23 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



Death has of late been making serious inroads among the ranks of our fellow-labour- 

 ers in the Entomological field. An old veteran among American Naturalists, Dr. J. P. 

 Kirtlaud, of Cleveland, Ohio, has passed away, while recent advices from across the At- 

 lantic announce the deaths of Mr. Andrew Murray and Mr. T. V. Wollaston. Most of 

 the details given in reference to the lives of the two latter are condensed from memoirs 

 which have just appeared in Thi Entomologist, of London, England. 



DR. JARED p. KIRTLAND 



was born at Wallingford, Conn., on the 10th of November, 1793. His youthful studies 

 were pursued at Wallingford and Cheshire Academies, and being a bright, active boy and 

 an earnest student, he soon made rapid and substantial progress in the classics as well as in 

 English studies. As a boy he was enthusiastic in the study of natural objects ; he knew 

 the habits of almost every animal and bird that frequented his youtliful haunts, and at 

 twelve years of age was engaged in practical experiments in the cultivation of silk worms. 

 About the same time he began the study of Botany, and soon applied his knowledge to 

 a series of valuable experiments in the crossing of fruit trees with the view of improving 

 the quality of fruits. His success in this department is well known to all intelligent cul- 

 tivators of fruits in America, his hybrid cherries having won for him a fame which time 

 can never obliterate. His grandfather was a physician in Connecticut, and at his death 

 his promising nephew, now eighteen years of age, inherited his grandfather's medical 

 library and a sufficient legacy to enable him to acquire a medical education. He had 

 made arrangements to pursue his studies in Edinburgh, when the war with Great Britain 

 prevented him. About this time the medical department of Yale University was opened, 

 and youDg Kirtland was the first student on its matriculation roll. Subsequently he 

 graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1815 returned to his native place, 

 where he practised medicine for two years and a half, devoting all his leisure moments to 

 the study of natural science, for which he had developed a passion which influenced all 

 his after life. He next removed to Durham, Conn., where he enjoyed an extensive prac- 

 tice for several years, when the death of his wife and child again unsettled him, and he 

 removed to Poland, Conn. Five years later he was elected to the Legislature, where he 

 served three terms, after which he was called to fill the chair of Theory and Practice of 

 Medicine in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, which he did with distinguished 

 ability for five years, when the duties becoming irksome to him, he resigned the position. 



When in 1848 the first Geological Survey of Ohio was organized. Dr. Kirtland was 

 appointed to superintend the natural history department, and in due time presented a 

 series of reports which attracted general attention. He laboured diligently among the 

 Fishes, Birds, Mollusks, Reptiles and Insects of Ohio, sketching many of them with his 

 own pencil and describing them with an enthusiastic fidelity. During his researches he 

 -collected a large and valuable cabinet of specimens with the design of forming a State 

 Collection, but Ohio refused the substantial aid which this enterprise required, and as his 

 collections had been made largelyjat'^his own expense, he retained possession of them, and 

 they were ultimately donated to the Cleveland Society of Natural Sciences, where they 

 are now treasured as a priceless heritage. 



In 1837 Dr. Kirtland had purchased a choice fruit farm five miles west of Cleveland, 

 and had there settled, as it proved, for the remainder of his busy life. Four years after 

 this he was appointed a Professor in the Medical Department of the Western Reserve 

 College, in Cleveland, a position he filled with honour for twenty-one years. In 1861 

 Williams College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., in recognition of his services, 

 and many learned societies during his lifetime delighted to do him honour. Among his 

 Entomological papers, that which perhaps attracted most attention was his Notes on the 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera of Western Ohio. 



During the summer of 1872 it was our privilege to visit this veteran naturalist. We 

 found him enjoying his quiet retirement among his flowers, fruits and insects, actively 

 interested in everything that was going on about him. He gave us a most cordial wel- 

 «ome,and we spent a delighful afternoon together scanning his botanic and insect treasures. 



