Scudder.] 
362 
[Dec. i6, 
His skill with the microscope in anatomical work was the 
occasion of his being called into the service of the Cochituate 
Water Board in 1876 to aid in discovering the origin of the disa- 
greeable odor in the Boston water supply, which in a brief report 
he showed could not be, as was suspected, of animal origin. 
There was, however, another side to his scientific work in 
which, though he published very little, he is better known to 
many entomologists. He early took a special interest in the 
study of Diptera or flies, and began the collection and determi- 
nation of our native species from all over the country ; and such 
was the zeal with which he pursued the study that not one of our 
native entomologists had so good a knowledge of our Dipterous 
fauna. His aid was asked and, needless to say, freely given in 
the determination of genera and species, and when he gave up 
the study with his change of work and his collection went to the 
National Museum, it was found to contain nearly fourteen thou- 
sand specimens. He published, however, but a single paper or 
two, describing a couple of exceptionally interesting form, and 
calling attention to the discovery of a large European species in 
America. Descriptions by him of two other species will be 
found embodied in the report of the then II. S. entomologist, 
Professor Comstock. 
Although his naturalist friends now all concede his wisdom in 
turning his attention to naval architecture, in which he achieved 
such signal success, it was not without sorrow that they saw him 
quit the fields in which he had rendered such important service 
to natural science and gave such promise of continuing the 
same. 
Far be it from me to indulge in any laudation of one whose 
modesty outshone his conspicuous talents and whose shrinking 
figure would forbid the praise. But I cannot close this too im- 
perfect sketch of his services to natural science without express- 
ing in a single word the lasting obligation he has placed on each 
one of us who knew him here by the example he gave us of a 
pure, gentle, simple, and upright life, which endeared him to 
every one and made his death a personal grief to each. 
List of the Natural History Writings of Edward Burgess. 
On the habits of Anisomorplia buprestoides. Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., 
Yol. 12, pp. 355-356. 1869. 
