RELATIONS WITH LOEW AFTER MY RETURN TO EUROPE 97 
Loew wrote : “ I have Collectanea and several unfinished works, a 
part of them nearly ready, but which my present condition prevents 
me from finishing. For instance, my work on the Amber Diptera” 
(about this compare my Chapter IX) ; “ a work on Insects noxious 
to Agriculture, prepared (as a prize-essay) in collaboration with 
Schaum; the beginning of a work on Fedtchenko’s collection of 
Diptera from Turkestan; preparations for a reform (‘ Neubearbei- 
tung ’) of the System of Diptera for the intended new edition of 
your Catalogue of North American Diptera” (about this, compare 
my Chapter XII); “ a fourth volume of the Supplements to 
Meigen, which lies before me nearly completed (‘ welcher fast 
vollendet daliegt ’), and many other papers (‘ und vieles Aehn- 
liches ’).” 1 
Alexis Fedtchenko (1844-1873). I cannot let pass the name of this admirable man 
and naturalist, who honored me with his friendship, without paying him a tribute 
of respect and affection. His biography, with a portrait, will he found in the 
Collection of Biographies of Russian Naturalists, published (in Russian) by the 
Imperial Moscow Society of Natural Sciences, Yol. I (1888). A sympathetic notice 
on his untimely and lamentable death on the “ Col du Geant” (near Mont Blanc) 
on September 15, 1873, was published by G. Lohde, of Leipzig, in the Berl. Ent. 
Zeit., 1873, p. 236. An important addition to it will be found in the same peri¬ 
odical, 1874, p. 150. Besides Fedtchenko’s many-sided work in all branches of 
natural science during his explorations of Central Asia, he had a decided taste for 
dipterology. His “Catalogue of the Diptera of the Environs of Moscow ” (in 4to, 
1868) is a model of a work of that kind. The Diptera collected by him in Central 
Asia were published by Loew principally in his volumes of “ Beschreibungen euro- 
paischer Dipteren ” (1871-1873). Loew expresses his thanks to Fedtchenko in the 
Preface (p. vi) of the third volume. 
During my visit to Guben in September, 1877 (of which I have 
given an account in my Chapter XII), I saw very little of Loew. 
His nervous irritation was such that soon after my arrival his physi¬ 
cian ordered him to be completely isolated, and I accomplished my 
object of packing up and sending off the collection without be¬ 
ing allowed to see him again. On November 17 I was able to 
inform Loew, by letter, of the safe arrival of the collection in the 
United States. He expressed his great satisfaction in a letter 
begun in December, 1877, continued on January 5, 1878, and 
1 That this fourth volume remained unpublished, was due to the fact that no 
bookseller could be found to undertake such an unremunerative publication! (Com¬ 
pare the statement of Dr. J. Schabl (of Warsaw) in the Wiener Ent. Zeit., 1902, p. 71.) 
7 
