LUBBOCK, Sir JoHN, Lord ANTRU' (1834 —). An English naturalist, anthropologist, and publicist. He was born in London, the son of Sir John W. Lubbock, a banker, also noted as an astronomer and mathematician. He was edu cated at Eton, and then entered his father's banking house. He began early in his career to take part in public affairs, and in 1858 entered Parliament, where he served at intervals until elevated to the peerage as Lord Avebury in 1900. In polities he was of Conservative inclinations and became prominent in measures having to do with suffrage representation. He also soon became actively interested in antiquarian, scien tific, and educational affairs. He was elected to the London County Council by the largest ma jority ever received by a candidate, and in 1890 succeeded Lord Rosebery as its president, Although Lord Avebury will he remembered with good reason, and with gratitude, especially by the citizens of London and Oxford, as a man of affairs and a wise legislator, his fame is far wider and more permanent as a man of science, in which field he achieved eminence, especially in the departments of anthropology and entomology. His Prehistoric Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and Customs of Mod ern Savages (1865), formed a text-hook on archaeology for twenty years or more, and has not been superseded by any modern work; it has been translated into the chief languages of Europe. In order to interpret the results of ex plorations in drift gravels, caves. shell-heaps, lake dwellings, and earth-mounds, Sir John deliv ered at the Royal Institution of London in 186S a course of lectures on the mental and social con dition of savages, their languages, fine arts, mar riage and kinships, Laws, moral codes and prac tices, and religions. These lectures were pub lished in a volume entitled Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man (1870). The author the human activities, especially those of a moral and social character, as his highest concepts, and traced each one in its origin, development, and varieties under different environments and among various primitive tribes.
A large share of his labors was devoted to experimental observation, to research, and to study in several departments of biology, notably in entomology. Ilis first paper on an entomolog ical topic to attract attention was published in the Transactions of the Royal Philosophical So ciety of London for 1857, on "The Ova and Pseu dova of insects." This was followed by various
anatomical and embryological papers, the most notable being Metamorphoses of a May-fly (1863 65), in which he showed that the larva molts twenty-three times. In 1867 he published his discovery of that remarkable little myriapod like animal, Pauropus. which probably turned his attention to the wingless insects now forming the groups Thysanura and Colembola. and in 1873 the Ray Society issued his chief systematic work, A Monograph of the ('olembola and Thysa aura. This work has now become antiquated, hut was for a long while the standard authority on the subject of these insects, and there is no doubt that it did much to stimulate investiga tion of these hitherto neglected creatures. In 1873 he published in Nature a series of articles on the origin and metamorphoses of insects, and these articles were brought together in a vol ume (1873) which has always had a high place among the workers on the phylogeny of insects. He contended that the group Insecta is descended from some campodeiform ancestor, and showed that the larva' of insects undergo an evolution more or less independent from that of the adult, being influenced by an entirely different environ ment and mode of life. In 1875 he published his charming book British Wild Flowers Considered in Relation to Insects, and in 1879 the Linna•an Society Journal began to publish the results of his experiments on some social insects, which were collected under the title Ants, Bees, and Wasps (1SS2), and became his most popular and best-known work: it shows a vast amount of close observation. His deductions have been dis puted. notably by the German writer Bettie (see INSECTS, paragraph Social Insects) : but his ob servations form records of great value.
In addition to the books above mentioned. Lord Avebury is the author of Addresses, Political and Educational (1879) ; Fifty Years of Science (1SS2) ; Flowers, Fruits, and Leaves (1886); Senses, Instincts, and Intelligence of Animals (1SS3); Pleasures of Life (1891); Use of Life (1S94); The Scenery of Switerland and the Causes to Which It Is Due (1896) ; The Scenery of England, etc. (1901), and many special papers.