Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
In 1924, Virginia Woolf wrote a short story based upon the life of Eleanor Ormerod. A wealthy spinster, Ormerod achieved notoriety in late nineteenth-century Britain as an economic entomologist. In 1904, Nature compared her to Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville. In terms of recent scholarship devoted to the history of women in science, Ormerod's career differed markedly from that of her two predecessors. The emotional or intellectual support of a brother, husband, father, or male family relation made no considerable contribution to her commitment to the study of entomology. Furthermore, her life as an independent spinster offered no positive proof for Francis Power Cobbe's dictum: as she aged, Eleanor Ormerod showed no tendency to become a ‘women's rights woman’. She publicly accepted or internalized the dominant, masculine ideology of science; and by contemporary standards, she achieved success.
1 Woolf, Virginia, ‘Miss Ormerod’, The Dial (12 1924), 77, 471.Google Scholar
2 ‘A lady entomologist’, Nature (7 07 1904), 70, 219–20.Google Scholar On Somerville and Herschel, see Patterson, Elizabeth C., ‘Mary Somerville’, BJHS (1969), 4, 311–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich, ‘Women astronomers in Britain, 1780–1930’, Isis (1984), 75, 534–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 See, for instance, Abir-Am, Pnina G. and Outram, Dorinda (eds.), Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science 1789–1979, London, 1987.Google Scholar Although more in the ‘listing’ tradition, Margaret Alic, Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity to the late Nineteenth Century, London, 1986Google Scholar, tends to be a retrieval of great women behind, or beside, great men.
4 Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory, ‘Maria Mitchell and the advancement of women in science’Google Scholar, in Abir-Am, and Outram, (eds.), op. cit. (3), 134.Google Scholar
5 In this respect, Ormerod's story falls short of the goals of present-day feminism. A recent trend among overtly feminist historians of science is the search for a ‘female epistemology’. See Tomaselli, Sylvana, ‘Collecting women: the female in scientific biography’, Science as Culture (1988), 4, 95–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarKeller, Evelyn Fox, ‘A world of difference’, in her Reflections on Gender and Science, London, 1985, 158–76Google Scholar, posits the career of geneticist Barbara McClintock as a partial example of a female epistemology of science.
6 I do not pretend to be a ‘knight errant’ rescuing Ormerod from the tower of neglect; she managed to achieve a modicum of contemporary fame. See Robert Wallace, ‘Ormerod, Eleanor Anne’, DNB, Oxford, 1912, 53–4Google Scholar; Neave, S. A. and Griffin, F. J., The History of the Entomological Society of London, 1833–1933, London, 1933, 155–6Google Scholar; Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey, Women in Science, Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century: A Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography, London, 1986, 142–3Google Scholar; and Alic, , op. cit. (3), 116–17.Google Scholar
7 For good historiographical essays, see Tomaselli, Sylvana, ‘Reflections on the history of the science of women’, History of Science (1991), 29, 185–205CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shuttleworth, Sally, ‘Patriarchal science’, Science as Culture (1991), 2, 443–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Outram, Dorinda, ‘Fat, gorillas and misogyny: women's history in science’, BJHS (1991), 24, 361–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Holcombe, Lee, Victorian Ladies at Work, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1973, 10–11Google Scholar; Ormerod, Eleanor, Eleanor Ormerod, LL.D. Economic Entomologist. Autobiography and Correspondence (ed. Wallace, Robert), London, 1904, 2.Google Scholar
9 [Martineau, Harriet], ‘Female industry’, The Edinburgh Review (04 1859), 109, 293–336Google Scholar, looks at the plight of women forced to earn a living because of the disproportion between the sexes.
10 See: Anderson, Michael, ‘The social position of spinsters in mid-Victorian Britain’, Journal of family History (Winter 1984), 9, 377–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for a quantitative analysis of the 1851 census statistics as they pertain to single women.
11 As a sample of the vast literature devoted to ‘redundant women’ in Victorian England, see ibid.; Freeman, Ruth and Klaus, Patricia, ‘Blessed or not? The new spinster in England and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, Journal of Family History (Winter 1984), 9, 394–414CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewis, Jane, Women in England 1870–1950, Sussex, 1984, 3–14Google Scholar; and Vicinus, Martha, Independent Women, London, 1985, 1–45.Google Scholar
12 Vicinus, , op. cit. (11), 2–10.Google ScholarDavidoff, Leonore, The Best Circles, London, 1973Google Scholar, demonstrates how Society became a more rigid, formalized institution in response to the flux and uncertainty of the first half of the nineteenth century. Through an insightful analysis of a cluster of dichotomies, Jordanova, L. J., ‘Natural facts: a historical perspective on science and sexuality’, in Nature, Culture and Gender (ed. MacCormack, Carol P. and Strathern, Marilyn), Cambridge, 1980, 42–69Google Scholar, looks at the role that science played in propagating an ideology bent on the creation of clear gender demarcations.
13 Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 53.Google Scholar
14 Anderson, , op. cit. (10), 392.Google Scholar
15 Davidoff, , op cit. (12), 50–2.Google Scholar
16 For information on George Ormerod, see Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 8–12.Google Scholar An excellent analysis of the Ormerod home life is given by Eleanor Ormerod's cousin, Diana Latham, in ibid., 14–19.
17 Vicinus, , op. cit. (11), 14.Google Scholar
18 Anderson, , op. cit. (10), 382.Google Scholar
19 Latham, Diana, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 19Google Scholar; Robert Wallace, in ibid., 73.
20 See: Patterson, , op. cit. (2).Google Scholar
21 Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 54–5.Google Scholar
22 Latham, in ibid., 16.
23 Davidoff, , op. cit. (12), 92–3.Google Scholar
24 Quoted in Reader, W. J., Professional Men, London, 1966, 170.Google ScholarHolcombe, , op. cit. (8), 22–3Google Scholar, discusses the Taunton Commission and women's education.
25 Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 3–4.Google Scholar
26 MrsJameson, [Anna], Sisters of Charity and the Communion of Labour. Two Lectures on the Social Employments of Women, London, 1859.Google Scholar For the historical significance of these lectures, see Vicinus, , op. cit. (11), 15Google Scholar; and Holcombe, , op. cit. (8), 9.Google Scholar
27 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 21 11 1892Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 214.Google Scholar
28 Vicinus, , op. cit. (11), 33–4Google Scholar, discusses Florence Nightingale in the context of a ‘heroic’ generation.
29 Shteir, Ann B., ‘Botany in the breakfast room: women and early nineteenth-century British plant study’Google Scholar, in Abir-Am, and Outram, (eds.), op. cit. (3), 36–7, 39.Google Scholar
30 Hooker, Lady, quoted in Ormerod, op. cit. (8), 86.Google Scholar
31 Unless stated otherwise, I use the term ‘public’ to indicate a wide, popular recognition.
32 ‘At first women did not claim arenas already controlled by men…; rather, they captured unclaimed areas and pushed out from there’. Vicinus, , op. cit. (11), 15.Google Scholar
33 See the evidence of Müller, Albert in, Parliamentary Papers [hereafter PP], 1873, 13Google Scholar, Select Committee on Wild Birds Protection, 795–9. Specifically, Q. 3121; and Napier, C. O. Groom, ‘Statement as to the reproductive powers of insects. Appendix No. 3’Google Scholar, in ibid., 825–7.
34 The quotation comes from: ‘Insectology’, The Times, 4 10 1876, 10Google Scholar, col. 6. In addition, see ‘Economic entomology’, The Times, 16 09 1876, 11, col. 2.Google Scholar
35 Murray, Andrew, ‘On extirpation of injurious insects’, Journal of the Society of Arts, (8 06 1877), 25, 734–8.Google Scholar On the Royal Horticultural Society, see Fletcher, Harold R., The Story of the Royal Horticultural Society 1804–1968, London, 1969.Google Scholar
36 Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 59–60Google Scholar; Fream, W., ‘Agricultural entomology’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England [Hereafter JRASE], 3rd series (1892), 3, 839–43Google Scholar; and Ormerod, Eleanor, ‘Notes for observers’, [Reprint of ‘Notes for observations of injurious insects’, London, 1877] in her Notes of Observations of Injurious Insects. Report, 1877, London, 1878.Google Scholar
37 On ‘network research’ in natural history, see Allen, David Elliston, The Naturalist in Britain, London, 1976, 67Google Scholar; Secord, James A., ‘Darwin and the breeders: a social history’, in The Darwinian Heritage (ed. Kohn, David), Princeton, 1985, 528–33Google Scholar; and Lennard, Reginald, ‘English agriculture under Charles II: the evidence of the Royal Society's “Enquiries”’, The Economic History Review (1932), 6, 23–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38 Secord, , op. cit. (37), 519–42Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Nature's fancy: Charles Darwin and the breeding of pigeons’, Isis (1981), 72, 163–86Google Scholar, explore this borderland, and examine how marginalized agriculturists used science for social mobility.
39 ‘Andrew Murray, F.L.S.’, The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (1877–1878), 14, 216.Google Scholar For information on the Colorado Beetle Scare of 1877, see Clark, J. F. McDiarmid, ‘Beetle mania: the Colorado Beetle Scare of 1877’, History Today, 12 1992Google Scholar, in press.
40 Neave, and Griffin, , op. cit. (6), 139–40.Google Scholar
41 Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 244.Google Scholar
42 MissOrmerod, Eleanor A., A Lecture on Injurious Insects Delivered at the Royal Agricultural College, Circencester… on Thursday, October 20th, 1881, Circencester, 1881.Google Scholar
43 Sykes, J. D., ‘Agriculture and science’, in The Victorian Countryside (ed. Mingay, G. E.), 2 vols., London, 1981, i, 260–72.Google Scholar
44 Spring, David, The English Landed Estate in the Nineteenth Century: Its Adminstration, Baltimore, 1963, 45–58Google Scholar; idem, ‘Aristocracy, social structure, and religion in the early Victorian period’. Victorian Studies (03 1963), 6, 263–80Google Scholar; and Clark, G. Kitson, The Making of Victorian England, London, 1962, 217–18.Google Scholar
45 On the founding of the RASE, see Clarke, Ernest, ‘The foundation of the Royal Agricultural Society’, JRASE, 3rd series (1890) 1, 1–19Google Scholar; and Goddard, Nicholas, Harvests of Change: The Royal Agricultural Society of England 1838–1988, London, 1988, 1–30.Google Scholar On the RASE's contribution to agricultural science, see Sykes, , op. cit. (43), 261Google Scholar; and Goddard, Nicholas, ‘Agricultural societies’Google Scholar, in Mingay, (ed.), op. cit. (43), i, 246–51.Google Scholar
46 Berman, Morris, Social Change and Scientific Organization, London, 1978.Google Scholar
47 Handley, Henry, A Letter to Earl Spencer (President of the Smithfield Club) On the Formation of a National Agricultural Institution, London, 1838, 6–7.Google Scholar
48 I realize that ‘Baconian’ is a protean term. Yeo, Richard, ‘An idol of the market-place: Baconianism in nineteenth century Britain’, History of Science (1985), 23, 251–98CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, demonstrates that ‘Baconianism’ referred to an epistemology and methodology of science throughout the nineteenth century. I, therefore, qualify my use of Baconianism with ‘technological’ throughout this paper to distinguish it from nineteenth-century meanings and discussions of the term.
49 ‘Royal Charter, incorporating the English Agricultural Society as the Royal Agricultural Society of England. March 26, 1840’, JRASE, 2nd series (1876), 12, p. xxxvi.Google Scholar
50 Ordish, G., ‘Scientific pest control and the influence of John Curtis’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (1968), 116, 298–309Google Scholar; idem, John Curtis and the pioneering of pest control, Reading, 1974Google Scholar; idem, The Constant Pest, London, 1976, 146–66; and Westwood, [J.O.], ‘Notice sur John Curtis’, Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (1863), 3, 525–40.Google ScholarGoddard, 's Harvests of Change, op. cit. (45), 94–138Google Scholar, helps place Curtis and Ormerod within the RASE's expanding consultancy work.
51 ‘Obituary. James Charles Dale, M.A., F.L.S.’, The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (1872), 8, 255–6.Google Scholar
52 Curtis, J. to Dale, J. C., Letter 190, 25 08 1840Google Scholar, Dale MSS, Hope Library, University Museum, University of Oxford.
53 For a complete list, see Westwood, , op. cit. (50), 532–4.Google Scholar
54 Curtis, John, ‘Observations on the natural history and economy of the different insects affecting the turnip crop’, JRASE (1841), 2, 193–213.Google Scholar
55 Curtis, John, Farm Insects, Glasgow, 1860.Google Scholar
56 Dale MSS, Curtis, to Dale, , Letter 202, 22 12 1841.Google Scholar
57 On the uses of science for social mobility, see Thackray, Arnold, ‘Natural knowledge in cultural context: the Manchester model’, The American Historical Review (1974), 79, 672–709CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berman, Morris, ‘“Hegemony” and the amateur tradition in British science’, The Journal of Social History (Winter 1975), 8, 30–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and see Inkster, Ian, ‘Introduction: aspects of the history of science and science culture in Britain, 1780–1850 and beyond’, in Metropolis and Province: Science in British culture 1780–1850 (ed. Inkster, Ian and Morrell, Jack), London, 1983, 16–20, 39–45.Google ScholarShortt, S. E. D., ‘Physicians, science, and status: issues in the professionalization of Anglo-American medicine in the nineteenth century’, Medical History (1983), 27, 51–68CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, applies Thackray's model of the marginalized, provincial man to a study of the process of the professionalization of medicine.
58 Heyck, T. W., The Transformation of Intellectual Life in Victorian England, London, 1982, 56–59.Google Scholar
59 ‘Report of the Council, May 22nd, 1882’, JRASE, 2nd series (1882), 18, p. xxxii.Google Scholar
60 Rev. Fowler, Canon, ‘The President's Address’, The Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, pt v, 1901, p. xxxiv.Google Scholar
61 When it was proposed that she should receive a government pension, Ormerod proclaimed: ‘assuredly I should feel inexpressibly lowered if I accepted a pension’. See Ormerod, to Wallace, Robert, 1 04 1901Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 322.Google Scholar
62 On veterinary science in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, see Sykes, , op. cit. (43), 265–6Google Scholar; Reader, , op. cit. (24), 155.Google Scholar On the creation of the Board of Agriculture, see Orwin, Christabel and Whetham, Edith, History of British Agriculture 1846–1914, London, 1964, 202Google Scholar; and SirFloud, Francis L. C., The Ministry Agriculture & Fisheries, London, 1927, 1–20.Google Scholar
63 Whitehead, Charles, Retrospections, Maidstone, n.d. [1908], 75–8.Google Scholar Whitehead started to receive remuneration for his government work in 1888. In addition, see Ordish, , Curtis, op. cit. (50), 104–5Google Scholar; and Burr, Malcolm, The Insect Legion, 2nd edn, London, 1954, 300.Google Scholar
64 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 13 02 1890Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 202.Google Scholar In addition, see Ormerod, to Fletcher, J., 20 01 1890Google Scholar, in ibid., 202.
65 ‘“The diamond-back Moth Caterpillar,” Royal Agricultural Society of England, Proceedings of Council, Wednesday, July 29, 1891’, JRASE, 3rd series (1891), 2, pp. lxxxv–lxxxviii.Google Scholar
66 ‘“Seeds and Plant Diseases,” Royal Agricultural Society of England, Proceedings of the Council, Wednesday November 4, 1891’, JRASE, 3rd series (12 1891), 2, p. clxx.Google Scholar
67 Ormerod, Eleanor, ‘The Diamond-Back Moth’, JRASE, 3rd series (1891), 2, 596–630.Google Scholar
68 ‘“Seed and Plant Diseases,” Royal Agricultural Society of England, Proceedings of the Council, Wednesday, July 27, 1892’, JRASE, 3rd series (1892), 3, pp. lxxxvii–lxxxviii.Google ScholarNature (10 09 1891), 44, 451Google Scholar; and ibid. (1 October 1891), 44, 528, indicated that Ormerod's resignation was not solely due to poor health.
69 Ormerod, to Wallace, Robert, 18 08 1892Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 281.Google Scholar
70 Allen, , op. cit. (37), 111–12.Google Scholar
71 For a sociological analysis of science as a profession, see Ben-David, Joseph, ‘The profession of science its powers’, Minerva (07 1972), 10, 362–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For an historical treatment of the traditional (i.e. liberal) professions, see Reader, , op. cit. (24).Google Scholar For a cautionary tale on professionalization and the history of science, see Cannon, Susan, Science in Culture: The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, 137–65.Google Scholar
72 Porter, Roy, ‘Gentlemen and geology: the emergence of a scientific career, 1660–1920’, The Historical Journal (1978), 21, 809–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
73 MacLeod, Roy, ‘Introduction’, in Government and Expertise: Specialists, Administrators and Professionals, 1860–1919 (ed. MacLeod, Roy), Cambridge, 1988, 1–24Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Science and examinations in England’, in Days of Judgement: Science Examinations and the Organization of Knowledge in Late Victorian England (ed. Macleod, Roy), Cheshire, 1982, 1–24.Google Scholar
74 [Dickens, Charles], ‘Farm and college’, All the Year Round (10 10 1868), 20, 414.Google Scholar In addition, Boutflour, , ‘The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester’, Agricultural Progress (1938), 15, 1–7.Google Scholar
75 For an excellent synthesis of the scattered literature, see Richards, Steward Arthur, ‘Agricultural Science in British Higher Education 1790–1914’, Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, History of Science, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1982.Google Scholar
76 The Local Government Act of 1888, the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, the Board of Agriculture Act of 1889, and the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of 1890. See ibid., pp. 118–19.
77 Moreton, , ‘Preface’, to Fream, W., Elements of Agriculture, London, 1892Google Scholar; Edmunds, Henry, ‘Eighty years of Fream's Elements of Agriculture’, JRASE (1973), 134, 66–77.Google Scholar
78 Ormerod, Eleanor A., Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm Pests During the Year 1890, With Methods of Prevention and Remedy. Fourteenth Report, London, 1891, p. v.Google Scholar
79 Ormerod, to Wallace, Robert, 19 03 1896Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 282Google Scholar; and Ormerod, to Wallace, , 30 01 1899Google Scholar, in ibid., 285–6.
80 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 15 05 1897Google Scholar, in ibid., 224–5; Watson, J. A. Scott, ‘The University of Oxford’, Agricultural Progress (1937), 14, 95–100.Google Scholar
81 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 24 12 1889Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 200–1.Google Scholar
82 Jones, Gwyn E., ‘William Fream: agriculturist and educator’, JRASE (1983), 144, 36–7.Google Scholar
83 ‘“Seeds and Plant Diseases”, Royal Agricultural Society of England, Proceedings of the Council, Wednesday, March 1, 1893’, JRASE, 3rd series (1893), 4, p. xxxviii.Google Scholar
84 Berman, , op. cit. (46), 1–74Google Scholar, studies Humphry Davy as a ‘technological scientist’.
85 I have borrowed this metaphor from Jordanova, , op. cit. (12), 57–8.Google Scholar
86 Pattison, Iain, The British Veterinary Profession, 1791–1948, London, 1983Google Scholar; Jones, E. L., ‘The changing basis of agricultural prosperity, 1853–73’, Agricultural History Reviewsss (1962), 10, 102–19Google Scholar; Sykes, , op. cit. (43), 265–6Google Scholar; and Reader, , op. cit. (24), 155.Google Scholar
87 Ormerod, Eleanor, ‘Annual Report for 1889 of the Consulting Entomologist’, JRASE, 3rd series (1890), 1, 181–4.Google Scholar
88 Ormerod, to Medd, J. C., 14 07 1900Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 272–3.Google Scholar
89 PP, 1888, 106, First Annual Report of the Agricultural Adviser to the Lords of the Committee of Council for Agriculture. 1887 [c-5275], 360–1.Google Scholar
90 Ormerod, Eleanor A., Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm Pests During the Year 1889, With Methods of Prevention and Remedy. Thirteenth Report, London, 1890, 70–1.Google Scholar
91 ‘James Fletcher, LL.D. Memorial Number’, The Ottawa Naturalist (1909), 22, 189–211.Google Scholar
92 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 28 12 1889Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 201.Google Scholar
93 Whorton, James, Before Silent Spring, Princeton, 1974, 20.Google Scholar Whorton gives an excellent summary of his book in his ‘Insecticide spray residues and public health: 1865–1938’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine (1971), 45, 219–41.Google Scholar
94 Riley, Charles V., The Colorado Beetle, London, 1877Google Scholar; Whorton, , Before, op. cit. (93), 17–26Google Scholar; and Ordish, , Constant Pest, op. cit. (50), 149–56.Google Scholar
95 Whorton, , Before, op. cit. (93), 24–69.Google Scholar For information on the use of Paris green in Britain, see ibid., 68–88; Ormerod, , op. cit. (90), 70–5Google Scholar; idem, op. cit. (78), 84–96; and idem, Paris-green (Or Emerald-green): Its Uses and Methods for its Application, as a Means of Destruction of Orchard Moth Caterpillars, London, 1891.Google Scholar
96 Whorton, , Before, op. cit. (93), 39.Google Scholar
97 On this change, and its relationship to the professionalization of American agricultural entomology, see Perkins, John H., Insects, Experts, and the Insecticide Crisis: The Quest for New Pest Management Strategies, London, 1982, 241–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
98 Coppel, H. C. and Mertins, J. W., Biological Insect Suppression, Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences (ed. Thomas, G. W. et al. ), Berlin, 1977, 4, 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the development of American economic entomology, and the increasing use of insecticides, see Sorensen, Conner, ‘The rise of government sponsored applied entomology, 1840–1870’, Agricultural History (1988), 62, 98–115Google Scholar; Dunlap, Thomas R., ‘Farmers, Scientists, and Insects’, Agricultural History (1980), 54, 93–107Google Scholar; and idem, ‘The triumph of chemical pesticides in insect control’, Environmental Review (1978), 5, 38–47.Google Scholar
99 Bailyn, Bernard et al. , The Great Republic, 3rd edn, Toronto, 1981, 297–8, 577–62.Google ScholarHolderness, B. A., ‘Agriculture and industrialization in the Victorian economy’Google Scholar, in Mingay, (ed.), op. cit. (43), i, 179–99Google Scholar; and idem, ‘The Victorian farmer’, in ibid., 227–43.
100 In a letter to Arthur Young, George Washington noted this difference between the two countries' approaches to agricultural practice. See Kohlmeyer, Fred W. and Herum, Floyd L., ‘Science and engineering in agriculture: a historical perspective’, Technology and Culture (1961), 11, 379, n18.Google Scholar
101 Perry, P. J., British Farming in the Great Depression 1870–1914, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1974, 120–3.Google Scholar
102 Hudson, J. P., ‘Fruit crops: a rather special case’, in Pesticides and Human Welfare (ed. Gunn, D. L. and Stevens, J. G. R.), Oxford, 1976, 81–91.Google Scholar
103 ‘The preservation of small birds, etc.’, The Gardeners' Chronicle, 3rd series (29 03 1890), 7, 386–7Google Scholar; ‘Editorial notices’, The Gardeners' Chronicle, 3rd series (10 05 1890), 7, 585Google Scholar; Ormerod, , op. cit. (87), 176–7Google Scholar; Ormerod, , ‘Reports of Consulting Entomologist’, JRASE, 3rd series (1890), 1, 407–12Google Scholar; Ormerod, to Professor Riley, 10 04 1890Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 183.Google Scholar
104 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 6 10 1890Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 204.Google Scholar
105 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 2 02 1891Google Scholar, in ibid., 206–7.
106 SirRussell, E. John, ‘Rothamsted Experimental Station’, Agricultural Progress (1937), 14, 1–3Google Scholar; and idem, A History of Agricultural Science in Great Britain 1620–1954, London, 1966, 88–106, 143–75.Google Scholar
107 For an excellent survey of the different sprayers that were available, see Whitehead, Charles, ‘Methods of preventing and checking the attacks of insects and fungi’, JRASE, 3rd series (1891), 2, 217–56.Google Scholar
108 Ormerod, to DrFletcher, J., 23 03 1891Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 208–9.Google Scholar
109 See: Reader, , op. cit. (24), 123–5.Google Scholar
110 Ormerod, Eleanor and Tegetmeier, W. B., ‘Appendix’, in Tegetmeier, W. B., The House Sparrow (The Avian Rat), London, 1899, 73–90.Google Scholar
111 As Secord has shown, Tegetmeier was, like Ormerod, a person who operated on the borderland between natural scientists and agriculturists. Tegetmeier assisted Darwin with his work on artificial selection. See, especially, Secord, ‘Nature's fancy’, op. cit. (38), 174–6.Google Scholar As an eminent pigeon fancier, ornithologist and apiarist, Tegetmeier was well placed to aid Ormerod. On Tegermeier's entomological connections, see Richardson, E. W., A Veteran Naturalist Being the Life and Work of W. B. Tegetmeier, London, 1916, 42–50.Google Scholar
112 To put the house sparrow in historical perspective, see Jones, E. L., ‘The bird pests of British agriculture in recent centuries’, Agricultural History Review (1972), 20, 107–25.Google Scholar In particular, see pp. 118–20, 123–4; and Dannenfeldt, Karl H., ‘The control of vertebrate pests in Renaissance agriculture’, Agricultural History (1982), 56, 553–4.Google Scholar
113 Summers-Smith, D., The House Sparrow, London, 1963, 217–19.Google Scholar
114 O'Connor, Raymond J. and Shrubb, Michael, Farming and Birds, Cambridge, 1986, 10–11.Google Scholar
115 Ibid., 57–78, 186.
116 Caird, James, High Farming Under Liberal Covenants The Best Substitute for Protection, 3rd edn, London, 1849Google Scholar, is the classic nineteenth-century statement on high farming. Perry, P. J., ‘High farming in Victorian Britain: prospect and retrospect’, Agricultural History (1981), 55, 156–66Google Scholar, provides the best historiographical overview. Thompson, F. M. L., ‘The second agricultural revolution, 1815–80’, Economic History Review, 2nd series (1968), 21, 62–77Google Scholar, is another important article. For an excellent recent contribution to the literature, see Holderness, B. A., ‘The origins of high farming’, in Land, Labour and Agriculture, 1700–1920: Essays for Gordon Mingay (ed. Holderness, B. A. and Turner, Michael), London, 1991, 149–64.Google Scholar
117 Coppock, J. T., ‘The changing face of England: 1850-circa 1900’, in A New Historical Geography of England (ed. Darby, H. C.), Cambridge, 1973, 608–14Google Scholar; and Perry, , op. cit. (101).Google Scholar
118 Summers-Smith, , op. cit. (113), 224Google Scholar; and O'Connor, and Shrubb, , op. cit. (114), 72.Google Scholar
119 Tegetmeier, W. B., op. cit. (110), 65.Google Scholar
120 Ibid., 66–8, reprinted the rules of the Club as a model for others to follow. Leaflet no. 84 of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1908, provided details for organizing a sparrow club. See Jones, E. L., op. cit. (112), 120.Google Scholar
121 Allen, , op. cit. (37), 191–9, 231–3.Google Scholar
122 See, for instance: MissOrmerod, E. A., ‘The house sparrow’, in Ornithology in Relation to Agriculture and Horticulture (ed. Watson, John), London, 1893, 52.Google Scholar
123 Doughty, Robin, The English Sparrow in the American Landscape: A Paradox in Nineteenth Century Wildlife Conservation, Oxford: School of Geography, Univ. of Oxford, Research Paper 19, 1978.Google Scholar
124 Cathcart, Earl, ‘Wild birds in relation to agriculture’, JRASE, 3rd series (1892), 3, 326–9Google Scholar; and Summers-Smith, , op. cit. (113), 175–6, 209, 218–19.Google Scholar
125 Carrington, Edith, ‘Miss Edith Carrington: portrait and autobiography’, The Animals' FriendGoogle Scholar[hereafter AF] (07 1894), 1, 24.Google Scholar
126 Elston, Mary Ann, ‘Women and anti-vivisection in Victorian England, 1870–1900’, in Vivisection in Historical Perspective (ed. Rupke, Nicolaas A.), London, 1987, 259–94.Google ScholarFor information on nineteenth-century bird protectionism, see Phyllis Barclay-Smith, ‘The British contribution to bird protection’, The Ibis (1959), 101, 115–22Google Scholar; and Turner, E. S., All Heaven in a Rage, London, 1964, 172–200.Google Scholar
127 Worster, Donald, Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, 1977; reprinted London, 1985, 185–6.Google Scholar
128 Rev. Walker, J. E. to Ormerod, E. A., 13 08 1897Google Scholar, in ‘Spare the sparrow’, AF (10 1897), 4, 16–17.Google Scholar In addition, see Walker, J. E. to Ormerod, E. A., 10 08 1897, in ‘God save the sparrow’, AF (09 1897), 3, 241.Google Scholar
129 See, for example, Carrington, Edith, The Farmer and the Birds, London, 1898Google Scholar, which was published for the Humanitarian League; and idem, ‘The sparrow-hawk’, AF (10 1897), 4, 4–6.Google Scholar For a useful historical overview of the philosophical underpinnings of preservationism, see Passmore, John, Man's Responsibility For Nature, London, 1974, 1–40.Google Scholar
130 Egerton, Frank, ‘Changing concepts of the balance of nature’, The Quarterly Review of Biology (06 1973), 48, 322–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
131 Passmore, , op. cit. (129), 24.Google Scholar
132 Ormerod, Eleanor A., Report of Observations… During the Year 1883, With Methods of Prevention and Remedy, London, 1884, 42.Google Scholar
133 Ormerod, Eleanor A., Report of Observations… During the Year 1884, With Methods of Prevention and Remedy. Eighth Report, London, 1885, p. vi.Google Scholar
134 Tegetmeier, , op. cir. (110), 46.Google Scholar
135 Ormerod, Eleanor A., op. cit. (67), 627–9.Google Scholar
136 Murdock, G. W., ‘The English sparrow in America’Google Scholar, in Watson, (ed.), op, cit. (122) 186–8.Google Scholar
137 Ormerod, to Tegetmeier, W. B., 14 09 1898Google Scholar, in Ormerod, , op, cit. (8), 167–8.Google Scholar
138 Woolf, Virginia, Three Guineas, London, 1938, 92Google Scholar, quoted in Lewis, , op. cit. (11), 196.Google Scholar
139 Sir Ludovic Grant, quoted in Ormerod, , op. cit. (8), 95–6.Google Scholar
140 Merchant, Carolyn, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, 1980; reprinted London, 1982Google Scholar; and Keller, Evelyn Fox, ‘Baconian science: the arts of mastery and obedience’, in her Reflections, op. cit. (5), 33–42.Google Scholar
141 Woolf, , op. cit. (1), 474.Google Scholar