Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/127

Rh quickly declared itself, and it was not long before the insects had more or less complete possession. He graduated with honor at the Rensselaer School with the class of 1827, and immediately after, at the instance of his father, began a course of medical studies, attending lectures at the Vermont Academy of Medicine, at Castleton, but still giving much of his time to the study of insects, the observation of which had now become almost a passion. He persevered, however, in the medical course, graduating M. D. in 1829, and afterward attended lectures at Rutgers Medical College, in New York City, concluding his preparation for the profession in the office of the late Dr. March, of Albany. While thus engaged he made industrious use of the libraries of that city so far as they could aid in advancing his knowledge of entomology. Being unable to purchase the books he needed, and determined to possess all the information they contained about the insects of this country, he copied with great accuracy and rapidity, from the various entomological works in both the State and academy libraries, all that had then been written on American insects.

His medical studies terminated, in the capacity of Assistant Professor of Natural History he accompanied the Rensselaer School Expedition of 1830 to Lake Erie, having then just attained his majority. The President of the school, Professor Eaton, regarded him at this time as the best entomologist in the United States, and he was urged by his friends to publish on the subject. He replied that "Sir Walter Scott was above half right, 'Study in youth, and publish in mature life,'" a precept the youthful investigator followed. At the western terminus of the expedition, Dr. Fitch left the party and traveled extensively in the Western States, collecting and analyzing the rare species of insects found in the localities visited. He returned home in the summer of 1831, and almost immediately began the practice of his profession at Fort Miller, New York, having his office with Dr. Tayler Lewis, afterward the distinguished Professor of Greek in Union College.

November 15, 1832, Dr. Fitch married Elizabeth, daughter of John McNeil, of Stillwater, New York, and soon after removed to that place, continuing the practice of the profession he cordially hated, for six years. In 1838 he gave up practice and returned to Salem, to assume the management of his father's business, for which the latter had become incapacitated by ill health. From this time he devoted himself largely to agricultural pursuits, which gave more ample opportunities for investigation in his favorite field, that he was not slow to improve, It is related that he would frequently be seen after a shower, on his hands and knees, searching about for insects and all manner of "creeping things," and would finally return to the house with his tall old hat completely covered inside and out with the writhing victims of his scientific greed. He was nicknamed "The Bug-Catcher" by his neighbors; and so eager became his quest for curious specimens in