DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 89 



Kentucky mother at Nashville, Term., July 15, 1824, he was a 

 graduate of the University of Nashville in 1841. At that time 

 Dr. Gerard Troost was connected with that institution, and young 

 Farquharson was profoundly impressed by him. Graduating in 

 1844 in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Farqu- 

 harson settled as a practitioner in New Orleans in 1845, and in 

 1847 was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Navy. 

 Resigning in 1855, he returned to Nashville and married there. 

 Through the war a strong Unionist, he was in hospital service, 

 and at its close removed to Arkansas. In 1868 he went to Daven- 

 port. He joined the academy in its first year, and for twelve 

 years was an important factor in its work. In 1880, being ap- 

 pointed to the State Board of Health, he removed to Des Moines, 

 where he resided until his death in 1884. Unusually modest, 

 quiet, and unassuming, Dr. Farquharson was a profound thinker 

 and an original investigator. Among his notable studies was an 

 interesting investigation upon Leprosy in Iowa. 



In this same first volume were several important entomo- 

 logical papers by J. Duncan Putnam. Mr. Putnam's election 

 has already been mentioned and his interest in the Proceedings 

 described. In the history of 

 American entomology there are 

 no more devoted workers. Al- 

 though dying when most men 

 begin work, he had accomplished 

 more than many who live long. 

 He was born at Jacksonville, 111., 

 October 18, 1855, his mother be- 

 ing the daughter of the second 

 Governor of Illinois. When a 

 boy of eleven years he began col- 

 lecting insects, and three years 

 later was a serious student of his 

 gatherings. He joined the soci- 

 ety in 1869, and at fifteen years 

 of age, in 1871, was its recording 

 secretary. In 1872 he took a 

 three months' trip into Colorado, 

 where he met John Torrey and 

 Asa Gray, with whom he formed 



a lasting friendship. In 1873 he was appointed meteorologist on 

 the Jones Yellowstone Exploring Expedition, which was in the 

 field for five months. Returning home, he continued his prepa- 

 ration for Harvard College, but was obliged to give up all hope 

 of a collegiate course on account of failing health. It was in 

 December of that year that his first haemorrhage of the lungs 



VOL LI. 7 



FIG. 6. EGBERT JAMES FARQUHARSON. 



