XVlll MEMOIR. 



in the Curatorship of Entomology, Henry Bryant, since well 

 known to the world of science. This task kept ns in con- 

 tact with Dr. Harris ; we had the aid of his cabinet in 

 identifying the species ; but the more we used this ready 

 assistance, the more profound became the wonder how Dr. 

 Harris himself had identified them. Tliere were no manuals, 

 no descriptions, no figures accessible to us ; even in the col- 

 lege library there were only a few books on tropical insects, 

 and a few vast encyclopedias, which appeared to hold every- 

 thing but what was wanted. It seemed as if a special flight 

 of insects must have come to Dr. Harris from the skies, all 

 ready pinned and labelled. Older heads than ours were 

 equally perplexed, and the mystery was never fairly solved 

 until after the death of our dear preceptor, and the transfer 

 of his cabinet and papers to the Boston Society of Natural 

 History. 



It was then apparent by what vast labor Dr. Harris had 

 compiled for himself the literary apparatus of his scientific 

 study. A mass of manuscript books, systematized with French 

 method, but written in the clearest of English handwritings, 

 show how he opened his way through the mighty maze of 

 authorities. First comes, for instance, a complete systematic 

 index to the butterflies described by Godart and Latreille, in 

 the Encyclop(^die M^thodique. Every genus or species is 

 noted, with authority, reference and synonymes ; the notes 

 being then rearranged alphabetically and pasted into a vol- 

 ume — perhaps three thousand titles in all. This was done 

 in 1835. 



Then comes a similar compilation of the Coleoptera from 

 Olivier ; twenty foolscap pages, giving genus, species, locality, 



