Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/51

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ALPHEUS SPRING PACKARD.
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1861-62, he made discoveries of fossils in the Fish River Region which determined the age of these rocks. About five years later, 1867, he discovered the glacial striæ radiating from Mt. Washington. In 1867 he published a 'Revision of the Fossorial Hymenoptera of North America' and in 1882 the text-book 'First Lessons in Geology.' Many other geological papers have come from his pen.

His zoological articles, especially those on insects, far outnumbered those upon other subjects. Professor Samuel Henshaw in 'The Entomological writings of Alpheus Spring Packard' enumerates three hundred and thirty-nine papers, books and notes published up to 1887; among them the 'Monograph of the Geometrid Moths' 1876, the text-books, 'A Guide to the Study of Insects' 1869, which ran through eight editions in the next fifteen years, 'Insects of the West' 1877, 'Our Common Insects' 1876, 'Half Hours with Insects' 1877. Many important works upon insects have come from his pen since that date. These include the well-known monograph on the Bombycine Moths, 1895, and the text-books 'Entomology for Beginners' 1888, 'Forest and Shade Tree Insects' 1888, and the 'Text-Book of Entomology' 1898. During the last year three insect articles were completed. One of these, his last paper, is a large 'Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of America, including their Transformations and Origin of the Larval Markings and Armature' which will appear as a Memoir of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Packard was known through many articles and books on zoological subjects outside the field of entomology. 'The Development and Anatomy of Limulus Polyphemus' 1871, 'The Monograph of North American Phyllopod Crustacea' 1883, the 'Life History of Animals, including Man, or Outlines of Comparative Embryology' 1876, the 'Zoology for Students and General Readers' 1879, 'The Cave Fauna of North America' 1888, are some of the books which brought to naturalists and students new data or new arrangements and treatment of subjects which were highly appreciated. To-day, amid the profusion of newer text-books, it is not easy to accord to these older works their full merit or to realize their true value. Regarding the 'Life History of Animals,' Kingsley says it i was the first attempt since the day of Agassiz's Lowell Institute Lectures to summarize the facts of Embryology'; and of the 'Zoology' he says, it 'was the first attempt to give American students a truly scientific text-book in which morphology and classification were given equal prominence.'

Anthropological and ethnological investigations he followed with keen interest, and contributed to these subjects several miscellaneous notes and papers.

Of his general books that on 'Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution, His Life and Work,' 1901, is especially noteworthy. The work was