-supplies information to Darwin on Sexual Selection.
-on variation.
-at work on narrative of travels.
Wallace, Dr., on sexes in Bombyx.
-on caterpillars.
Wallich, on Oxyspora paniculata.
Wallis, H.M., on ears.
-letters to.
Walpole.
Walsh, Benjamin Dann: was born at Frome, in England, in 1808, and died in
America in 1869, from the result of a railway accident. He entered at
Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained a fellowship there after being
fifth classic in 1831. He was therefore a contemporary of Darwin's at the
University, though not a "schoolmate," as the "American Entomologist" puts
it. He was the author of "A Historical Account of the University of
Cambridge and its Colleges," London, 2nd edition, 1837; also of a
translation of part of "Aristophanes," 1837: from the dedication of this
book it seems that he was at St. 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 correspo
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