246 McAteE, In Memoriam F. E. L. Beal. [uty 
valescents Camp at Harper’s Ferry. He did so, and by November 
10, after enduring considerable hardships, reached a similar camp 
at Alexandria, Va. Here the men lived in tents and looked after 
themselves, so they could hardly be said to be receiving treatment. 
On December 8, he says “the Doctor put his ear to my breast and 
then told me to go to the hospital.’’ Nothing came of this order, 
however, and on December 29, while still in camp he was examined 
and recommended for a thirty day furlough. The furlough papers 
were not received until January 12. He left Washington the next 
day, reached New York and took a boat for New London. On 
the boat, he says “I took off my clothes for the first time in over 
four months and went to bed.’”’ On February 5, he was discharged 
from the service of the United States. 
An epitome of Professor Beal’s soldiering is: that he was sub- 
jected to unnecessary exposure, due to the unpreparedness of the 
nation in military ways, and fell a victim to the same disease that 
had taken both of his parents and was then discharged for disa- 
bility. However, as the long subsequent course of his life attests, 
Professor Beal made a complete recovery. 
After his discharge from the Army, the young man returned to 
life on the farm on which he grew up. He had a financial nest- 
egg derived from a small legacy from his mother’s estate and 
wages received on the farm during the later years of his apprentice- 
ship, and he now built a greenhouse and attempted to establish 
a market-gardening business. He was occupied with this and 
work on the farm from February, 1863, to December, 1865. Entries 
in his diaries show that study was not neglected during this period, 
and notes on birds and insects are frequent. It was at this time 
that he made the observations on the assembling of moths which 
he published several years afterward. On January 1, 1866, he 
began working as a gardener for a florist in Fitchburg, a position 
he held until the end of March, 1867. Evidently, it was at about 
this time that the idea of going to the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology came to him. He visited Boston March 23, probably 
for a preliminary investigation, but he notes also that he visited the 
Natural History rooms — undoubtedly those of the Boston Society. 
From April to September, 1867, he lived with his foster-parents, the 
Days, at Leominster and prepared for the entrance examination to 
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