MEMOIR. Xlll 



both here and in Europe. It aimed to describe and identify 

 every animal, plant and precious stone mentioned in Scrip- 

 ture ; and must have involved, on many of these points, 

 enough of minute investigation to enlist the whole family 

 in the work. And as Mrs. Harris was at the same period 

 a diligent rearer of silkworms, and supplied herself for ten 

 years with sewing-silk from their labors, it is evident that 

 Natural History must have been a topic of habitual house- 

 hold interest. It is certain that at this time (1820), the 

 younger Dr. Harris began his permanent collection of insects. 

 He entered Harvard College in 1811, in his sixteenth 

 year, and graduated, with respectable rank, in 1815. One 

 of his classmates describes him as " a timid, sensitive, rather 

 nervous and recluse youth," who was not at that time con- 

 spicuous for his love of Natural History. There was a 

 college society, called first the " Lavoiserian," and then the 

 " Hermetic," for the study of Natural Philosophy, and 

 especially of Chemistry. It is very probable that Dr. Har- 

 ris was inclined to this last study, as he was appointed, 

 some years after his graduation, a member of the Examining 

 Committee in that department. But the college afforded no 

 direct instruction in Natural History at that time, except in 

 the lectures of Prof. W. D. Peck. These w r ere accessible 

 by a special fee, and do not seem to have left a very pal- 

 atable impression on those who heard them. Dr. Harris, 

 however, attributes to Dr. Peck his first interest in his 

 favorite study. " It was this early and much esteemed friend 

 who first developed my taste for entomology, and stimulated 

 me to cultivate it." This probably refers, however, not to 

 college days but to a renewal of intercourse with the Pro- 



