512 JOHN LAWRENCE LE CONTE. 



that, during tlie custommy silence in the school-room, young Le Conte 

 was seen suddenly starting from his seat and scrambling on the floor 

 in the middle of the room. Called to the tutor's desk, he held in 

 his hand two beetles, and explained that they were very rare, and 

 that he could not help trying to catch them." 



His progress in the study of languages and mathematics was 

 thorough and rapid. After graduation he entered the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and received his medical 

 degree in 1846. He was in 1844, chemical assistant to Prof. John 

 Torrey. During this time his predilection for the study of the Coleop- 

 tera of his country seems to have strongly developed, and henceforth 

 he pursued this work through his whole life with an earnestness 

 rarely equalled and never surpassed. He joined an entomological 

 society, of which I believe Rev. F. J. Morris of Baltimore is the 

 only survivor. The collections of his father, of Mr. S. 8. Haldeman, 

 of the Rev. Mr. Melsheimer and the Rev. Mr. Ziegler, were at his 

 disposal, and before his graduation he published two papers containing 

 the descriptions of some species believed to be new to science. 



It is touching to observe how his father devoted himself to the care 

 and development of his only child. About twenty years before, he 

 had himself published some papers on Coleoptera, but later he took 

 a greater interest in the previous stages of Lopidoptera. The well- 

 known monograph, which he published together with Dr. Boisduval 

 from Paris, France, was the fruit of these studies. But when the 

 son decided upon the line of his studies, his father returned .ilso 

 to his former favorites, and published a monograph of the Histerida3 

 of the United States, for which the son had drawn some excellent 

 plates. These plates evince a prominent talent for entomological 

 drawing, and it is not easy to understand why he did not follow up 

 this remarkable talent, (perhaps the plates for the monograj)!! of Pasi- 

 machus are made by him,) tlie more so as his father was an excel- 

 lent draughtsman. Mayor Le Conte was distinguished for thorough 

 knowledge of several Ian <iu aces, and for his taste in fine arts and in 

 music. So father and son studied and worked together. Once in a 

 conversation the late Doctor spoke at some length about the works 

 of Berosus. "When I asked how it had happened that he had studied 

 this ohl and rather odd author, he answered, " I liave studied all 

 such things together with my father." At this time he made his 

 first journey to the Platte River and Fort Laramie, in 1845, after 

 Fremont's first exploration. 



A very important characteristic of his entomological publications 



