194 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



43-47, p. 266-272, 36 new species. Nothing more is known about him, 

 but he must have been in very kind relations with Dr. Melsheimer, to 

 judge from the contents of his collection, which is now in the Museum in 

 Cambridge. It seems that they divided between them every lot of exotic 

 species received by each, and for American species it is nearly the same. 

 Dr. Melsheimer also published in the Proc. Ac. N. Sc. Phil., 1844-47, '^o^- 

 ii. and iii., 431 species (vol. iii., p. 181, it is erroneously stated, 600) of 

 Coleoptera hitherto not described. Only 172 of them have been retained 

 in Crotch's Catalogue. Finally the Catalogue of the described Coleoptera 

 of the U. S., by Fried. Ernst Melsheimer, M. D., revised by S. S. Halde- 

 man and J. L. LeConte, Washington, 1853, 8vo., pp. 174, was published 

 by the Smithsonian Institute. The revision had necessitated a long delay 

 after the delivery of the manuscript. Nobody can say now how much 

 belongs to the revisers, but it is to be presumed that their task was not a 

 small one. " It was the first work," says LeConte, " of bibliographical 

 importance in the modern history of that branch of science, and gave a 

 powerful impetus to its development in the U. S., and has greatly dimin- 

 ished the labor of those who have continued the study of that department." 



Dr. Melsheimer was then 7 1 years old, and has probably later done 

 no more entomological work, except that he arranged his collection in 

 accordance with his new catalogue. When 82 years old he sold the col- 

 lection to Prof L. Agassiz, and died March 10, 1873, in Davidsburg, 

 York Co., Pa., aged nearly 91 years. His birthday is not known to me ; 

 it must have been in 1782. 



I cannot refrain from giving here again Dr. LeConte's kind parting 

 words : " Living an isolated life on his farm, remote from usual lines of 

 travel, dependent almost entirely on letters for the sympathy and counsel 

 of his fellow students, separated from libraries containing the results of 

 modern research, and therefore dependent on the traditional knowledge 

 received from Europe, which constituted in fact most of the intellectual 

 capital of the founders of natural history in the United States, Dr. Mel- 

 sheimer must be considered as a very remarkable instance of one who, 

 with very limited opportunities, has worked honestly, to the extent of his 

 abilities, to develop the powers of usefulness which were given him. 

 Modest, unpretending, affectionate to his family, devoted to his friends, 

 industrious to the limit of human usefulness, his death at such an advanced 

 age can only leave, with those who have enjoyed his acquaintance, a satis- 



