2ii8 Forty-fifth Report on the State Museum. 



entitled the "Natural History of the Canker- Woiin," published 

 in the year 1795. The paper was worthy of being a pioneer in a 

 new line of investigation, 



Mr. Peck's studies upon the canker-worm were made at 

 Kittery, Maine, but he was subsequently called to Harvard (Col- 

 lege. In IS 17, another paper, ''On the Insects which Destroy the 

 yoa]]g branches of the Pear-'J'ree, and the leading Shoot of the 

 Weymouth-Pine, by W. D. Peck, Esq., Professor of Natural History 

 and Botany, at Harvard University " (I cite from the paper in my 

 library), was published in the "Massachusetts Agricultural Jour- 

 nal" (Januaiy, 1817, vol. iv, pp. 205-211), by the society before 

 mentioned. 



The lectures of Professor Peck were attended by Thaddeue 

 William Haiiis, of Dorchester, Mass., during the years 1813-15. 

 Of his insta*uctor, Dr. Hams, in his later yeai^s, wrote: "It was 

 this early and much esteemed friend who first developed my taste 

 for entomology, and stimulated me to cultivate it." 



I need not dwell at length upon the entomological labora of 

 Dr. Harris, for they are familial' to you all. To him, perhaps 

 more than to any other man, do we owe the widespread interest 

 felt in the study of the insect world. His collection of insects was 

 commenced in or about the year 1820, at the time when he entered 

 upon the practice of his profession at Milton; and during his 

 residence here and at Dorchester most of his out-door researches 

 were made. His studies were untmngly continued for the 

 remainder of his life, during the long period of twenty-five years 

 that he held the librarianship at Harvard University, subsequent 

 to the year 1831. 



At the commencement of his librarianship he was honored with 

 the preparation of a Catalogue of the Insects of Massa- 

 chusetts, which was appended to the geological report of the 

 State by Professor Hitchcock. Ten years later, in 1841, was 

 published his " Keport on Insects Injurious to Vegetation," — one of 

 the scientific reports which were prepared by the Com- 

 missioners on the ZoJogical and Botanical Survey of 

 Massachusetts, agreeably to an order of the General 

 Court, and at the expense of the i^tate. It has the honor of 



