Eleanor Anne Ormerod
| Eleanor Anne Ormerod | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
11 May 1828 Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire, England |
| Died | 19 July 1901 (aged 73) St Albans, Hertfordshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | entomology, agriculture |
| Institutions | Royal Agricultural College |
Eleanor Anne Ormerod (11 May 1828 – 19 July 1901) was an English entomologist.
She was a daughter of George Ormerod, F.R.S., author of The History of Cheshire, and was born at Sedbury Park, Gloucestershire. From early childhood insects were her interest and she had great opportunities to study them in the large estate where she grew up. She studied agriculture in general and became a local authority on it. When, in 1868, the Royal Horticultural Society began forming a collection of insect pests of the farm for practical purposes, Ormerod contributed greatly to it, and was awarded the Flora medal of the society.
In 1877 she published a pamphlet, Notes for Observations on Injurious Insects, which was distributed to interested persons, who in turn sent in the results of their researches, resulting in a series of Annual Series of Reports on Injurious Insects and Farm Pests. In 1881 Ormerod published a special report on the turnip-fly, and in 1882 was appointed consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society, a post she held until 1892. For several years she was lecturer on scientific entomology at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
Her fame was not confined to England; she received silver and gold medals from the University of Moscow for her models of insects injurious to plants, and her treatise on The Injurious Insects of South Africa showed how wide was her range. In 1899 she received a silver medal from the Société nationale d'acclimatation de France.
Her works on natural history were widely cited and she undertook brave experiments:
Miss Ormerod, to personally test the effect, pressed part of the back and tail of a live Crested Newt between the teeth. "The first effect was a bitter astringent feeling in the mouth, with irritation of the upper part of the throat, numbing of the teeth more immediately holding the animal, and in about a minute from the first touch of the newt a strong flow of saliva. This was accompanied by much foam and violent spasmodic action, approaching convulsions, but entirely confined to the mouth itself. The experiment was immediately followed by headache lasting for some hours, general discomfort of the system, and half an hour after by slight shivering fits."
...
Wikipedia