THE LITERARY 



®^fe^ Mmm mm 



OF THE LINN^AN ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Vol. I. AUGUST, 1845. No. 10. 



AMERICAN ZOOLOGY, NO. I. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 

 BY JOHN G. MOnRIS, I>. D. BALTIMORE, MD. 



In a series of short essays I design to give a history of the past and 

 present state of Zoological Science in our country, and it will be grati- 

 fying to all readers to learn the rapid progress we have made in this 

 interesting department. 



I begin with Entomology. The father of American Entomology 

 is the Rev. T. V. Melsheimer, a Lutheran clergyman who resided in 

 Hanover, Pa., where he commenced his entomological pursuits more 

 than fifty years ago. He soon after began a correspondence on this sub- 

 ject with his countryman, Prof. Knoch, of Brunswick, who is the au- 

 thor of several valuable works on the science. Mr. Melsheimer pub- 

 lished no entomological work himself, excepting his celebrated catalogue 

 of the Coleoptera of Pennsylvania, which is quoted as authority by 

 every writer on insects. His manuscripts are numerous, the principal of 

 which is a definition of the species enumerated in the catalogue and of 

 about 600 other species not noticed in it. At the death of the father, 

 the collection and manuscripts came into the possession of the son, the 

 Rev. John Melsheimer, who contributed considerably to the promotion 

 of the science by adding many new species to the collection and fur- 

 nishing Say with such as he wanted and his observations on them. At 

 his death in 1829, the original collection and papers became the pro- 

 perty of another son, Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, of Dover Townsliip, York 

 County, who still lives an industrious prosecutor of the science, and 

 one of the most distinguished entomologists of our country. During 

 the last year or two, he has published in the Proceedings of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, most admirable descriptions of 

 several hundred new species of Coleoptera, and I happen to know that 

 he is at work in determining and describing many more. 

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