THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



He graduated as M. D. in 1829, and after- 

 wards attended lectures at Rutgers Medi- 

 cal College, in New York. In 1830 he 

 accompanied, as Assistant Professor of 

 Natural History, the Rensselaer School 

 Expedition to Lake Erie, and leaving the 

 expedition at its western terminus, he 

 traveled extensively in the Western States, 

 collecting and studying insects. On his 

 return east in 1831, he practiced medicine 

 for eight years, first at Fort Miller, N. Y., 

 and then at Stillwater, N. Y. In 1838 he 

 gave up practice and returned to Salem, 

 to assume the management of his father's 

 business. 



From this time on he devoted himself 

 largely to agricultural pursuits, which gave 

 more opportunities for investigations in 

 entomology. In 1844 he published his 

 first entomological paper, "Insects of the 

 genus Cecidomyia," in vol. i of the Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science and Agriculture, and 

 during the next ten years several other 

 papers by him, mostly on injurious insects, 

 appeared in various periodicals. 



In that year Dr. Fitch was appointed 

 State Entomologist of New York, and held 

 the position seventeen years. The four- 

 teen Reports on the Noxious, Beneficial, 

 and other Insects of the State of New York, 

 which he made during this time, were pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, from 1854 to 

 1870, and greatly enhanced their value. 

 The first nine of these Reports were pub- 

 lished separately in three volumes (i, 2, | 

 3i 4, 5> I 6, 7, 8, 9), with full indices. 



Dr. Fitch lived to the age of seventy, and 

 died at his home, April 8, 1879. 



There are several amusing anecdotes 

 related of Dr. Fitch which all Serve to 

 illustrate his keen powers of observation 

 and his untiring zeal, and his success was 

 a legitimate consequence of his patience 

 and perseverance. As early as 1840 he 

 thus laid down for himself the following 

 definite plan of action : 



"I have undertaken a very great work, and 

 have laid'upon myself a task both hard in the 

 plan and dilficult in the execution. To unite in 

 one very limited body the most essential facts of 

 the history of insects; to class them with pre- 



cision and accuracy in a natural series; to de- 

 lineate the chief traits in their physiognoni)'; to 

 trace in a laconic and strict manner their distmc- 

 tive cluiracters, and follow a course which shall 

 correspond with the progress of the science and 

 the eminent men who have contributed to its 

 advancement; to single out the useful and 

 obnoxious species, those which from their man- 

 ner of living interest our curiosity; to mark the 

 thousand sources where the knowledge of the 

 original authors may be consulted; to render to 

 Entomology tliat amiable simplicity which she 

 has had in the times of Linnaeus, of Geoffroy, 

 and of the first productions of Fabricius, and yet 

 present her as she is to-day, with all the richness 

 which she has acquired from observation, but 

 without surcharging her with it; to conform her, 

 in one word, to the model which I have under 

 my eyes, the work of Cuvier — such is the end 

 which I have taken upon myself to attain." 



His published works, taken together 

 witli the immense number of unpublished 

 notes which he has left, shows that he 

 accomplished, as far as one man could, 

 the labor he had imposed upon himself. 



In company with Mr. P. R. Uhler we 

 enjoyed a brief visit to Fitch's Point and 

 a day's delightful communion with the 

 object of our sketch, in the Fall of 1870. 

 It was the first and last time we had the 

 pleasure of meeting him. He had then 

 been suffering for some time from illness 

 and was very inuch bowed down. A 

 strong and very tall man, he had become 

 quite round-shouldered from the force of 

 stooping in pursuit of his studies, while 

 the constant use of microscope and lens 

 had produced a noticeable contrast in 

 the appearance of his left as compared 

 with his right eye. Genial, enthusiastic, 

 unassuming, he made a most favorable 

 impression. He had for some years before 

 that ceased to correspond with the en- 

 tomologists of the day; nor did he after- 

 ward change in this particular. In fact, 

 for nearly a decade he has, so far as 

 work is concerned, been dead to the en- 

 tomological world. 



His position as State Entomologist ; his 

 connection and correspondence with many 

 of the leading entomologists of this coun- 

 try as well as of Europe, and his own 

 untiring energy as a collector, enabled him 

 to bring together a very rich and valua- 

 ble collection. At the time of our visit 

 we found a large part of it in poor con- 

 dition, principally on account of mold 



