December, 1913 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 107 



life, a square peg in a round hole. The post of Librarian at 

 Harvard University became vacant and Harris accepted it 

 gladly. This was in 1831, when he was 35 years old, and he 

 held the position for the remaining 25 years of his life. 



The friendship with Hentz was permanent, and Hentz was 

 an entomologist always. He specialized later in Spiders and 

 his work on this subject has been republished, edited by J. H. 

 Emerton. His beetle papers were sent to Harris. At that 

 date, 1827, Dr. Pickering was editing the publication of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and was complaining of a 

 shortage of good "copy". Like other American pioneers, 

 Hentz has suffered from the synonymy, but he still has nine 

 species in the checklist, Lebia grandis being perhaps the best 

 known. 



A bronze tablet on a house in Milton bears the inscription : — 

 "In this house from 1824 to 1831 dwelt 

 Thaddeus William Harris, M. D., botanist, 

 entomologist, and finally librarian of Har- 

 vard College. In each capacity he won for 

 himself fame and gratitude. He had the 

 modesty and unselfishness of true science, 

 with what may be rightly called the true 

 chivalry of spirit." 

 The post of Librarian of Harvard had its compensations and 

 disadvantages. Far from being a sinecure, yet the care of 

 30,000 volumes left a little more leisure for insects and at more 

 fixed times than the care of a country medical practice. It 

 gave a certain prestige, socially and otherwise. 



When Dr. Harris removed to Cambridge he occupied the 

 house that had been the residence of his great-grandfather, 

 Thaddeus Mason. Some time afterward he erected the house 

 in which he died, and which is still in the occupation of his 

 surviving daughters, (1913). The granite front door step of 

 the Mason house was transported to the new home where it 

 still rests, worn smooth by the feet of six generations. 



But the salary was anything but large. Moreover Dr. 

 Harris had always at least a dozen little hungry mouths to 

 feed. Small wonder, then, that he sent his entomological 

 articles to the New England Farmer, as he had begun to do at 

 Milton seven years previously. The editors importuned him 



