Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denny, Henry
DENNY, HENRY (1803–1871), entomologist, was for forty-five years curator of the museum of the Literary and Philosophical Society in Leeds. Before his appointment he had published at Norwich in 1825 a monograph on the British species of the genus Pselaphus of Herbst. The peculiar direction thus given to his studies was followed for the rest of his life, and Denny, while duly performing his modest duties of curator, made himself a leading authority on the subject of the parasitic insects which infest man and beast. He was the first salaried curator of the Leeds Museum, and thoroughly identified himself with the interests of that institution. The well-known entomologist Kirby, to whom Denny dedicated his first monograph, endeavoured to secure for the latter employment on a serial publication projected by him for the illustration, by means of coloured plates, of his ‘Introduction to Entomology.’ The negotiations with the publishers on this subject, however, came to naught. The British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1842 made a grant to Denny of fifty guineas for the purpose of assisting him in the study of British Anoplura.
Denny died at Leeds on 7 March 1871, at the age of sixty-eight, and a fund amounting to 883l. was raised by subscription for the benefit of his widow and younger children. His published writings are: 1. ‘Monographia Pselaphorum et Scydmænorum Britanniæ; or an Essay on the British species of the genera Pselaphus of Herbst, and Scydmænus of Latreille,’ Norwich, 1825, 8vo. 2. ‘Monographia Anoplurorum Britanniæ; or an Essay on the British species of Parasitic Insects belonging to the order Anoplura of Leach,’ London, 1842, 8vo.
[Athenæum, 1871, p. 340; Reports of Leeds Phil. Soc. 1870–1, 1871–2; Freeman's Life of Rev. W. Kirby, pp. 403, 428; Report of Brit. Assoc. 1842.]