690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this modern Utopia. The community, however, did not prosper ; in- 

 ternal dissensions, as might have been expected, sprang up, and the 

 aid of the courts was invoked. Maclure, utterly disgusted, went to 

 Mexico, and left Say at New Harmony as his agent, to attend to the 

 settling of the affairs of the community. This was not an agreeable 

 task, but, without other means of support, Say was obliged to accept, 

 and continued in this position until his death. This stay at New Har- 

 mony was not a period of scientific idleness on the part of Say, as the 

 numerous contributions which proceeded from his pen attest. 



At his death his collections arid library came into the possession of 

 the Philadelphia Academy. The insects were submitted to another 

 entomologist for arrangement, but through an unpardonable neglect 

 were allowed to go to complete ruin before their return to the academy, 

 and the types of hundreds of species were thus irrevocably lost. The 

 remainder of his types are principally the property of the Philadelphia 

 Academy, where they are as religiously preserved with his own labels 

 as are those of Linne and Fabricius in London, or of Herbst in Berlin. 

 The number of new species which Say described has probably never 

 been exceeded, except in the cases of those two exceedingly careless 

 workers, John Edward Gray and Francis Walker, of the British Mu- 

 seum. There is this in Say's favor, which can not be said of the two 

 just mentioned, that his descriptions are, almost without exception, 

 easily recognized, and almost every form which he described is now 

 well known. Working as he did without books, and without that 

 traditional knowledge which obtains among the Continental workers, 

 it was unavoidable that he should redescribe forms which were known 

 before ; but, owing to the clear insight he possessed, and the dis- 

 crimination he exercised in selecting the important features of the 

 form before him, his work has never caused that confusion in syn- 

 onymy which many in much more favorable circumstances have pro- 

 duced. 



Say's work was almost w T holly the scientific description of the 

 forms 'which came under his eye, and there is scarcely anything in his 

 writings concerning the habits of animals, or which appeals in the 

 slightest to the popular taste, and his language frequently is not of 

 chaste and classic character. An extract from his " American Ento- 

 mology " will illustrate this : " During the progress of Major Long's 

 expedition up the Missouri, that enterprising and excellent officer in- 

 trusted me with the direction of a small party of thirteen persons, 

 destined to explore the country on the south side of that extended 

 river. After encountering many obstacles and privations, which it is 

 unnecessary to enumerate, the party arrived at the village of the 

 Konza Indians, hungry, fatigued, and out of health. Commiserating 

 our situation, these sons of nature, although suffering under the injus- 

 tice of white people, received us with their characteristic hospitality, 

 and ameliorated our condition by the luxuries of repletion and repose. 



