Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/275

Rh Key West and the Tortugas for the purpose of studying a tropical marine fauna, and from which he brought back large collections of marine invertebrates to swell the museum of the Peabody Academy of Science. On his return he stopped for a while at Beaufort, N. C, since made so celebrated as a zoölogical center by the labors of Dr. Brooks and his students, but which at that time was scarcely known. The next winter another Southern trip was taken—this time to Charleston, S. C, where some weeks were spent in the study of marine embryology, the results of which are still almost entirely in manuscript.

As is well known, a large proportion of the animals and plants of the United States were first scientifically described in Europe from specimens sent from here there by early collectors. The specimens which form the basis of these descriptions ("types" they are called) are scrupulously preserved in the museums, and it often becomes necessary for the naturalist to consult them to ascertain exactly what species some previous student had before him when he wrote the description which is not sufficient to identify the species. So Dr. Packard found it necessary to visit Europe, in 1872, to see for himself the insects described by the older European entomologists, and the result of the trip was considerable changes in the names of many of our butterflies and moths, for, according to the rules of zoölogical nomenclature, the first name applied to a species is the name that must hold. All the changes which prove so vexatious to the beginner, and for which it is not always easy to see the reason, are but steps toward permanence. By and by each species will be known by the name first given it, and then there will be no more of that tossing from pillar to post.

During the years 1871-1873 Dr. Packard held the position of State Entomologist of Massachusetts, and lectured at both the Maine and Massachusetts Agricultural Colleges upon the subject of economic entomology; but as these positions were very economically managed by the States, and were offices of honor rather than profit, they were resigned the latter year. In 1871 and 1872 he had written a small book in connection with Prof. Putnam upon the animals found in the Mammoth Cave, and then laid the foundation for that interest in the origin and effects of cave-life which is soon to come to fruition in an extensive memoir on the subject. As a result of this book he was appointed an assistant, in 1874, on the Kentucky Geological Survey, then under the charge of his former fellow-student. Prof. Shaler, and directed to make a thorough exploration of the Kentucky caves. The next two years he held the position of assistant zoologist on the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, under the charge of Prof. F. V. Hayden, and in that