NOVEMBER 24, 1899. ] 
It would be pleasant to review at length 
his work in connection with the American 
Association, but the memory of fifteen suc- 
cessful meetings and an equal number of 
volumes of Proceedings edited by him are 
all that need be mentioned. His interest 
in the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences was also noteworthy. He was its 
secretary during 1869-73 ; its vice-president 
during 1874-80, and its president during 
1851-88. 
And so it was with the American Asso- 
ciation, the magnificent pioneer work by 
Lovering made possible the wonderful suc- 
cesses by Putnam, during whose adminis- 
tration our Association reached its high tide 
of membership and attendance. We shall 
do well to place the name of Lovering high 
among those of the fathers of the Association. 
The successful meeting in Portland was 
followed by the even more successful meet- 
ing at Hartford, Connecticut, which, ac- 
cording to the permanent secretary, ‘‘ was 
one that will make a special era in the his- 
tory of the Association.’”** In attendance it 
was one of the three largest meetings held, 
subsequent to their resumption in 1866. 
The presiding officer of the meeting was 
John Lawrence Le Conte, of Philadelphia. 
LE CONTE. 
This distinguished entomologist + was 
born in New York City in 1825. He was of 
Huguenot ancestry, as is suggested by his 
name. ‘The first of the family to come to 
this country was Guillaume Le Conte, who 
settled in New Rochelle early in the eight- 
* Proceedings, American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, Vol. X XIII., p. 150. 
} Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy 
of Sciences, Vol. XI., p. 216. John Lawrence Le 
Conte, by Samuel H. Scudder. This article, accom- 
panied by a photo-gelatine portrait, appeared in the 
Transactions of the American Entomological Society for 
August, 1884. The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. V., 
p. 620, September, 1874, contains a sketch with en- 
grayed portrait on wood. 
SCIENCE. 
761 
eenth century. Among his descendants 
were Lewis and John Eatton Le Conte, 
both of whom achieved some prominence 
for their interest in science. The latter, 
Major John Eatton Le Conte, entered the 
U.S. Topographical Engineers and was dis- 
tinguished as a botanist and as an ento- 
mologist. His son is the subject of this 
sketch. 
After finishing his collegiate education at 
Mount St. Mary’s College, in Emmettsburg, 
Maryland, Le Conte entered the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in New York City 
and was graduated there in 1846. Pos- 
sessed of independent means, he never took 
up the actual practice of medicine, but 
yielded to a fondness for natural history, 
inherited from his father, he devoted him- 
self to travel, visiting many portions of the 
United States during the years between 
1841 and 1851. 
Says Scudder : 
The subject of the faunal relations of ani- 
mals was a favorite one with Le Conte. He re- 
turned to it again and again; he was the first 
to district much of the vast and then almost 
unexplored regions west of our prairie country.* 
While still a student of medicine he pub- 
lished his first scientific paper, which con- 
tained descriptions of more than twenty 
species of Caribidze from the eastern United 
States. His preference for entomology con- 
tinued throughout his life, and how indus- 
trious he was in that direction and what an 
influence he exerted on that branch of sci- 
ence, is shown by the statement that more 
than sixty monographic essays, some of 
them expanding to the form of a volume, 
and all of them after the first five years of 
work, direct and valuable contributions to 
the taxonomy of the order (Coleoptera) ap- 
peared from his pen.+ 
The sketch by Scudder, from which so 
* Biographical Memoirs, p. 272. 
{Samuel H. Scudder, in Biographical Memoirs, 
p. 274. 
