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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 943 



relations seem dull, dry, unimpressive 

 things beside the insights of poets and pro- 

 verb-makers — but only to those who miss 

 their meaning. In the end they will con- 

 tribute tenfold more to man's mastery of 

 himself. History records no career, war 

 or revolution that can compare in signifi- 

 cance with the fact that the correlation be- 

 tween intellect and morality is approxi- 

 mately .3, a fact to which perhaps a fourth 

 of the world's progress is due. Experi- 

 ments measuring the effects of school sub- 

 jects and methods seem pedantic and inhu- 

 man beside the spontaneous tact and in- 

 sight of the gifted teacher. But his per- 

 sonal work is confined by time and space to 

 reach only a few ; their results join the free 

 common fund of science which increases 

 the more, the more it is used, and lives for- 

 ever. 



B. L. Thorndikb 



W. G. WEIGHT 



WiLLiASi Greenwood Wright died on Sun- 

 day afternoon, December 1, 1912, in the eighty- 

 third year of his age. He had been in ap- 

 parently good health and spirits for some time 

 past. He was found dead sitting in his chair, 

 a newspaper fallen from his relaxed grasp. 

 The cause was heart failure. 



He was born near Newark, New Jersey; his 

 early education was limited. He was a soldier 

 in the Union army during the civil war, and 

 soon after the close of that conflict he must 

 have come to California, where he resided a 

 few years in Los Angeles, where his only 

 child was born and died in infancy. He went 

 to San Bernardino about 1873, where he re- 

 sided until his death and where he con- 

 ducted a planing mill. About fifteen years 

 ago he retired from active business, and spent 

 his time in collecting and gathering material 

 for his work on butterflies. His wife died a 

 number of years ago, and he leaves no near 

 relatives. 



His collection of butterflies and library he 

 has left to the California Academy of Sci- 



ences, San Trancisco. Some other collections 

 are to be sold. Mr. S. B. Parish, the noted 

 botanist, and the executor of Wright's estate, 

 has given me the few data now obtainable. 



W. G. Wright traveled all over the west 

 coast from Alaska to Mazatlan, Mexico, col- 

 lecting specimens in various departments of 

 natural history, but especially the Lepidop- 

 tera. He published an interesting account of 

 his travels in Mexico in Zoe. An article in 

 the Overland Monthly for 1884 is entitled 

 " A Naturalist in the Desert," and an article 

 on " Collecting in Alaska," which can not now 

 be located. Other papers are found in Ento- 

 mologica Americana, Canadian Entomologist, 

 Papilio, Entomological News and Edwards's 

 " Butterflies of North America." Perhaps the 

 most important service he rendered to science 

 was the help he gave to W. H. Edwards in the 

 great work just mentioned. In the Ornithol- 

 ogist and Oologist, for February, 1885, we 

 find an article on " An Experiment in Bird 

 Taming," with Phainopepla nitens; his name 

 is frequent in the two large volumes, " Botany 

 of California," as he was an enthusiastic col- 

 lector of plants. His most important book, 

 " The Butterflies of the West Coast," was 

 published in San Francisco in October, 1905, 

 and was really an epoch-making publication, 

 notwithstanding the numerous inevitable mis- 

 takes. This work was illustrated entirely by 

 color-photography. 



Among the insects which have been named 

 in his honor by different men, are : Melitcea 

 wrightii, Copwodes wrightii, Gluphisia 

 wrightii, Leptarctia wrightii and Selidosema 

 wrightiarium. He named a number of new 

 species, but a good many of these, especially 

 those in his 1905 book, are synonyms. 



Mr. Wright was a close friend of the two 

 noted pioneer botanists and collectors, Edward 

 Palmer and C. C. Parry, and made many ex- 

 cursions, of varying lengths, with them. He 

 knew many other botanists and entomologists 

 also. 



W. G. Wright will always be remembered 

 by those who were so fortunate as to have 

 known him personally. He was a naturalist 



