Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/97

Rh Kentucky mother at Nashville, Tenn., July 15, 1824, he was a graduate of the University of Nashville in 1841. At that time Dr. Gerard Troost was connected with that institution, and young Farquharson was profoundly impressed by him. Graduating in 1844 in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Farquharson settled as a practitioner in New Orleans in 1845, and in 1847 was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Navy. Resigning in 1855, he returned to Nashville and married there. Through the war a strong Unionist, he was in hospital service, and at its close removed to Arkansas. In 1868 he went to Davenport. He joined the academy in its first year, and for twelve years was an important factor in its work. In 1880, being appointed to the State Board of Health, he removed to Des Moines, where he resided until his death in 1884. Unusually modest, quiet, and unassuming, Dr. Farquharson was a profound thinker and an original investigator. Among his notable studies was an interesting investigation upon Leprosy in Iowa.

In this same first volume were several important entomological papers by J. Duncan Putnam. Mr. Putnam's election has already been mentioned and his interest in the Proceedings described. In the history of American entomology there are no more devoted workers. Although dying when most men begin work, he had accomplished more than many who live long. He was born at Jacksonville, Ill., October 18, 1855, his mother being the daughter of the second Governor of Illinois. When a boy of eleven years he began collecting insects, and three years later was a serious student of his gatherings. He joined the society in 1869, and at fifteen years of age, in 1871, was its recording secretary. In 1872 he took a three months' trip into Colorado, where he met John Torrey and Asa Gray, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. In 1873 he was appointed meteorologist on the Jones Yellowstone Exploring Expedition, which was in the field for five months. Returning home, he continued his preparation for Harvard College, but was obliged to give up all hope of a collegiate course on account of failing health. It was in December of that year that his first hæmorrhage of the lungs