Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/477

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INSECTS AND ENTOMOLOGISTS
473

which I accepted a severe reproof concerning a sending of diptera for determination. He had kindly replied to a letter of mine asking for aid and, in return, I had packed a cigar box as full as it would hold of undetermined specimens, big and little. I got it back next mail, and with it a letter. The letter was instructive, very—and if the medicine was bitter, it was at least salutory for I never did the like again, and have never dealt quite so hardly as I might with those who have in later times imposed upon me, as I did upon Dr. Hagen. His library and his collections are at Cambridge, and no one who has not seen both can appreciate the amount and character of the work that the good doctor did during his lifetime.

Baron von Osten-Sacken was an unusual combination of diplomatist and entomologist. Of his standing in the former capacity I know nothing; as a dipterist none stands better. To him we owe the early systematic work done in this country and the series of volumes published by the Smithsonian Institution, for even the work of Loew was made available through translation by Osten-Sacken. And so these two pioneers of American dipterology must almost necessarily be considered together, although the influence of Loew could not be so great because of his dependence on a translator in reaching the American public. Shortly before his death Osten-Sacken published his memoirs, which certainly make interesting literature. A large part of his collection is in the museum at Cambridge.

Among the hymenopterists I can mention only William H. Ashmead, whose death is so recent that most of us remember him personally, and whose gentle manner and unfailing courtesy endeared him to all who came into contact with him. His work was monumental and his systematic sense so developed that he seized almost at a glance upon the really essential structures of the species studied by him. So constant and persistent a worker was he that, to those of us who knew him personally, the surprise was not that he died so young, but that he lived so long.

Dr. A. S. Packard, of Brown University, was more than an entomologist: he was a biologist and a teacher. His work as a systematist was great; but as a teacher he was greater. And his teaching was not confined to the classroom; his "Entomology for Beginners," his "Guide to the Study of Insects" and his "Text-book of Entomology" continue his work, though his voice in the classroom is hushed. His interests were broad enough to include even the economic side of the subject and he appeared as a member of the U. S. Entomological Commission, though his part of the work was that which was more technical in the publications.

I can scarcely avoid referring at least to Dr. S. H. Scudder, although he is yet with us, not only because his work, unfortunately,