Worthington George Smith

Worthington George Smith FLS FRAI (25 March 1835 – 27 October 1917) was an English illustrator, archaeologist, plant pathologist, mycologist, and local historian. He was the president of the British Mycological Society for a one-year term from 1904 to 1905. Smith was awarded a Veitch Memorial Medal in 1907.

Quotes

The fairy-ring Champignon (certainly one of the most exquisitely delicious of all our fungi) is generally neglected, or regarded with great suspicion. Under the name of 'champillion,' however, it is well known to the weavers and labouring men of the east of London, who may be seen gathering it in considerable numbers any autumn day amongst the short grass of Victoria Park.
- Mushrooms and toadstools: how to distinguish easily the differences between edible and poisonous fungi. With 2 large sheets containing figures of 29 edible and 31 poisonous species. London: Robert Hardwicke. 1867. p. 15. (64 pages)

When potatoes are destroyed by parasitic fungi in the autumn, it does not always happen that the parasite is the dreaded putrefactive fungus of the murrain, named Peronospora infestans Mont. Another highly destructive fungus, named Fusisporium Solani, Mart., is sometimes equally damaging to potatoes with the Peronospora itself. The name Fusisporium refers to the spindle-shaped crescent form of the spores,—fusus a spindle ; Solani of course, refers to the genus Solanum to which the potato belongs.
- Diseases of Field and Garden Crops: Chiefly Such as are Caused by Fungi. Macmillan's School Class Books. Macmillan & Company. 1884. p. 30. (353 pages; text at archive.org)

The mere barbarians, the chippers of rude weapons and tools of stone, who lived in North Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, — the men who had been driven north, ages before the Roman occupation, by Kelts from the mainland of Europe, are quite recent as compared with the far-off time when primeval savages lived in what is now Britain. The barbarians who preceded the ancient civilisations of Rome, Assyria, and Egypt are modern as compared with the remote antiquity of the savages whose bones, weapons, and tools are here described and sketched.
- Man, the Primeval Savage: His Haunts and Relics from the Hill-tops of Bedfordshire to Blackwall. London: Edward Stanford. 1894. p. 1. (375 pages; text at archive.org)

The first stage coach passed through Dunstable on Monday, April 12th, 1742. ...
Chalk Hill, to the north of Dunstable, presented great difficulties for coaches, seven or eight horses were required to take the coach from Brewer's Hill Road to the top of the hill.
- Dunstable: Its History and Surroundings. Volume 3 of The Homeland Library. Bedfordshire County Library. 1980. p. 112. ISBN 9780901051875. (192 pages; 1st edition published in 1904, Homeland Association; 1st part of quote last part of quote)

Mr. Worthington Smith has devoted himself for many years to a study of the localities near London where implements have been found, and has described the various palæolithic floors with great minuteness, and illustrated them with great artistic skill. In this book he brings all his previous discoveries together, and groups them round his last work at Caddington, near Dunstable, on the borders of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. He has presented to us a monograph on palæolithic camping-places, rather than a general treatise on Man, the Primeval Savage.
- William Boyd Dawkins, (27 December 1894) "review of Man—the Primeval Savage". Nature 51 (1313): 194–195.

Worthington Smith was an important member of the group of archaeologists whose work established Palaeolithic Archaeology as a discipline in Britain. He observed, meticulously recorded and published traces of some of the best Acheulian sites ever to come to light in England. While his overview of the Palaeolithic period has inevitably not stood the test of time, his publications remain of great value for the factual information they contain, and for his fine illustrations. Most of his artefact collections also survive, well-documented in spite of the loss of many of his written notes, and these too are important.
- Derek A. Roe, "Chapter 8. Worthington George Smith (1835–1917)". Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859–2009. Special Volume 30 of Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society. London: Lithic Studies Society. 2009. pp. 85–95. (edited by Robert Hosfield, Francis Wenban-Smith, & Matthew Pope)

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Worthington George Smith