24 THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



OBITUARY. 



Henry Tibbats StaInton died at Lewisham on the 2nd December, 

 1892, aged seventy years. For more than forty-seven years Mr. Stainton 

 has been a contributor to the literature of Entomology; and, within the 

 limits of this notice, it is impossible to do justice to the great scientific value 

 of all his work. He had essentially the mind of a true scientist, industrious, 

 exact, most scrupulous in publishing nothing he was not prepared to support 

 by the strictest rules of evidence ; it is most rencarkable that scarcely any- 

 thing he ever wrote has been controverted; dealing as he did with no 

 speculative views, he was sirgularly freed from the necessity of dissipating 

 his energies in mere wordy contests. He could never have accomplished 

 all that he did had it not been for his methodical economy of time. He 

 often had to visit the city, and on those occasions usually returned at the 

 time most others arrived ; and about 11 or even 10 a.m. he might constantly 

 be seen at the Cannon Street Station leaving London for Lewisham. If be 

 made a scientific tour on the Continent, the whole journey was planned 

 out, and he would invite his friends to meet him at the hotel he proposed 

 to visit, fixing the date and hour of meeting at far-off German cities. He 

 was always most careful to perform all that he had promised ; and it is well 

 known that when he once was unexpectedly called upon to support a friend 

 politically, he travelled from a distant part of Europe simply to record 

 his vote, leaving England immediately afterwards. In the year 1845 Mr. 

 Stainton began to publish communications to the 'Zoologist '; and for many 

 years afterwards some of the more important notes in that periodical were 

 from his pen. In 1855 he established, and enriched by his own writings, 

 'The Entomologist's Annual,' which he continued to publish for twenty 

 years. In 1864 he was one of the founders of ' The Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine,' our valuable contemporary. In 1857-9 Mr. Stainton brought 

 out 'A Manual of British Butterflies and Moths,' a perfect model of accurate 

 condensation, making the work a useful compendium, which for the need 

 it then supplied, and still supplies, has no equal. Mr. Stainton 's classical 

 work is the ' Natural History of the Tineina,' in four languages, of which 

 more than a dozen volumes have been published. In this he was assisted 

 by eminent continental naturalists. The work is finely illustrated, and will 

 be referred to as long as the science of Entomology is studied. But Mr. 

 Stainton's activities did not end here. So anxious was he to promote the 

 well-being of Natural History that he was for several years secretary of tlie 

 Ray Society ; of the Zoological Record Association ; of the Entomological 

 Society, of which he was also an ex-president; and a member of the council 

 of the Royal Society, to which he was elected a Fellow in 1867. Another 

 excellent quality Mr. Stainton possessed, — he was always most ready to 

 impart his vast stores of infortnation to all who sought enlightenment. For 

 many years he had monthly meetings at his house, to which all workers in 

 entomological science were welcomed ; and he also had at one time a class 

 of students for observations in the field. Anyone who will turn to the 

 works dealing with the Micro-Lepidoptera of the British Isles, published 

 prior to Mr. Stainton's time, will be struck with the immense strides the 

 knowledge of those interesting and beautiful insects has made, mainly 

 through his exertions. It may truly be said of him that he lived highly 

 esteemed, and died deeply regretted. 



