21U UAVE.Vl'OUT AeAJ)EMY OK NATURAL SClliNCKS, 



feel that 1 have lost a valued Iriend. Yet it wa& all along evident that he 

 could not remain lone with us; and thankful should we be that even that 

 brief span was [jrotrarted quite beyond all ordinary expectation. 



Very truly yours, 



ASA GRAY. 

 Messrs. Preston, Lynch and Fvi.ton, 



Conimittee of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. 



From (Jbdhg-k Enheijuann, M. I)., St. LouiSv Mo. 



St. Loi'is, Mf>.., January (>, 1882. 

 Messrs. Preston, Lynch and Fui>ton, Committee : 



Gentlemen: Your letter of invitation was unfortunately mislaid, and I 

 am thus prevented from being present, even by this my answer to your invi- 

 tation, at the memorial meeting in honor of my late friend, the President of 

 your Academy, J. Duncan Putnam. 



I heartily svmpathize with you and your institution in the irreparable los>s 

 you have sustained in the demise of your gifted young President, whose 

 talents, zeal, and energy have already made, him conspicuous, and would 

 have achieved great success in science if a longer life had been vouclisafed 

 to him. 



Accept my sincere condolence for the great loss you, and with you 

 science, has s-ustained in the death of young Putnam. 



Your.s. respectfully, 



G. ENGELMANN. 



I'rDiii llioF. Samieh, H. SiuDDE-u. ('aiiibricljje. Mass. 



CAMiiRiitfiE, January 1, 1882. 

 Messrs. C. H. I-^ieston and Others, 



Committee of the Davenport Academy : 

 Genti-emen: I regi-et it will not be in my jiower to attend the meeting- 

 you propose to hold on the 12th inst. I should be glad to testify by my 

 presence the esteem in which I have ever held Mr. Putnam, both as ifi per- 

 sonal friend and as a fellow student of nature. The persistent energy with 

 which he not only undertooi<, liut carried to completion, investigations of a 

 serious and difficult nature, when liis time was so largely occupied in the 

 administration of a jniblic trust of which he was, jierhaps, tlie main stay, and 

 all while laboring under the heavy disadvantage of a serious and wearing- 

 malady, can only be fully appreciated by those who understand the tax upon 

 liis strength which each of these entailed. They bring out, too, into clearer 

 relief and more vivid light, the purity of his purpose, and, to those who 

 knew him best, the gentleness of his character, which made intercourse with 

 liim a delight. Many a man of vigorous constitution wo(dd liave shrunk 

 from the labors he gladly undertook; few would iiave accomitlisiied them 

 so well. To us at the East, at least, who look upon your aifairs at a distance, 

 and, as it were, by a bird's-eye view, it seems as if, witliout !um, tlie Daven- 



