18641869] WALSH 249 



position of science in Illinois was what Mr. Walsh describes it to 

 be : " You cannot have the remotest conception of the ideas of 

 even our best-educated Americans as to the pursuit of science. I 

 never yet met with a single one who could be brought to under- 

 stand how or why a man should pursue science for its own pure and 



holy sake." 



Mr. L. O. Howard (Insect Life, Vol. VII., 1895, p. 59) says that 

 Harris received from the State of Massachusetts only $175 for his 

 classical report on injurious insects which appeared in 1841 and was 

 reprinted in 1842 and 1852. It would seem that in these times 

 Massachusetts was in much the same state of darkness as Illinois. In 

 the winter of 1868-9 Walsh was, however, appointed State Entomologist 

 of Illinois. He made but one report before his death. He was a 

 man of liberal ideas, hating oppression and wrong in all its forms. 

 On one occasion his life was threatened for an attempt to purify 

 the town council. 



As an instance of " hereditary genius " it may be mentioned that 

 his brother was a well-known writer on natural history and sporting 

 subjects, under the pseudonym " Stonehenge." 



B. D. Walsh to C. Darwin. L etter I7 6 



Rock Island, Illinois, U.S., April 29th, 1864. 



More than thirty years ago I was introduced to you 

 at your rooms in Christ's College by A. W. Grisebach, 

 and had the pleasure of seeing your noble collection of 

 British Coleoptera. Some years afterwards I became a 

 Fellow of Trinity, and finally gave up my Fellowship rather 

 than go into Orders, and came to this country. For the 

 last five or six years I have been paying considerable 

 attention to the insect fauna of the U.S., some of the fruits 

 of which you will see in the enclosed pamphlets. Allow 

 me to take this opportunity of thanking you for the 

 publication of your Origin of Species, which I read three 

 years ago by the advice of a botanical friend, though I had 

 a strong prejudice against what I supposed then to be 

 your views. The first perusal staggered me, the second 

 convinced me, and the oftener I read it the more convinced 

 I am of the general soundness of your theory. 



As you have called upon naturalists that believe in your 

 views to give public testimony of their convictions, I have 

 directed your attention on the outside of one or two of 

 my pamphlets to the particular passages in which [I] l 



1 The words in square brackets are restorations of parts torn off 

 the original letter. 



