156 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Subsequent to 1863 when he became one of the incorporate rs of 

 the National Academy of Sciences, many honors and degrees 

 were conferred on him at home and abroad. General Abbot 

 remarks that the keynote to his whole life may be found in his own 

 words: " I cannot understand how any man can be willing to 

 assume charge of a work without making it his business to know 

 everything about it from A to Izzard." 



(From HENRY L. ABBOT, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy 

 of Sciences, vol. 2, 1886, pp. 201-215.) 



JOHN LAWRENCE LE CONTE 

 Born, May 13, 1825; died, November 15, 1883 



Among the many families of Huguenots who fled from 

 France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, may be found 

 the name of LeConte. The family was of noble birth and 

 possessed of wealth, and no small number of its members had 

 that spirit of scientific investigation, which characterized so 

 many of the refugees. John Lawrence LeConte traced his 

 descent from Guillaume LeConte who was born in Rouen in 

 1859. John Lawrence LeConte was born in New York, May 13, 

 1825. After taking a collegiate course at St. Mary's College in 

 Emmettsburg, Maryland, he entered the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons in New York, from which he was graduated in 

 1846. 



Possessing an independent fortune, he practiced his profession 

 but to a limited extent, though during the Civil War he entered 

 the army medical corps of the volunteers, becoming medical 

 inspector, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After this, he 

 held no regular position until 1878, when he became connected 

 with the United States Mint in Philadelphia, remaining there 

 until his death on November 15, 1883. 



As early as 1848, Dr. LeConte made several journeys to Lake 

 Superior and California to study the fauna, and later travelled 

 more extensively, visiting the Rocky Mountains, Honduras and 

 Panama, Europe, Egypt and Algiers. He inherited from his 

 father a taste for natural history and at the early age of nineteen 



