14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Board of Agriculture. In it he described the habits of several insects 

 injurious to fruit and shade trees. He was employed in the Massa- 

 chusetts State Cabinet of Natural History at the State House in Bos- 

 ton, and was clerk to C. L. Flint, the Secretary of the Massachusetts 

 State Board of Agriculture, who edited the final edition of Harris' 

 " Insects Injurious to Vegetation." Later he was employed in the 

 Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, and came to 

 Washington in the winter of 1875-76 to prepare the collection of 

 insects injurious to vegetation which was exhibited by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 

 1876. This collection was still in existence in the Department at 

 Washington when the writer arrived here in the fall of 1878, and is 

 referred to on other pages. Sanborn also contributed to the Tenth 

 and Twelfth y\nnual Reports of the Secretary of the Massachusetts 

 State Board of Agriculture and wrote a few other economic articles 

 in agricultural journals. 



In 1859 a new writer published his first entomological article. This 

 was the Rev. Cyrus Thomas, of Illinois, who wrote about the chinch 

 I)ug in the Prairie Farmer. Professor Thomas continued to write on 

 entomological topics in the Prairie Farmer and the Illinois Farmer 

 for a number of years ; and in the Transactions of the Illinois State 

 Horticultural Society for 1877-78 published a rather lengthy article 

 covering a number of injurious insects. Thomas had been a lawyer 

 prior to 1865. He then became a preacher in the Lutheran Church ; 

 then a teacher of natural science, and then State Entomologist of 

 Illinois. 



In 1877 the United States Entomological Commission was founded 

 by Act of Congress. Thomas was appointed a member, with C. V. 

 Riley and A. S. Packard, Jr. The work of the Commission will be 

 described on a later page. In 1877 was published his first biennial 

 report as State Entomologist of Illinois. He was appointed to this 

 ])osition following the death of Doctor LeBaron. Six of these reports 

 !)y Thomas were published, the last one appearing in 1882. They 

 were very interesting and rather valuable reports. He was the first 

 of the state entomologists to include in his reports articles written 

 by assistants. John Marten, Miss Nettie Middleton, D. W. Coquil- 

 lett, and G. H. French are the authors of articles in the fifth and sixth 

 reports, Thomas continued to write on entomological topics until 

 1882, when he was succeeded in the office of State Entomologist by 

 Dr. S. A. Forbes. Immediately after this he turned his attention to 

 ethnology and eventually became connected with the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, under the Smithsonian Institution, a position which 

 he held until his death. 



