

 relative " Importance to the Rhopalocera of the upper or under sides 

 of the wings." In this he dealt with the subject in such detail that 

 he really covered the whole ground and left nothing debatable to be 

 entered upon. He was also a keen botanist, and probably knew more 

 of the life-histories of our British Orchids in the unflowering stages 

 than any living man. 



Dr. Hodgson's death was entirely unexpected. He left London, 

 and was about to go to Devonshire for a short rest, but was found 

 to have passed away in his sleep on Friday the 3rd ult. 



In private life he was geniality personified, and much beloved by 

 the young, entering into their sports and games with enthusiasm ; 

 whilst best of all, perhaps, was his rule of life, " If possible, let no 

 day pass without doing some one an act of kindness." This shows 

 what the real man was more than any adulatory epitaph. 



