XVI 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



occupied witli another insect, Chironomus, the Harlequin Fly. This was 

 chosen because of its abundance nearly all through the year, its trans- 

 parency (in contrast to the Cockroach), and the ease with which it can be 

 reared. Besides which, he says, Chironomus, in its various stages, has 

 a very special biological interest. His attention was concentrated upon it 

 for several years. The " Structure and Life-History of the Harlequin Fly," 

 by Miall and A. E. Hammond, did not appear till 1900, though most of the 

 work was done by 1892. 



Soon after he began work on Chironomus, Miall visited Leyden to consult 

 some books there. Every letter of this period has some reference to 

 Chironomus, and we even find him " reading Dutch for the sake of 

 Chironomus " ; but, nevertheless, he found time to write on educational 

 topics in the ' Journal of Education ' and to devise " Object Lessons from 

 Nature," which appeared in book form in 1891. 



Nature-study had not at that time become a universal subject of school 

 teaching, but object lessons were given habitually by many teachers. The 

 " Object Lessons from Nature " were intended to emphasise the value of 

 natural history in furnishing object lessons for children. In 1878, a course 

 of nature object lessons to children had been given at the Museum of the 

 Philosophical Society, under his direction, so that the idea was not a new 

 one to him. 



A natural development of this was the Saturday morning class for teachers 

 which was so valuable a feature of the Biological Department for many years. 

 The school-masters and mistresses came at first with the idea of getting up a 

 few object lessons for their schools, but eventually many of them came year 

 after year from love of the work, and were the most enthusiastic students that 

 attended the Department. It was a considerable tax on the energy of the 

 staff, and Miall was fortunate in having the hearty co-operation of all 

 concerned. A further extension of this work with teachers took the form of 

 three summer courses in nature study, given in 1901 and the two following 

 years, at Berwick, Bothbury, and Hexham. Here, again, he had the help of 

 his staff, and all looked back with pleasure on the experience. 



The investigation of Chironomus led to that of aquatic insects in general, 

 and, in 1891, Miall gave one of the public lectures to the British Association 

 at Cardiff on " Some Difficulties in the Life of Aquatic Insects," treating 

 specially their means of overcoming the surface tension of water. He also 

 read a paper on floating leaves in connection with the same difficulty. A 

 piece of work on Transformation of Insects, which appeared in " Nature " in 

 1895, was also a product of the Chironomus investigation, and that year, five 

 years before the book on the Harlequin Fly was ready, Miall completed the 

 " Natural History of Aquatic Insects," a semi-popular book on the subjects 

 that he was studying. As in the " Cockroach," he draws attention to the work 

 of " certain old zoologists — Swammerdam, Beaumur, Lyonnet, and De Geer — 

 who are at present unjustly neglected." "Some passages in this book," he 

 says, "if taken alone and read hastily, may appear to disparage systematic 



