The Melsheimers have been considered by Th. Say to be the fathers of Entomology in the U. States. Nevertheless very little is known about them, and that little is not perfectly accurate. In fact, concerning the older Melsheimer there exists only a note in A. W. Knoch's “Neue Beitraege zur Insectenkunde,” 1801, p. 18, and concerning his second son only the necrology by the late Dr. John L. LeConte in the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1873, p. 257, reprinted in the Can. Ent., vol. vi., 1874, p. 39.