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luouiit claims of the Natural Sciences, especially at a time when they 

 were much more overlooked than they are now. He was wise enough 

 to see that the Sciences as applied to the practical Arts, are changing 

 the face of the world ; and as applied to education, to morals, to reli- 

 gion, and to general intellectual enlightenment, they are giving to man- 

 kind their best and noblest ideas. Through these sciences the Great 

 Creator is becoming more glorified than ever by a revelation of the 

 history of his doings through untold millions of years that are gone, 

 and through unnumbered millions of miles far away. 



In speaking thus highly of great pecuniary gifts, it is impossible for 

 us to undervalue the many men who are generously devoting their lives 

 to the advancement of the sciences, sometimes in poverty and in want, 

 and who have no lai'ge amounts of money to give. A life freely offered 

 is the noblest of sacrifices, and certain to do good forever, either with 

 or without money. 



The department of Entomological Science which Dr. Wilson inves- 

 tigated, was the two-winged insects, the Diptera. Probably he made 

 this selection because that order is more neglected than the others by 

 American entomologists. He was Chairman of the Committee on Dip- 

 tera in the care of the Museum, and his exertions were truly admi- 

 rable in collecting, studying, classifying and arranging the frail animals 

 of this order. Apparently there was not a book on Diptera in any 

 language which he did not have. After his decease his family pre- 

 sented seventy-one volumes on this order which he had not already 

 donated to the library; and the simple reading of the catalogue of this 

 dipterous literature at the next meeting of the Society was a wonder, 

 showing the vast amount of labor already bestowed by scientific men 

 on this inconspicuous department of creation. He had collected seve- 

 ral hundred new species and genera of dipterous insects, and he had 

 made arrangements with .Mr. Ezra T. Cresson to describe and introduce 

 them to the scientific world. Death just then ended his career. Shall 

 we lament and say his work was not completed ";' Indeed, had he lived 

 a hundred years, his work woulct not have been completed ; he would 

 even then have left many unfinished labors, for he had always many 

 things on hand advancing towards maturity ; and as fast as some were 

 done, others were undertaken. His collection of newly discovered 

 l>iptera are in the possession of the Society which he himself founded 

 and reared, and Mr. Cresson, the associate of his labors for several years, 

 is still living and perfectly qualified to describe all his discoveries. A 

 grand question with the Society now is. how can the .services of Mr. 



