Ome.] 
52 
[October 6, 
mounting, labelling, and arranging these vast collections was 
immense. It occupied the greater portion of Mr. Smith’s leisure 
time for more than twenty years. It was his practice, after 
returning from his business in the evening, to sit down to his 
task and apply himself to it until the morning hours. In this 
work he was most assiduous. Rarely did he allow himself an 
hour for calling on his friends, and entertainments of all kinds he 
neglected. Except during a short period of vacation in the summer, 
he was invariably to be found at home; ancl unless the state of his 
health prevented, or the weather was too oppressively hot for 
working near a lamp, he was bending over his fascinating insects. 
A distinguishing feature of Mr. Smith’s collections is the per- 
fect mounting and excellent condition of his specimens ; it is 
rare to find a limb or a joint missing. 
Mr. Smith was always willing and glad to allow students the use 
of his rich collection. In doing this, he rendered a good service to 
science, and many members of this Society can testify to the 
readiness with which they obtained access to his cabinet, and to 
the advantage they derived therefrom. As the deceased made 
no provision when living for the disposal of his collection, it 
remains at his house in the possession and keejnng of his widow 
who will dispose of it. 
It may be thought that Mr. Smith was simply a collector of 
insects, and that he desired numbers rather than knowledge. But 
this is not true. He was eager to study and he did study. 
Although he had little time for original observations on the 
habits of insects, he made attentive use of his fine entomological 
library in learning the results of others’ observations, and, more- 
over, planned, before his death, to work on insect anatomy. 
Mr. Smith’s disposition was so retiring, and his claims to supe- 
rior acquirements so unpretending, that he would never of him- 
self have informed the Society in regard to his achievements. 
So little did he obtrude his knowledge upon the attention of 
others, that few of those who lived near him were aware of his 
ardent taste for scientific pursuits, or looked upon him in any 
other aspect than as a man of business. It is, therefore, with the 
greater satisfaction that I speak for him, and inform this Society, 
that by long years of quiet and almost unintermitted application, 
