Paul's School, London. He settled in America in 1838, but only began serious Entomology about 1858. He never returned to England. In a letter to Mr. Darwin, November 7th, 1864, he gives a curious account of the solitary laborious life he led for many years. "When I left England in 1838," he writes, "I was possessed with an absurd notion that I would live a perfectly natural life, independent of the whole world--in me ipso totus teres atque rotundus. So I bought several hundred acres of wild land in the wilderness, twenty miles from any settlement that you would call even a village, and with only a single neighbor. There I gradually opened a farm, working myself like a horse, raising great quantities of hogs and bullocks...I did all kinds of jobs for myself, from mending a pair of boots to hooping a barrel." After nearly dying of malaria, he sold his land at a great loss, and found that after twelve years' work he was just 1000 dollars poorer than when he began. He then went into the lumber business at Rock Island, Illinois. After seven years he invested most of his savings in building "ten two-storey brick houses for rent." He states that the repairs of the houses occupied about one-fourth of his time, and the remainder he was able to devote to entomology. He afterwards edited the "Practical Entomologist." In regard to this work he wrote (February 25th, 1867):--"Editing the 'Practical Entomologist' does undoubtedly take up a good deal of my time, but I also pick up a good deal of information of real scientific value from its correspondents. Besides, this great American nation has hitherto had a supreme contempt for Natural History, because they have hitherto believed that it has nothing to do with the dollars and cents. After hammering away at them for a year or two, I have at last succeeded in touching the 'pocket nerve' in Uncle Sam's body, and he is gradually being galvanised into the conviction that science has the power to make him richer." It is difficult to realise that even forty years ago the position of science in Illinois was what Mr. Walsh describes it to be: "You cannot have the remotest conception of the ideas of even our best- educated Americans as to the pursuit of science. I never yet met with a single one who could be brought to understand how or why a man should pursue science for its own pure and holy sake." Mr. L.O. Howard ("Insect Life," Volume VII., 1895, page 59) says that Harris received from the State of Massachusetts only 175 dollars for his classical report on injurious insects which appeared in 1841 and was reprinted in 1842 and 1852. It would seem that in these times Massachusetts was in much the same state of darkness as Illinois. In the winter of 1868-9 Walsh was, however, appointed State Entomologist of Illinois. He made but one report before his death. He was a man of liberal ideas, hating oppression and wrong in all its forms. On one occasion his life was threatened for an attempt to purify the town council. As an instance of "hereditary genius" it may be mentioned that his brother was a well-known writer on natural history and sporting subjects, under the pseudonym "Stonehenge." The facts here given are chiefly taken from the "American Entomologist" (St. Louis, Mo.), Volume II., page 65. -as entomologist. -letters to. -letter to Darwin from. -death of. -and C.V. Riley.
Warming, E., "Lehrbuch der okologischen Pflanzengeographie."
Washingtonia.
Wasps, power of building cells.
Water, effect on leaves (see also Rain).
Water-weed, Marshall on.
Waterhouse, George Robert (1810-88): held the post of Keeper of the Department of Geology in the British Museum from 1851 to 1880. -review by Darwin of his book on Mammalia. -on skeletons of rabbits. -on wide range of genera. -mentioned.
Waterloo, Darwin's recollections of.
Waterton.
Watson, H.C., alluded to. -on the Azores. -on British agrarian plants. -on northward range of plants common to Britain and America. -objection to Darwin's views. -on Natural Selection. -mentioned.