a™* of Scences.] BIOGRAPHY. 83 



Scudder telling Viim to observe and report. For 10 minutes he studied this unattractive object, 

 and then endeavored to report, but fortunately the professor was away. For three whole days 

 he gazed at that single fish before he could satisfy the professor upon the important point that 

 it possessed "symmetrical sides with paired organs." Then followed eight months entirely 

 devoted to the study of somewhat similar fishes, all Hsemulons, until the pupil saw Haemulons 

 in his dreams, and grew to associate the odor of preserving fluids with pleasant memories. 

 One thing seemed thereafter to have been burned into his very nature; devotion to all but 

 infinite detail. Indeed throughout his scientific career one wonders not so much at the great 

 bulk of his writings, as at the vast mass of minute and accurate details of observation therein 

 presented. 



He was keen to appreciate the dependence of theory upon fact, and to recognize the 

 broader significance of the former, but it is as an accurate recorder of minute details of structure 

 in the insect world that he stands preeminent and apart from all other entomologists of the 

 past or the present, and while in this respect he may in future be equaled he can hardly be 

 excelled. The religious zeal, reverence, and devotion to faith that had characterized his 

 ancestry appeared now in the ardor of his labor for science. With the controversial side of 

 the theory of evolution he had but little to do, nor was he in any sense an experimentalist, 

 but on the other hand almost our whole accurate knowledge of American orthoptera and of 

 American fossil insects is due to Scudder's painstaking examination and description of the 

 most minute details of structure exhibited by these forms. 



A strange contrast there was between the two pupils of Agassiz, Scudder and Hyatt; for 

 intimate friends though they were throughout life, the one spent his days in recording facts, 

 and the other in building theories. The one profoundly influenced by his master, devoted a 

 lifetime to the extension of a principle which had seemingly overwhelmed him in a single 

 course; while the other reflecting almost nothing of the school which had trained him built 

 always in generalities of the imagination. 



For four years Scudder studied under Agassiz, and graduated in 1862 with the degree 

 of B. S. 



Then began his long association with the Boston Society of Natural History in which he 

 served as recording secretary from 1862-1870, librarian 1864-1870, custodian 1864-1865, and 

 1866-1870; vice president 1874-1880, and president 1880-1887; when he declined reelection 

 in order to devote his entire energies to scientific work. 



His interest in library administration led to his appointment as assistant librarian of 

 Harvard College 1879-1882, and he also held the office of librarian of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences. Also in 1877 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society elected him pro- 

 fessor of entomology and ex-officio member of the committee on the library. In 1874 he 

 founded the Cambridge Entomological Club, which under his guidance was for many years 

 one of the most active and important entomological societies in America, numbering practi- 

 cally all of the ablest American students of insects among its members. Many important 

 papers he published in Psyche, the journal of -the club. For many years the regular meetings 

 of this society took place in the genial warmth that emanated from the great open fireplace 

 of his exceUently equipped private laboratory, which was in a specially designed building 

 apart from his residence at 156 Brattle Street, Cambridge. Scudder himself was always uncon- 

 sciously the leading spirit of these happy occasions, and many an animated discussion took 

 place lasting until far into the night. 



His working collection and the excellent library he possessed contributed in no small 

 measure to enhance the interest of these occasions, but it was his own rare unconscious charm, 

 simple man of science that he was, that shone as a beacon to welcome us all, great and small, 

 to the door of the seemingly enchanted chamber wherein his kindly spirit dominated, with 

 never a thought that his own face shone as that of a great leader in the science he always loved 

 with that same ardor that had inspired his college days at Williams. 



