Horn.) 296 [Nov, 16, 
After these yoyages, his scientific studies were uninterrupted until the 
early years of the war, when he was appointed surgeon of volunteers, and 
shortly after medical inspector, with the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, in which 
he showed that his capability for direction and organization was adaptable 
to wider uses than the cabinet to which he had hitherto confined himself. 
During the summer of 1867 he accompanied General W. W. Wright on 
the survey for the extension of the Union Pacific Railway southward to 
Fort Craig, in the capacity of geologist. His report, which in no way de- 
tracts from his reputation as an entomologist, was published as part of the 
report of the survey. 
In the autumn of 1869 he determined on a visit to Europe, in which he 
was accompanied by his family, remaining abroad until near the close of 
1872, visiting also Algiers and Egypt. His residence abroad interrupted 
somewhat his authorship, but not his studies, and his letters to me, now 
doubly valuable, gave abundant evidence of his activity. He visited all 
the accessible public and private museums, and his wonderful memory of 
the species in his own cabinet enabled him to settle many hitherto doubt- 
ful points of synonymy. Those who met him abroad were deeply impressed 
by his thorough scholarship, and his quick and accurate perception of the 
affinities of insects never before seen by him. On his return to Philadel- 
phia his work continued, with but slight interruptions by periods of sick- 
ness, until within a week of his death. 
The lives of men eminent in science are rarely fertile in events of gen- 
eral interest, and LeConte’s is no exception. Trained from his boyhood 
as a naturalist, with no cares, and no interruptions by daily professional or 
business duties, his life was passed in the pursuit of his favorite studies 
and the pleasures of social life. The father died in 1860, leaving the son 
in possession of an ample estate. The following year Dr, LeConte married 
Helen, daughter of the late Judge Robert C. Grier, who, with two sons, 
survives her husband. 
The account of the life in science of LeConte should properly begin with 
that of the father—the one is the result and continuation of the other. An 
abler pen than mine has already traced the life of the elder LeConte, and 
I merely purpose to recall such incidents in his life as seem to havea bear- 
ing in determining the subsequent studies of the son. 
Major LeConte contributed a short entomological paper to the ‘* Annals 
of the Lyceum,”’ of New York, as early as 1824, describing a few new spe- 
cies, illustrated bya plate drawn by himself. At this time Say and the elder 
Melsheimer were at the height of their career, and entomology, through 
the labors of Latrielle in France, was assuming a higher position among 
the sciences. The Major was an ardent collector, and, desiring the light 
not attainable at home, much of his material was sent abroad ; he, how- 
ever, retained either carefully compared specimens or drawings to permit 
the future identification of the species. The cabinet thus formed, small in 
comparison with what we now have, made the basis of the subsequent 
work of the son. In 1845 the father and son contributed entomological 
