390 DAVID HUMPHREYS STORER. 



" Boston Journal of Natural History " ; but it is probable that his spe- 

 cial acquaintance with this part of our fauna only began at about tbat 

 time, when he was appointed one of the Curators of the Society's mu- 

 seum. Yet three years thereafter he published his report upon both 

 the groups, an octavo volume of two hundred and fifty-three pages. 

 Considering that these were just the years in which he was one of the 

 chief supports of the infant Tremont Street Medical School, which 

 gave systematic instruction throughout the year (the Harvard Medi- 

 cal School only for the four winter mouths), that he had the care and 

 toil of an engrossing profession, and that scarcely the nucleus of a col- 

 lection existed when he began his work, the result is certainly surpris- 

 ing. Through all the spring, summer, and autumn months, from five 

 o'clock in the morning until the breakfast hour, he might be found en- 

 gaged at the Society's museum over his specimens, snatching the early 

 hours out of a busy day ; every day, too, found him in the markets 

 and by the wharves, interesting the fishermen in his eager search for 

 strange forms of fish ; this contagious enthusiasm was one of the chief 

 sources of his success. 



It was a token of his interest in and appreciation of this work that 

 Agassiz, when he first landed on our shores, went directly to Dr. 

 Storer from the house of Mr. Lowell, through whose invitation he had 

 come to America. Dr. Storer's house was for years the daily resort 

 of Agassiz and his Swiss associates, and with them his children grew 

 up on the most familiar terms. 



This work upon our Massachusetts fishes and reptiles was thoroughly 

 done, equal to the best work of the time, and, like several other vol- 

 umes of the remarkable series published under the auspices of the 

 State, will ever remain a work of special value. That it was not com- 

 plete no one knew better than the author, and this doubtless it was 

 which led him to continue his investigations with the purpose of revis- 

 ing, enlarging, and perfecting it. To this he devoted all the forced 

 leisure of more than twenty-five years, publishing the work by instal- 

 ments in the Memoirs of the American Academy, with excellent illus- 

 trations, between 1855 and 1867 ; afterwards issuing it separately, 

 under the title of " A History of the Fishes of Massachusetts," as a 

 quarto volume of two hundred and eighty-seven pages and thirty-seven 

 plates. 



In this work he redescribed, and with greater fulness, all the species 

 from our waters, and elucidated their natural history with the greatest 

 care, paying particular attention also to the economic side. His style 

 is lucid and simple, his descriptions perfectly clear and well ordered, 



