Xovembei — December iSS^vJ 



FsrCHE. 



107 



TRIBUTE TO THE jSIEMORY OF JOHN LAWRENCE LECONTE. 



BY CHARLES VALENTINE RILEY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Dr. John L;i\vrcnce LeConte died at 

 his residence in Pliihulelpliia, i^ Nov. 



iSS^ 



Nothini; that we ean sav will 



render the memory of him more lasting 

 or more dear, for he acliieved pre- 

 eminence in his chosen field of hilior 

 and won the love and respect of all who 

 knew him. 



LeConte was born in New York. 13 

 ]Ma_y 1S25, and was graduated M.D. by 

 the College of phvsicians and surgeons 

 in 1S46. He moved to Philadelphia 

 some years later, and after his marriage 

 abandoned the practice of medicine. 

 He was lieutenant-colonel and medical 

 inspect<ir in the United States armv dur- 

 ing the civil war and, from 1S7S till die 

 time of his death, chief clerk in the 

 United States mint at Philadelphia. 



Luckily for American natural science 

 his fortune was such that, with these 

 two exceptions, he held no positions, 

 but was able to de\(ite his time to ento- 

 niologv. His chosen specialt}- was the 

 coleoptera, and in order to fuUv appre- 

 ciate the magnitude of the work which 

 he accomplished and the difficulties 

 with which he had to contend, it is 

 necessarv to consider the state of ento- 

 mology in this country as compared 

 with Europe at the time he began to 

 write, now almost fortv years ago. 

 Great activity at that time prevailed in 

 Europe in all branches of entomology. 

 In descriptive coleopterology Aube. 

 Erichson, Germar, Klug, Lacordaire, 

 jSIannerheim, Mulsant, Schonherr, Sev- 



ville, Solier, Stephens and others were 

 active at that period. Others ecpially 

 eminent had died shortlv before and 

 many came into prominence shortly 

 afterward. Naturalists there were aided 

 as well bv the large number of skilled 

 and enthusiastic amateurs wdio furnished 

 an abundance of material and observa- 

 tions, as by the uimierous large libra- 

 ries, public museums and private collec- 

 tions to which thev had access. Numer- 

 ous entomological societies also Iirought 

 the workers together, gave stimulus and 

 encouragement and ottered ready means 

 of publishing. 



How diflerent the circumstances in 

 America at that time I In the whole 

 country there were no more persons 

 scientificallv interested in entomology 

 than could l)e found in a single large 

 city of Europe. The larger libraries 

 were scant of entomological literature 

 and there were neitlrer staudan.1 nor 

 public collections and but few private 

 collections, of limited size. The most 

 important of the older collections, viz., 

 that made by Thomas Say, had been 

 irretrievablv lost through carelessness 

 and inditTerence, while other valuable 

 collections had shared no better fate. 

 Contributions to the knowledge of our 

 coleopterous fauna consisted chiefly of 

 disconnected descriptions of single spe- 

 cies scattered through all sorts of publi- 

 cations. -'Can it be wondered at," 

 LeConte wrote in one of his earliest 

 papers, "tliat there is so much confusion 



