234 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



Obituary 



JOHN BERNHARDT SMITH 



John Bernhardt Smith, Sc. D., who died March 12, 1912, at the 

 age of 54 years, had for many years been a conspicuous figure in the 

 entomological world and his contributions in Economic Entomology 

 have been so numerous and important that his name must remain a 

 familiar one to the workers in Economic Entomology for the future. 



Doctor Smith was born in New York City November 21, 1858, and 

 his early life was spent in the same vicinity but from the time that he 

 entered upon his work at the National Museum in 1886, until his 

 death at New Brunswick, New Jersey, his life has been so associated 

 with work in entomology that he can hardly be thought of as belonging 

 to any one locality in his influence. With his early life the writer is 

 not famihar, but since our first meeting in 1884, scarcely a year has 

 passed but what we have met at some of the various associations 

 connected with entomological work, and while my acquaintance with 

 him has been restricted to such occasional meetings and to a short 

 association in Washington, I feel that the acquaintance has by no 

 means restricted my opportunity for appreciation of his qualities and 

 I may speak with confidence as to the worth of the man and the quality 

 of his work. Professor Smith came into the work in entomology from 

 a professional career in law, being attracted to it as are many devoted 

 students of science, by his native talent and an association with enthu- 

 siastic students of this branch- of science, largely at first, no doubt, 

 from the standpoint of recreation, but it soon came to be with him a 

 ruling passion and from the year 1884 when he commenced work for 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, it was unquestionably 

 the paramount interest of his life. In 1886 he moved to Washington 

 to take up the position of Assistant Curator of Insects in the United 

 States National Museum and while there did much to bring together 

 and classify the somewhat chaotic mass of insects that had accumu- 

 lated, the results of various surveys and of the collections from the 

 Department of Agriculture, and the extensive collection brought 

 together by Dr. C. V. Riley. In 1889 he resigned this office to enter 

 upon his duties as Professor of Entomology at Rutgers College and 

 Entomologist of the Experiment Station of New Jersey. Later, in 

 1894, he was made official State Entomologist for New Jersey and 

 this position, with Entomologist of the station and the professorship 

 in Rutgers College were retained until his death. The service he has 

 rendered to New Jersey in these various capacities it would be hard 

 to measure but we certainly can say that in no state in the Union has 



