514 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER MEETING 



plished so much or so well. He made it his business to systematically 

 and wisely gather data for unraveling the early history of plant and 

 insect life on the globe. He not only placed these data in the hands of 

 the highest authorities, but when necessary he sustained the paleon- 

 tologist in his investigation and aided in the publication of his work. 



But he was more than a mere patron of science and more than an 

 amateur. He himself was a man of science. Debarred for many years 

 by partial deafness from easy conversation, he sensitively avoided pub- 

 licity and social life and applied himself more closely to geological and 

 other scientific reading and to the study of the collections about him. 

 His well chosen library is supplied with a large number of scientific 

 serials and the publications of numerous learned societies. Respecting 

 the literature relating to fossil insects and paleozoic plants it is excelled 

 by the libraries of probably not more than four institutions on this con- 

 tinent. Finding the greater portion of the literature on these subjects 

 written in the French or German tongues, he mastered sufficient of both 

 to enable him to carry on the study of the fossils before him. He was 

 well and broadly informed in geology and general natural history. Con- 

 cerning the stratigraphy of the Wyoming region and the northern anthra- 

 cite coalfield he was an authority. In the recognition and differentia- 

 tion of the genera and species of Paleozoic plants he became an expert, 

 and in the latest years of his paleobotanical study he was fully compe- 

 tent, so far as knowledge or experience was concerned, to have deter- 

 mined, described, and published the greater part of the Paleozoic fossil 

 plant material coming into his hands. Yet so modest and unassuming 

 was he, so small an estimate had he of his own ability and attainments ; 

 so wholly wanting in the pride of species-making and authorship, and, 

 withal, so anxious was he to obtain the best scientific results from the 

 investigation of the various classes of fossils, that he was accustomed, to 

 the last, to transfer to the most eminent specialists even the fossils in 

 whose knowledge he himself was a specialist of high rank. In the three 

 short papers which comprise his publications (see " Bibliography " fol- 

 lowing this memoir) he described neither genus nor species, and among 

 the numerous representatives of the commonest and most easily recog- 

 nized species there are in his collection comparatively few specimens 

 whose labels show himself to have been the authority for their determi- 

 nation. 



Unlike most self-made men, Lacoe was a man of culture and refine- 

 ment. He was conscientious, studious, and methodical in his scientific 

 as well as in his business affairs, while at the same time he was artistic 

 in his tastes. In the quiet retirement of his home life he was gentle, 

 kindly, and genial, though on account of sensitiveness due to his im- 



