April, '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. ' I43 



12 15 Bush Street, in the piesence of friends of nearly half a 

 century's standing. His life work was finished and at the 

 ripe age of 86 he has passed away, leaving to posterity all the 

 results of the scientific research into which his master mind 

 had delved. 



In San Francisco Dr. Behr has been most generally known 

 as the Vice-President and Curator of the Academy of Sciences, 

 that excellent institution which owes so much to his efforts. 

 In the scientific world, however, he was reckoned among men- 

 tal giants, for in many branches of science, particularl}- that 

 of entomology, he was an authority of world-wide prominence. 



He was born August 18, 18 18, in Coethen, the capital and 

 residence of the Duke of Anhalt-Coethen. He received a 

 classical education at the Prince's College, in Zerbst, and at 

 the gymnasium of his native city, passing thence to the uni- 

 versities of Halle and Wuerzburg, where he studied medicine 

 and natural science. He was graduated as a doctor of medi- 

 cine from Berlin University on March 23, 1843. 



As long ago as the time of his graduation he displayed a 

 passion for research in the field of entomology, and at the 

 urging of Alexander von Humboldt and other distinguished 

 scientists, who were his intimate friends, he began the won- 

 derful travels which led him eventually all over the known 

 globe and over a good part of that portion which is even yet 

 practically unknown. He visited Australia, Java and Brazil, 

 and lived two years in the Philippines. His work was ever 

 at the front. The miasmas of swamps, the bites of the dead- 

 liest reptiles, the attacks of the fiercest of wild beasts, were all 

 braved by the intrepid naturalist, who deemed life itself but a 

 small matter compared with the securing of some specimen of 

 insect existence hitherto unknown to science. He returned to 

 Berlin, and there practiced medicine, but the fever of research 

 was too strong, and he again went out into the wilds. He 

 penetrated the most remote spots in the East Indies, still col- 

 lecting, and then, in 1853, he came to San Francisco. Here 

 he decided to settle, and here he wrote the books which have 

 brought him fame and will remain as a monument to his 

 energy for all time. 



