68 



THE A^IERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



lished account that we can find of Mr. Walsh 

 as an Entomologist is in the report of a lecture 

 which he delivered hefore the Illinois State Hor- 

 ticultural Society at the Bloomington Conven- 

 tion, in January, 1860. He there spoke extem- 

 pore for two hours, displaying- that rare faculty 

 which he possessed of communicating his ideas 

 in such a manner as to please and hold the popu- 

 lar ear. The reporter of this lecture, whom we 

 take to be Mr. C. D. Bragdon, at the present time 

 one of the editors oi Moore's Rural New Yorker, 

 states that he became so intensely interested, that 

 his hand refused to move his pencil. After this 

 time he became a regular contributor to the Prai- 

 rie Farmer, of Chicago, Ills., and also wrote for 

 a few other agricultural journals, such as the 

 Illinois Farmer of Springfield, Ills., the Valley 

 Farmer of St. Louis, Mo., etc., etc., his aim 

 throughout being to I'ouse the agriculturists to 

 a sense of the immense losses they sustain from 

 the depredations of injurious insects, and to 

 impress upon them the necessity of a more 

 general knowledge of the habits of these little 

 foes. From 1862 to 1866 we find about a dozen 

 scientific papers from his prolific pen, scattered 

 through the Proceedings of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History, and through those of the 

 Philadelphia Entomological Society. These 

 papers are all characterized by great freshness, 

 originality and accuracy, and they will forever 

 redound to his honor, and in our minds will be 

 more and more appreciated as the time workings 

 of Nature are better understood. Mr. Walsh 

 was a school-mate with Darwin, and though he 

 took up the latter's work on the Origin of Species 

 with great prejudices against the development 

 hypothesis, yet he became a thorough convert 

 to Darwinism after he had once studied it. 

 Throughout these papers he consequently brings 

 forward a great number of facts in support of 

 this theory, and his remarks on Phytophagic 

 Varieties and Phytophagic Species bear directly 

 on this subject and have done much to help us 

 to a clear understanding of the term species. 



In October, 1865, the Entomological Society 

 of Philadelphia commenced the publication of 

 a monthly bulletin entitled the Practical Ento- 

 mologist. This little journal was edited by the 

 publication committee of the Society, consisting 

 of E. T. Cresson, Aug. R. Grote and J. W. Mc- 

 Allister. Very soon, however, Mr. Walsh was 

 added to the list, as Associate Editor from the 

 West, and he finally became sole Editor of the 

 second volume, the publication being discon- 

 tinued in September, 1867. So well had he 

 succeeded in opening the eyes of the people of 

 his own State to the vast importance of Eco- 



nomic Entomology that the State Horticultural 

 Society at last petitioned the Legislature to ap- 

 point a State Entomologist, and accordingly at 

 the biennial session of 1866-7 a bill was passed 

 authorizing the appointment of such an officer 

 with a salary of $2,000 per annum, the appoint- 

 ment being vested in the Governor, by and 

 with the consent of the Senate. At the special 

 session held in Juue, 1867, the Governor sent 

 in, on the 11th of that mouth, the name of Mr. 

 Walsh for confirmation, but the Senate post- 

 poned all action upon it till the next regular 

 biennial session in the winter of 1868-9. Mr. 

 Walsh, however, at the earnest solicitation of 

 manj^ of the leading Agriculturists and Hoiti- 

 culturists ot the State, went on and discharged 

 the duties of the office, and trusted to the future 

 liberality of the Legislature to reimburse him 

 for his work. As Acting State Entomologist 

 he issued his First Annual Report for 1867, 

 which was published as an appendix to the 

 State Horticultural Transactions for that year. 

 In September, 1868, in conjunction with the 

 writer, he started tlie American Entomologist. 

 We shall so miss Ms ripe experience, and his 

 help, that the task of continuing this journal will 

 be trebly hard. Indeed, so well satisfied are 

 we that his place can never be entirely filled, 

 that did we consult our own pleasure we should 

 not undertake the task alone, for we have other 

 pressing duties. But in memory of our departed 

 friend, and in justice to our numerous readers, 

 we shall continue our labors, and though the 

 Entomologist may never be edited so ably, yet 

 with the assistance and sympathy of its patrons, 

 we may hope to make it as useful in the future 

 as it has been in the xoast. 



We had hoped to accompany this number with 

 a steel plate of Mr. Walsh, but could not very 

 well wait till it was finished. We shall present 

 it in our next number, accompanied with sev- 

 eral resolutions that have been passed by difier- 

 ent societies. Mr. Walsh was leather sparing 

 of his own portraits, and we know of but one 

 good one in existence: this liberality on our 

 part, will therefore be appreciated by our read- 

 ers, and especially by those who were most 

 intimate with the deceased. 



I^=For the benefit of our new subscribers 

 who did not receive the August number, we 

 will state, that the second volume of the Amer- 

 ican Entomologist is to end with the year 

 1870. This fact will explain the apparent in- 

 consistency of making one number cover two 

 months. 



