48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



hi 1871 Dr. Gale became connected with this Institution as chemist 

 in the laboratory, where be continued for a year or two. 



He became considerably enfeebled in his later years, and died in this 

 city October 23, 1883, at the age of eighty-four. 



Dr. John Lawrence Le Conte was born in New York May 13, 

 1825, and died in Philadelphia November 15, 1883, in the fifty-ninth 

 year of his age. His father, Maj. John E. Le Conte, of the Engineer 

 Corps, was a writer on botany and zoology. Dr. Le Conte was gradu- 

 ated in 1840 from the College of Physicians of New York. He wrote 

 some early papers on miueralogy and palaeontology, but bis principal 

 studies were in the department of entomology, and more especially in 

 the class of Coleoptera, to which division he devoted the labor of many 

 years, and in which he made a very large and valuable collection of 

 specimens. In 1850 he published a "Monograph of Pselaphida3," and 

 not long afterward an "Attempt to classify the Longicorn Coleoptera of 

 America north of Mexico." 



In 1858 Dr. Le Conte was requested to prepare for the use of the In- 

 stitution "Instructions for collecting Coleoptera," which paper was pub- 

 lished in the Smithsonian report for that year, and was also separately 

 printed and widely distributed (as a circular) to collectors. In 1859 a 

 paper by him on "The Coleoptera of Kansas and Eastern New Mexico" 

 was published in the Smithsonian Contributions, Volume XI, occupying 

 64 quarto pages, with two plates and one map. In 1862 the Institution 

 published his "Classification of the Coleoptera of North America," 

 Part I, in 312 octavo pages, with 49 wood-cuts. (This was included 

 in Volume III of the "Miscellaneous Collections.") In 1866 appeared 

 "List of the Coleoptera of North America," Part I, in 82 octavo pages. 

 (" Mis. Coll.," Volume VI.) In the same year "New Species of North 

 American Coleoptera," Part I, in 180 octavo pages. ("Mis. Coll.," 

 Volume VI.) In 1873 "New Species of North American Coleoptera," 

 Part II, in 74 octavo pages. ("Mis. Coll ," Volume XL) In the same 

 year Part II of his "Classification of the Coleoptera of North America" 

 in 72 octavo pages. ("Mis. Coll.," Volume XL) 



These works remain incomplete, but their author, after years of prepa- 

 ration, decided upon an entire revision and complete presentation of his 

 subject. Meanwhile he prepared an important contribution to entomol- 

 ogy in a treatise devoted to the "Species of Ehyncophora," which was 

 published in 1876 by the American Philosophical Society. 



In 1882, assisted by his pupil and friend, I >r. George H. Horn, he had 

 ready (after an interval of ten years from its first issue) the new and 

 revised edition of his "Classification of the Coleoptera of North Amer- 

 ica" greatly extended. Early in 1883 this important and elaborate 

 work, comprising the latest labor of his life, was published by the In- 

 stitution. It occupies (including the introduction) 605 octavo pages. 



Dr. Le Conte was president of the American Association in 1874. He 

 was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, president of the 



