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The Elements of Insect Anatomy: An Outline for the use of Students in the Entomological Laboratories
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Notes On Entomology: A Syllabus Of A Course Of Lectures Delivered At Cornell University
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
John Henry Comstock was born on February 24, 1849 in Janesville, Wisconsin, United States. He was descended from William Comstock, who had settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut, before 1641 and later moved to New London. In John Henry's infancy his father, Ebenezer Comstock, joined a party seeking gold in California. Cholera overtook the group and the body of the father was left in an unmarked grave somewhere in the valley of the Platte. The young widow, Susan Allen Comstock, said to be of the notable family of Ethan Allen of Vermont, returned with her son to New York State. Here the boy was placed for a time in an orphan asylum, his mother being very ill, but later, by chance, he became a member of the family of Capt. Lewis Turner, a retired sailor who lived near Oswego.
Education
The boy was allowed three months' schooling each year and made the most of it. In the fall of 1869 Comstock entered Cornell University. Unfortunately he was taken seriously ill and had to return home for another year. In the fall of 1870 he again entered Cornell, this time to stay. He had to pay his own way in the university but he found opportunity for earning a subsistence. In the spring of his sophomore year (1872) thirteen of his classmates petitioned the faculty to allow Comstock to give a ten-week course in entomology. Thus he became an assistant, later an instructor (1873), and, in 1876, an assistant professor. He received the degree of B. S. in 1874. During the summer of 1872 he studied with Dr. H. A. Hagen at Cambridge, Massachussets In 1874-75 he worked with Verrill at Yale and in 1888-89 he was a student in the laboratory of Leuckart in Leipzig.
Career
At the age of sixteen he too became a sailor on the Great Lakes during the season of navigation in order to earn money to enable him to prepare for college at nearby academies. He had become interested in botany and during his sailing seasons had collected along the shores of the lakes. In searching for a book that would give him information concerning lichens, mosses, and related plants, he came across that classic of entomology, T. W. Harris's work on insects injurious to vegetation. At once he became intensely interested in insect life and determined to make the study of these small animals his life work. His contact with Leuckart exerted a most stimulating effect on his early career, and he returned to his work at Cornell with great enthusiasm. In the summer of 1878 he was sent to Alabama as field agent to study the cotton-leaf worm (Alabama argillacea), and subsequently published his Report upon Cotton Insects (1879). Appointed chief entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture upon the resignation of C. V. Riley in April 1879, he pursued his duties in Washington, D. C. , until 1882, when he returned to Cornell as professor of entomology and invertebrate zoology, a position he held until his retirement in 1914. From 1891 to 1900 Comstock spent a part of each year at Stanford University where, with Dr. Vernon L. Kellogg, he organized and conducted the work in entomology on much the same basis as at Cornell. In his later years he became interested in morphology and developed that phase of entomology. His ability in research developed early and grew with the years, and he published the results of his investigations in a series of carefully prepared studies, some of which can be noted. In 1888 he published An Introduction to Entomology, of which a revision, completely rewritten, was brought out in 1920, followed by later editions. In 1895 he published A Manual on the Study of Insects, which went through many editions and was described as "the most generally serviceable entomological textbook of its generation". In the same year he issued The Elements of Insect Anatomy, written in collaboration with Kellogg. These works were followed by Insect Life (1897) and How to Know the Butterflies (1904). In 1912 he brought out The Spider Book (revised and republished, 1940), which was unique in its field and one of his notable achievements. His original studies on the wing venation of insects, which covered many years and formed the basis of the greatest advance of the period in the science of entomology, culminated in his Wings of Insects (1918). During the years of his labors Comstock taught entomology to more than five thousand students. On his retirement his former students presented a memorial to him of $2, 500 with which to establish a Comstock Memorial Library of Entomology at Cornell. His books have been used the world over. After a long illness, Comstock suffered a final collapse on the night of March 19, 1931, and on the following morning he succumbed. His ashes were placed beside those of his wife in Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca overlooking the beautiful valley and Cayuga Lake.
(An entomological study of the biological characteristics ...)
Membership
He was an honorary member of the Entomological Society of London and of the Entomological Society of the Netherlands; a member of the American Philosophical Society and of the California Academy of Sciences. He was made an honorary member of the Fourth International Congress of Entomology.
Connections
On October 7, 1878, Comstock was married to Anna Botsford (1854 - 1930), who became a distinguished wood-engraver and a notable teacher, lecturer, and writer, especially in the field of nature study. She illustrated Comstock's earlier books and at Cornell maintained an open house for his students. There were no children from this marriage.