HINTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 713 
tion or particular observation of life histories of the objects de- 
scribed. 
The first serious monographic study made was that of the 
Histeride, published in 1845 by my father in the Boston Journal 
of Natural History, modelled on the Monographia Histeroidum 
of Paykull, and, like it, illustrated with outline figures of all the 
species.* 
The second period in the history of American entomology 
now begins, in the decade from 1840-50; a most important 
epoch in the intellectual history of our country. An indepen- 
dent school of science had commenced in zoology by the inves- 
tigations of James D. Dana on the polypes and crustacea collected 
while attached to the Exploring Expedition of Captain (now 
Admiral) Wilkes; in geology by James Hall of the New York 
Geological Survey, and by the brothers Rogers of the Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia Surveys. Prof. Agassiz also came to us 
introducing methods of systematic instruction, which previously 
each student, after many trials, had to invent by himself, and for 
himself alone; and with his unequalled ability as a lecturer to 
excite enthusiasm in his hearers, he added a powerful stimulus to 
the cultivation of natural history, the effects of which can 
hardly be exaggerated. With few exceptions, the zoological 
students who have since become prominent in the United States 
have been instructed for a longer or shorter period by him; and 
it has been a frequent cause of regret to me, that my early efforts 
in science had not been directed by one who could so thoroughly 
combine kindness in instruction with firmness in criticism; who 
could so well temper the natural impatience for rapid publication 
of the young and inexperienced observer, to that calmness of 
judgment which permits nothing to be published until it ex- 
presses the best results which the author can at that time pro- 
uce. 
Another most valuable auxiliary to science in the United States, 
_ belonging to the same decade, was the establishment of the Smith- 
*I I have rA eeg from this sketch of American entomology rm illus- 
and ae Al- 
work of Bois on the Lepidoptera of No m 
though the task of clleting mater making notes on the habits of ua ith 
many wings occup fu nee! ao John LeConte, for several years, the text 
of sia work and the aie an ent, such as it was, were prepared abroad, 
at ail under yak control; pfii apen was stopped before the completion he 
first pec All the notes and drawings which were to have been used in the study 
Heterocera were aed by his coediter, and still remain in Euro 
