John Henry Comstock

John Henry Comstock ( born February 24, 1849 in Janesville, † March 20, 1931 in Ithaca ) was an American entomologist and founder of the Department of Entomology at Cornell University.

Career

Childhood

Comstock was born as the son of schoolteacher Ebenezer Comstock and Susan Allen of the Family of independence fighter Ethan Allen in 1849 on their farm in Janesville. Shortly after John Henry's birth, his father died during the gold rush of cholera, without that he had managed to escape poverty. As a result the mortgage for the farm could no longer be operated, Comstock and his mother moved to New York, where it was working as a nurse. Once there, the mother became ill, Comstock grew up to the age of eleven on with family friends. Then he offered to Captain Lewis Turner to work on his schooner and receive free board, lodging, clothing and three months in the year of schooling. Turner's wife Rebecca took care of Comstock as to her own son, so that Turner's family for the next five years de facto became Comstock's parents' house. Since he was too weak for most tasks sailor, he was trained by Rebecca Turner to cook. In his free time on the ship he also learned a lot for the school visits in winter by reading various books. His fascination with entomology aroused the book A Treatise on Some of the Insects injurious to vegetation by Thaddeus William Harris ( 1795-1856 ). His copy is now in the Comstock Memorial Branch of the Library of Cornell University, and bears the following inscription:

" I purchased this book for $ 10.00 in Buffalo, New York, on July 2nd, 1870. I think it what the first book I ever saw entomological. Before seeing it I had never givenName entomology a thought; from the time I bought it did I felt I did shoulderstand like to make the study of insects my lifes 's work. "

Academic Career

At the age of 20 he attended Cornell University on his studies. Since there was no degree of Entomology, Comstock is turned to the Head of the Department of Zoology Burt G. Wilder (1841-1925), who attempted by force to make him more books and information available. Finally, it put this as his assistant. A year later demanded 13 fellow students at the University to allow Comstock keep a Entomologievorlesung for them. After Wilder's approval, the University agreed. The title of the lecture in the spring semester 1872 was Lectures and Field Work in Entomology. Lasting impression then made ​​the visits of Louis Agassiz and Charles Valentine Riley as visiting professors at Cornell University. As Hermann August Hagen took over the management of the Cambridge insect collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, it also attracted Comstock there to learn from Hagen. His next teacher was Asa Fitch ( 1809-1879 ). Now he got his first official teaching position at Cornell University and as was called into his second semester as a senior Wilder for a lecture at the Browdoin College, represented him Comstock.

After graduating in June 1874 asking him Riley in his capacity as Entomologist of the U.S. Department for Agriculture to explore pests in the south of the USA, for which Comstock went to Selma (Alabama ). His next trip Comstock made ​​in the winter of 1876 to Florida, where he again collected insects. For this second collection of more than seventy years later, new species have been described. At the invitation of James Orton (1830-1877) he held after his lecture in the spring of 1877 another Entomologievorlesung at Vassar College. After a few more trips to Selma came in 1878 to oust Riley in Washington Comstock and took his place for the following two years at the Ministry of Agriculture. There he had his work focused on pests and had the opportunity to several research trips within the United States. After completing his last government reports to Comstock devoted to the doctrine of the writing of a textbook on entomology. The next project he turned to spiders. This culminated in 1912 in his Spider Book. At the same time, he used his only sabbatical leave to visit his wife entomological collections in Europe and North Africa. During this trip, he was also an honorary member of the Société de Belgique Entomology. 1914 Comstock Emeritus was, but the Department was even more true. He died in 1931.

Family

His wife Anna Botsford Comstock Comstock learned as his student know. Comstock's course she took first in 1875 only as a diversion to their main subjects of history and English. As she began to care field, she took further courses at Comstock and got to know him as the excursions know. Finally, both married in 1878. The marriage remained childless.

Works

  • Report on Cotton Insects
  • Manual for the Study of Insects
  • Spider Book
  • The Wings of Insects
  • An Introduction to Entomology

Documents

  • The Scientific Monthly, Vol 62, No. 2 (Feb. 1946) pp. 140-150
  • The Scientific Monthly, Vol 62, No. 3 ( March 1946 ) pp. 219-229
  • Arachnologe
  • Entomologist
  • Americans
  • Born in 1849
  • Died in 1931
  • Man
Janesville (Wisconsin) Cambridge (Massachusetts) Selma (Alabama) Integrated Authority File
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