OBITUARY. 311 



reached an age of seventy-three years. As a woman, Miss 

 Ormerod maintained the potentialities of her sex by being the 

 first lady member admitted as a Fellow of the Eoyal Meteoro- 

 logical Society, and we believe also of the Entomological Society ; 

 while she still further carried the standard by being the recipient 

 of the degree of LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh, for the 

 first time a female distinction in the Scottish capital. 



It is, however, in her twenty-four Annual Reports that the 

 work done can be properly estimated. Farmers, agriculturists, 

 and others recognized her as the authority to whom to apply for 

 advice as to combating, if not overcoming, the plagues of noxious 

 insects. An entomologist reading these Keports in a purely 

 technical spirit might sometimes mutter " compilation," but this 

 they never were, except in the sense that the sum of all human 

 knowledge is a compilation. As a real student, she sought the 

 best authorities; as an honest woman, acknowledged the sources 

 from which she had obtained her information, and there that 

 matter ended ; her advice as to practical endeavour was her own, 

 based on a wide experience, and in this sense compilation might 

 as easily be charged against every historian. To know what 

 has been done is the object of the publication of our annual 

 ' Zoological Record,' and to have little knowledge of it is the 

 weakness of weak zoologists. 



The death of Miss Ormerod and the termination of her 

 gratuitous services raises the whole question as to whether the 

 time has not arrived for the appointment of a governmental 

 bureau, where these matters — of vital interest to agriculture — 

 should be entirely dealt with. America has long led the way 

 in this enterprise, and we may eventually live to see ento- 

 mology recognized as one of the most beneficent sciences. 

 When this takes place the name of Miss Ormerod will be 

 remembered as that of the pioneer of the movement, and as one 

 who approached her subject with the grip of a man and the love 

 of a woman. 



Another writer who had most intimate relations with the 

 deceased will now add some personal recollections. 



(Ed.) 



