108 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. VIII 



constantly for papers of economic interest and it is to be hoped 

 that their checks in payment were for satisfactory amounts. 

 Harris' contributions were frequent for 22 years. He also 

 wrote for many other periodicals designed for farmers. The 

 vague hope of a professorship was never fully realized. For 

 five years from 1837 Dr. Harris filled a vacancy in the Chair of 

 Natural History, giving a course of lectures twice a week to the 

 senior class. Not satisfied with this, he organized an evening 

 class for voluntary attendance, which was, in fact something 

 like the Entomological Societies of to-day, with one speaker 

 having the floor most of the time. John W. Randall, a senior 

 from Maine, attended these meetings. He turned to beetles, 

 which were also Harris' favorites, and collected diligently near 

 Cambridge during the academic season and in Maine during 

 vacation. Two papers were the result of his efforts, in which 

 87 new species were described. Randall became a physician, 

 but never reappeared as a coleopterist. Years later his papers 

 were edited by P. S. Sprague* and E. P. Austin, who reidenti- 

 fied the species, of which 47 are saved from the synonymy. 



When Prof. Peck died in 1822, Harris was the only entomolo- 

 gist worthy of the name in Massachusetts for some years. 

 He was compelled to find through correspondence congenial 

 companionship denied to him through personal contact. This 

 was in insect study only, for he numbered his social and scien- 

 tific friends as freely as he chose. His correspondence with 

 Kirby began in 1822. During the same year Prof. Nuttall,t 

 the botanist introduced him by letter to Thomas Say at Phila- 

 delphia. The two men never allowed their correspondence to 

 flag. At Say's suggestion Harris shipped his whole collection 

 to Philadelphia in 1825 and Say labelled it as far as he could. 

 All these labels remain intact today, a fact which adds greatly 

 to the historical interest of the Harris collection. 



With Prof. Hentz there was always a regular interchange of 

 letters. Hentz forwarded his collection for sale in 1836. It 

 was found to rival the Fenton collection at Boston. It was 

 hard, however, to raise the money asked for it, $1358. This 

 included some costly books, sets of Olivier and Voet, for 

 example. It was finally raised and the collection incorporated 



*Pterostichus spraguei Lee. preserves this name in Coleopterology. 

 fTrichodes nuttalli Kirby preserves this name in the checklist. 



