BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOSEPH DL XCAX PUTNAM. 239 



has certainly been far from liis intention. Tlie plain duty before 

 him has been to bring before the public facts in the life history of 

 our subject, illustrating his mental development. This he has en- 

 deavored to do conscientiously, plainly, sincvMely. If an affectionate 

 interest in his work has led him to overlook for the time his co- 

 workers in this broad field of science, it is because his attention has 

 been necessarily drawn to this one central figure. 



In his personal characteristics, Mr. Putnam united in a strange 

 mixture, the simplicity of the child, with the maturity of the man. 

 Thus, while in ordinary business transactions he knew little and cared 

 less for what is known as sliar|)-dealing, and in the important matter 

 of hygiene vvas utterly oblivious of the rules of common prudence, 

 no one was more exact in the miiiutice of accounts especially relating 

 to scientific operations, or watched with greater care the processes 

 by which life is maintained in the lower orders of insect life. With- 

 out showing any marked taste for ordinary mechanical work, he 

 manipulated the special instruments of scientific research with the 

 skill of an artist. Thus after becoming versed in all the practical 

 details of printing, he took uj) the difficult art of engraving, and 

 transferred with his own hand to steel or copper, the most delicate 

 tracery brought to light under the microsc(jpe. 



As a writer he was exact, perspicuous, but inclined to be diffuse 

 from the natural tendency of his mind to grasp the whole subject of 

 investigation, and bring out its minutest details. Though not with- 

 out a keen sense of the ludicrous, or appreciation of the beautiful 

 and grand, he never ventured on the jocular, in his writings, and 

 rarely indulged in any fanciful descriptions. AVith him the truths 

 of nature were serious matters, and he quickly passed through the 

 imaginative period of youth, to be enraptured and absorbed in the 

 realm of fact. In this ample field he found enough to engage the 

 activities of a short life without wasting his energies in a world of 

 fiction. Naturall}^ reserved and undemonstiative in his social feel- 

 ings, especially to strangers or those who took little interest in his 

 scientific pursuits, he occasionally unbosomed himself freely to his 

 intimate friends, and was not without genuine outbursts of warm 

 affection towards the objects of his special regard. His scientific 

 attachments were largely with those much older than himself, as 

 might have been expected fi'om his early mental development. Not 

 fluent in ordinary conversation, he preferred to communicate his 

 thoughts through the calmer medium of writing. 



His most marked mental characteristic, that on which his scientific 



