NOTICES ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE “ MONOGRAPHS ” 
73 
in the same volume, was still wanting. Constant urging on my part 
made Loew finish it in great haste, and it reached me in London 
just before my embarking again for the United States. I trans¬ 
lated it as fast as I could, and thus the long-expected volume was 
published in December, 1873. (Compare the “ Advertisement” of 
Professor Henry on the reverse of the titlepage.) Although numer¬ 
ous corrections w'ere introduced in translating and proof-reading, 
the haste in which the original manuscript was written may have 
left some traces in the text of Vol. III. 
3 The Smithsonian conflagration in 1865 
On January 25, 1865, at my breakfast table in my lodgings in 
New York, I received the first notice of the Smithsonian conflagra¬ 
tion when the New York Herald was brought with a conspicu¬ 
ous heading : “ Fire in the Smithsonian Institution ! Baron Osten 
Sacken’s manuscript burned.” This was the manuscript of the 
fourth volume of the “Monographs of North American Diptera,” 
which had cost me a great deal of labor. A few days later I re¬ 
ceived from Prof. Joseph Henry, who was at the head of the Institu¬ 
tion at that time, a letter announcing the loss to me. I reproduce 
it in extenso as an interesting historical document: — 
Smithsonian Institution, Saturday, Feb. 4, 1865. 
My dear Sir, — It is with very great regret that I have to inform you 
that your Memoir on the Limnobina was entirely destroyed by fire, which 
took place in the Smithsonian building on the afternoon of January 24. It 
was burned in company with nearly all the official correspondence and rec¬ 
ords of the establishment. We trust, however, that this disaster will prove 
but a temporary inconvenience to you, and that you have retained such 
original drafts of the several parts of the Memoir as will enable you, with 
the help of a scribe, to reproduce it. 
I am pleased to be able to inform you that the conflagration will not 
materially affect the essential operations of the Institution. The valuable 
library, the richest in this country in scientific books, the extensive collec¬ 
tion of specimens intended for distribution, the Museum of the Exploring 
Expedition, the stereotype plates of the later publications, are all saved. 
The loss of the greatest importance is that of the contents of my office, in¬ 
cluding upwards of thirty thousand pages of copies of letters exclusively of 
my own composition. 
