V 



Dr. Cobbold's most important original contributions to Helmin- 

 thology were his experimental researches on Taenia mediocanellata 

 and other Cestodes, published in the work just referred to, his obser- 

 vations on Distoma haematobium {Bilharzia hcematobia, 1 Brit. Med. 

 Journ.,' 1872), and those relating to the so-called Filaria sanguinis 

 hominis (F. Bancrofti) published in the Journal of the Linnean 

 Society in 1878. 



Dr. Cobbold became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864. He 

 lectured on Zoology at the Middlesex Hospital from 1860 to 1873, 

 was Swiney Professor of Geology from 1868 to 1872, and subse- 

 quently Professor of Helminthology at the Royal Veterinary College. 

 His last communication to the Linnean Society was read on March 4, 

 1886, not many weeks before his lamented and unexpected death, 



J. B. S. 



John Ball, Honorary Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, was 

 born in Dublin, August 20, 1818, being the son of the Right 

 Honourable Nicholas Ball, M.P., formerly Attorney- General for 

 Ireland, and latterly Judge of the Irish County Common Pleas. At 

 a very early age he developed a love of both physical and biological 

 science, which was encouraged by his father, and greatly stimulated 

 when be was yet a child by visits to the Continent, and especially to 

 the Alps, during which he collected assiduously, and in his first 

 decade taught himself to measure heights barometrically. At 

 thirteen, his family being Roman Catholic, he was sent for three 

 years to the College of St. Mary's, Oscote, now Stonyhurst, where he 

 received a classical and mathematical education. This was at a time 

 when (not as now) scientific proclivities amongst the students were 

 repressed rather than developed, and where his principal amusement, 

 chemistry, was (as he has himself recorded) pursued under every 

 discouragement. 



It was at the meeting of the British Association at Dublin in 1835 

 that Ball's scientific tastes first met recognition. After a week's 

 thorough enjoyment of nearly all the sections, he was placed by his 

 father in charge of the present Professor of Botany at Cambridge 

 (Mr. Babington), and R. M. Lingwood, in order that he might 

 accompany these gentlemen on a scientific tour which they were about 

 to undertake in the West of Ireland. An account of this tour 

 appeared in the ' Magazine of Natural History,' vol. 9, 1836, p. 119, 

 wherein the geological observations were supplied by young Ball. 



In 1836 Mr. Ball was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, where 

 he devoted himself chiefly to mathematics, and in 1838 contributed a 

 paper to the Mathematical Section of the British Association 

 which was favourably noticed by Sir William Hamilton. At Cam- 

 bridge he renewed his friendship with Mr. Babington, and made that 



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