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Prof. Jeffries Wyman, in accordance with a vote passed 

 at the preceding meeting, read the following 



NOTICE OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE LATE DR. WALDO 

 IRVING BURNETT. 



Mr. President — From lime to time Death has entered our 

 circle, and taken from our number one and another of those who 

 have been our most active associates, and to whom we have been 

 bound by the ties of personal regard or of friendship. In nearly 

 every instance they have been removed in full manhood, or even 

 at a later period, when the labors of a life of the ordinary length 

 had been nearly finished. But never before has there been taken 

 from amongst us one who, in his devotion to natural science, has, 

 in so brief a life, left so many memorials of zeal and industry as 

 he, to whose memory we would now pay our tribute of respect. 



Waldo Irving Burnett was born in the town of Southboro', 

 Mass., July 12th, 1828. His father (the late Dr. Joel Burnett) 

 was a man of distinguished excellence in his profession, and to 

 the qualities of a good and useful citizen, united those of an ar- 

 dent lover of nature, of whose works he was a close and faithful 

 observer. Botany and Entomology especially received his atten- 

 tion, and without the aid of genial spirits, or the intercourse with 

 kindred minds, were studied with no ordinary zeal during the 

 few leisure moments which were left him after the demands upon 

 his time by a laborious profession had been satisfied. His love of 

 nature was transmitted to the son, and was manifested in early 

 boyhood, when the observation and study of insect life took a 

 strong hold upon his mind. His father experienced a just pride 

 in witnessing these tendencies ; but in place of encouragement, 

 which he at first extended with delight, he was soon, though re- 

 luctantly, obliged to substitute restraint. His son's mind was too 

 intently absorbed in his pursuits, and fears were excited lest his 

 studies, prolonged into hours stolen from the usual period of 

 repose, should be attended with disastrous results to his physical 

 constitution. His passion, however, grew with his growth and 

 strengthened with his strength, and in the face of all obstacles, 

 through health and through sickness, from an early youth to his 

 early grave, it was never abated. 



He had not the advantage of a collegiate education ; this he 



