Æ 426 — 
pernicious Insect, and the methods to be used for preventing the 
destruction of grain by it ». 
There are a few notes on injurious Insects in the work published 
in 1709 by Dr. BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, which he called « Frag- 
ments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania ». The same author 
also wrote on the Honeybee. These articles appeared in the 
« Transactions of the American Philosophical Society » in 1793 
and 1805. 
In 1806, FRED. VAL. MELSHEIMER, a minister of the Gospel, 
living in Hanover, York county, Pennsylvania, wrote « A Cata- 
logue of the Insects of Pennsylvania ». This work is called part first 
and is a list of the Coleoptera and contains the names of 1363 
species and 111 genera. The difficulties of the study at this time 
must have been very great as there were many nondescript genera 
and species. 
European books were high priced and difficult to obtain and 
congenial associates almost unknown. MELSHEIMER says the 
requests from European entomologists were urgent and ardent for 
American material, and that this was an inducement for American 
entomologists to make themselves more intimately acquainted 
with the productions of their country. MELSHEIMER, also says he, 
was much indebted to Prof. KNOCH in Brunswick, in Germany, 
who aided him in the classification and arrangement and that he 
corresponded with him for many years. 
THOMAS SAY, who was born in Philadelphia in 1787, has been 
called the father of American entomology and, as far as this study 
is concerned, he was a very remarkable man and in his short life 
accomplished much. He was evidently a born naturalist, as when a 
boy his greatest delight was in collecting Butterflies and those 
coleopterous Insects whose variegated er splendid colors seldom 
fail to arrest the attention of the most careless observer. His 
work on American entomology, bearing the date 1824, was the first 
of its kind to appear, and he said of it: « It is an enterprise that 
may be compared to that of the pioneer or early settler in a strange 
land, whose office it is to become acquainted with the various 
productions exhibited to his view, in order to select such as may be 
beautiful either as regards his physical gratification, or his moral 
improvement and in order to counteract the effects of others that 
may have a tendency to limit his prosperity ». SAY, like some of his 
successors, thought it necessary to offer an apology for his study- 
