i66 



mythological or other proper personages, coupled, perhaps, with the 

 childish idea that the capital gives more importance to the name. 



Mr. Grote's reply to my inquiry is characteristically off the point. 

 I have never used the word "immoral'' in reference to his lists. I 

 have argued against, and spoken in general terms of the moral objec- 

 tion to, the custom of quoting the authority for the latest generic and 

 specific combination for an insect, and the fact that Mr, Grote, among 

 others, has abandoned the custom, leads me to hope and believe that 

 he will yet abandon the habit of extravagant capitalizing, and con- 

 form to common usage among scientific men. 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



JAMES SPENCER BAILEY. 



This well-known and respected entomologist passed out of his earthly 

 life on the first of July last, in Albany, N. Y., which city had for many 

 years been his home. He was born in Bethlehem, N. Y., on the 25th 

 of January, 1830, and was therefore only 53 years of age. He was 

 educated chiefly in his native State, and commenced the study of 

 medicine under Dr. John Swinburn, graduating from the Albany Medi- 

 cal College in 1853. Soon after this event he married Miss Fanny 

 Keith, of Augusta, Ga., and began to practice medicine in conjunction 

 with his brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas, at Cusseta, Ala. In 1859 he 

 went to Mobile, and very soon afterwards to Hempstead, Texas, 

 where he spent a number of the most active years of his pro- 

 fessional life. During the war he served for over a year as a surgeon 

 in the Confederate army, returning to Albany at the close of the 

 close of the strife, and remaining there until his death. In 1869, he 

 had conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, 

 by Soule University, of Galveston, and in 1874, he was honored by 

 Hamilton College with the degree of Master of Arts. He was also 

 chosen President of the Albany Medical Society, and was long one of 

 the chief editors and compilers of the transactions of that body. He 

 was widely interested in all subjects appertaining to Natural History, 

 and many papers from his pen, on various interesting questions are to 

 found in " Forest and" Stream," the " Country Gentleman," and other 

 journals, while his articles on matters relating to his own profession 

 are numerous and well-written As an entomologist, he was chiefly 

 known by his excellent articles on Cossus Centrensis and ^^geria pictipes. 

 His collection, principally of Sphingidae and Catocalse was extensive, 

 and probably second to few in this country. He possessed a rare en- 

 thusiasm for his favorite science, and to use the words of one ofii his 

 biographers, " he had a mind above the question of money-getting, 

 and loved to'work on those things which inform the mind, and develop 

 the orderly beauty of nature." It is most earnestly to be hoped that 

 his various papers may be collected and published in some permanent 

 form. The editor of the " Medical Annals," Albany, July, 1853, thus 



