34 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xxxii, '21 



Professor J. H. Comstock was appointed to the position and 

 held office until March 1881. Riley returned soon afterward. 

 During the time of Comstock's incumhency, Riley conducted 

 the office of the U. S. Entomological Commission in his own 

 house in Washington, and had for his assistants Messrs. E. A. 

 Schwarz, W. H. Patton, H. G. Hubbard and W. S. Barnard. 

 Mr. Schwarz states that all of these men were together at 

 Selma, Alabama, in 1881. It is said that Dr. Riley met Patton 

 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and had been attracted to his published papers 

 in the Canadian Entomologist. Patton specialized in the 

 Hymenoptera and was more or less interested in the Proctotry- 

 pidae at the time when Dr. Howard began his work on the 

 Chalcididae, and they had occasional conferences over para- 

 sitic Hymenoptera. Patton was a scholarly man, well educated 

 and with an excellent knowledge of the literature ; his. work 

 was careful and sound and is so regarded by Hymenopterists 

 to this day. He had an excellent personal appearance, but 

 was rather shy and retiring, somewhat typical of the young 

 professor in a large university. Few became intimate with 

 him, but all recognized his broad general knowledge, his keen- 

 ness, and especially his extensive acquaintance with the litera- 

 ture of all groups of insects. He took nothing for granted 

 and was loath to believe personal and even recorded statements 

 until he had investigated them for himself. 



While Patton was in Washington his father became very 

 ill, and he left Washington and nursed him through his final 

 illness. He was indefatigable in his care of the patient and. 

 losing sleep and rest, had a nervous breakdown after his 

 father's" death. From that time on he acted strangely and 

 was finally placed in a private asylum in New Haven. He 

 escaped from the asylum and reappeared in Washington in 

 1882, in worn clothes and in poor physical condition, and Dr. 

 Riley promptly gave him a job in the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture. He worked only a few days, when news came to 

 the office from his boarding house keeper that he was acting 

 strangely, and Dr. Riley and Dr. Howard at once visited him 

 and finding him absolutely insane, arranged with the police 

 authorities to take him back to the asylum in New Haven. 



