XXIV MEMOIR. 



Dr. Harris prepared his catalogues of insects as laboriously 

 as he made his indices of books. They were made on the plan 

 of the card-catalogues now used in libraries, upon uniform 

 pieces of paper, three or four inches square, which he after- 

 wards tied in bundles, and carefully labelled. Each card 

 contained the name of the insect with synonymes and au- 

 thorities, and the number it bore in his catalogue, — but no 

 description. Mr. Say's collection was catalogued by Dr. 

 Harris in the same manner. Most of this sort of work was 

 apparently done in 1837, and all these manuscripts are in 

 possession of the Boston Society. This institution also holds 

 copies of almost all his entomological letters, transcribed with 

 a neatness and clearness peculiarly his own. 



His entomological cabinet, — of which he wrote to Mr. 

 Westermann, February 22, 1842, " My collection is not only 

 the best, but the only general one of North American in- 

 sects in this country," — is now in possession of the same 

 association. He wrote of this cabinet to Mr. C. J. Ward 

 of Ohio, March 8, 1837, as follows : 



"My object in making a collection, and for this purpose asking the aid of 

 my friends, has not been merely personal gratification; it has been my de- 

 sire to add something to the cause of science in this country 



Even should death surprise me before the results of my labors are before the 

 public, I shall leave an extensive, well arranged and named collection, 

 which, from the care bestowed upon it, will be in a condition for preservation, 

 and will remain as a standard of comparison when I am gone. You will 

 judge of the importance and value of such a collection when I assure you 

 that Mr. Say's cabinet does not contain one half of the species which he has 

 described ; of the insects in it, many are without names, and all more or 

 less mutilated, and so badly preserved that most of them are now absolutely 

 worthless." 



