78 



prove of great economic and scientific value." So far the Cultivator, which evidently 

 meant well to Dr. Fitch, although perhaps expecting more results from "this season''* 

 and "$1,000," than could well be forthcoming from one head and one pair of hands. Those 

 were still the times when a slight halo of conjuring, a flavor of necromancy gathered 

 about the scientist. The recipe seemed to be : Take a good insect wizard, pay him as 

 little as possible, let him loose in the fields, and the bugs will disappear. The State was 

 anxious for practical returns from its investment of "$1,000." But the Salem Press of 

 August 8th, 1854, already saw that there was necessity for more "liberal" funds. In 

 an article, which is as eulogistic of its townsman as the most ambitious Chief Commis- 

 sioner could require, it says, that "the appointment of Dr. Fitch to carry out the objects- 

 set forth, is a very fortunate one for the State ; as he is probably more thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with entomology than any person in the United States. To a scientific and 

 practical knowledge of his subject, he can bring the aid of a ripe scholarship ; and should 

 the State be liberal in its appropriations for this object, in the hands of the Doctor, we 

 can look forward, with confidence, to a Work possessing more real value to the Agricul- 

 tural and Horticultural interests of the Country [the capitals are the Press's own] than 

 any that has ever been published." To this effect the Salem Press, in its comments on 

 the announcement of the Cultivator. How far the Reports of Dr. Fitch to the N. Y.. 

 State Agricultural Society met the expectations and merited the praises of the news- 

 papers we shall not here inquire. Mr. Lintner has indexed these Reports. We are here 

 interested in noting the spreading of the " New England Notion " incorporated in Dr. 

 Harris. " Do you take the idea 1" asks Massachusetts of New York. It required sev- 

 enteen years before New York, like a seventeen-year locust, rose to the occasion and ap- 

 pointed Dr. Fitch. When she got the idea she sought for one of her own sons to 

 represent it. At that time at least the place sought the man. As we have said, the 

 antecedents of the idea that a study of insects would benefit the farmer, before it became 

 incorporated in Dr. Harris, are of themselves an interesting subject of bibliographical re- 

 search. With these we have not here to do, but with the laying hold of the notion by 

 Massachusetts and turning it to practical account. From Dr. Harris's writings we can 

 see that he took something from Kirby and Spence, and it does not seem strange that such 

 an observer should have arisen in the North American colonies founded by the English. 

 It is New England, with her sober and sombre inclinations, which practically gave birth 

 to this active, unornamental side of the study of entomology. And to this earnest spirit, 

 this disposition to take a serious view of life, to enquire what is right and best to do in 

 this world, New England owes her position and influence. We shall here keep this in 

 mind and try to show its importance in our social development. When I think of the 

 part of the world's work performed by the Puritans, then also the echo of Dr. Harris's, 

 style rises to my lips — //a re is <r/<<<t/trr kind of moth found in Massachusetts. 



But no account of the progress of entomology in America should be given without, 

 reference to Louis Agassiz. It is not that, in the single treatise on thin subject which I 

 have seen, Agassiz by the force of his genius, lifts the study of entomology into the region 

 of the serious sciences, but it is in his character as a great teacher of nature's secrets that 

 he influences the rise of entomology, its renasceuce in America, as well. Agassiz preaches 

 not only to Boston, but is sent to the Gentiles also. Every wheiv, ;is the fruit of his 

 lectures, Bocietu s spring up and the sentiment for nature is reawakened in scholastic 

 shape. Philadelphia may remain true to its version of science, with its French eighteenth 

 centurv perfume, to the sober excursions of Leidy, Lea and Wilson, but everywhere 

 throughout the country the halls are rilled by the followers of Agassiz. The fault of 

 Agassiz's Bchool, its formalism, its reliance on a label, its rage for classification, as the end 

 and not the means, its devotion to the machinery of science, all this is less apparent in 

 Agassiz himself than in some of his followers. I remember that the prospectus of an 

 Agassiz society in California once fell into my hands. This society was evidently the 

 result of a spurious enthusiasm attending the lecturer. The seed sown by Agassiz had 

 sprung up too quickly and the heat of the day I suspect finished that society. But the 

 prospectus itself was a sufficient comment upon the school which gave it birth. It was 

 nothing more than a cut and dried catalogue of natural objects, commencing with man v 

 homo sapiens, with Order, Family, Genus and Species, — only names and nothing more. 



