WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY — HOWARD 37 



writing nearly everything on the subject of insects that appeared in 

 the Annual Reports and engaging himself in the preparation of a 

 great illustrated work on the insects of the United States. 



His published reports contain much valuable information, and 

 Dodge's account of the difficulties under which they were written 

 toward the end explains much about them that has been criticised. 

 For years he was constantly at odds with the Chief Clerk of the 

 Bureau, and when he resigned in 1859 ^^ ^i^ ^t because of his diffi- 

 culties with that official. I have a note which he wrote that explains 

 this resignation, and, as it has never been published, it is worth print- 

 ing here : 



I have now dissolved partnership with, or rather left the U. S. patent office, 

 and am very glad I have done so, as the reports made in my name and under my 

 signature were mutilated, changed and entirely spoilt by the head of the depart- 

 ment, D. J. B., who is a notorious plagiarist & wants to take all the credit 

 he can from other men's brains — nay, the last report was actually cabbaged by 

 him from other authors, & then strung together like a string of onions (Agri- 

 cultural simile) without any knov/ledge of the subject he was writing about; & 

 parts of my own report were added in notes by D. J. B. & under his own 

 signature, whilst the report purporting to be mine, was written entirely by him 

 or his clerks. We quarrelled about this & here I am, free & independent again — 

 When I left the office all my drawings, sketches, notes, etchings, plates, & speci- 

 mens, were demanded by him as the property of the department & I had no 

 materials left to commence another work with ; this was done on purpose, as 

 he was exceedingly jealous of the reputation I was gaining, & he intended if 

 possible to ruin me & cause me forever to withdraw from public life. His plan, 

 however, did not succeed, as I fortunately found that my scientific friends 

 clustered round me and afforded me all the assistance in their power, altho' I 

 must confess my loss was very severe ; it can be of no use to the public if 

 not arranged by myself, as luckily the work was taken away before I had put 

 numbers to the plates, & he don't know a wasp from a butterfly. 



One of Glover's imfortunate hobbies was his belief that a picture of 

 an insect is of far more value than a cabinet specimen of the same 

 species. Insects themselves, he always stated, are eaten by museum 

 pests and are otherwise destroyed, but a picture, barring unlikely acci- 

 dents, will live forever. Convinced of this, he commenced to figure 

 in color every species he procured, and cared nothing what became 

 of the specimens after he had fixed their likeness on paper. Sys- 

 tematic and descriptive entomology he cared nothing whatever about, 

 and it was his boast that he had never described and named a species. 

 Tn a peculiar and eccentric manner which was quite characteristic, 

 he published two or three volumes. The plates for these volumes, 

 illustrations and text, he etched upon copper himself, printed them 

 in an edition of fifty copies only, and deposited them in the leading 



