LITERARY NOTICES. 



417 



Journal of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. VIII. 

 Second Series. Part IV. Philadelphia : 

 Printed for the Academy. Pp. 120, with 

 Nine Plates. 



This part of the Academy's " Journal " 

 contains four papers, of which the first two, 

 embodying descriptions of the Miocene and 

 Pleiocene fossils of the Caribbean area 

 and Costa Rica, were written by the late 

 William M. Gabb while in San Domingo, 

 during the winter of 187'7-'78, and have 

 been published since his death. The third 

 paper is on " The Terrestrial Mollusca in- 

 habiting the Cook's or Harvey Islands," by 

 Andrew Garrett. The next paper, on " The 

 Placenta and Generative Apparatus of the 

 Elephant," by Henry C. Chapman, M. D., is 

 based on observations of a female elephant 

 attached to a menagerie, that gave birth to 

 a young one in Philadelphia in 1880, and 

 establishes the interesting fact that the pe- 

 riod of gestation of the elephant is from six 

 hundred and thirty to six hundred and fifty- 

 six days. The other papers are by Joseph 

 Leidy, M. D., and are on " The Parasites of 

 the Termites," and on the Bathygnahis ho- 

 rcalis, a fossil saurian from Prince Edward 

 Island. 



Second Report of the United States Ento- 

 mological Commission for the Years 

 1878 and 1879, relating to the rocky 

 Mountain Locust and the Western 

 Cricket. With Maps and Illustrations. 

 Washington : Government Printing-Of- 

 fice. Pp. 322 ; and Appendices, pp. 80. 



The present report embodies the conclu- 

 sions that have been reached after careful 

 examinations of the breeding-ground of the 

 insects, of the regions in which they are 

 permanently propagated, and of the " tem- 

 porary region '' where they may breed for a 

 few years and then die out, with other knowl- 

 edge that has been gained concerning their 

 habits, and the best means of contendins: 

 against them. The Commission claims that 

 its prediction, that the series of invasions by 

 the locust of the cultivated regions that be- 

 gan in 1874 would close in 1877, has been 

 completely confirmed, and that its theory 

 that the pest could not remain permanently 

 in this region has been conclusively proved ; 

 consequently, the insect no longer excites the 

 terror which its first appearances evoked. 

 VOL. XIX. 27 



The locust is bred in the prairie tracts of 

 the rainless district, in the loose, warm, 

 gravelly soil, in the comparatively open 

 spots, rather than in the thick grass, in dif- 

 ferent parts of a "permanent region," the 

 area of which is not less than five hundred 

 thousand square miles. The best single 

 means of exterminating the broods would 

 be to burn the grass while they are in the 

 larva state ; but this can not be relied on 

 alone, because of the great extent of unin- 

 habited country to which it would have to 

 be applied, and because it can not be made 

 thorough, since the burning would be light- 

 est in the spots where the insects are thick- 

 est. The object must be promoted by other 

 means, of which the first is to induce the 

 settlement of the breeding district by farm- 

 ers, who will fight the locusts in their homes ; 

 next, by the encouragement of irrigation, to 

 bring unfriendly water to bear upon them, 

 and of the planting of forests, in which they 

 do not flourish ; and by instituting a system 

 of Signal-Service warnings of the progress 

 of their migrations. The discussion of these 

 points forms one of the most important chap- 

 ters of the report ; and this chapter, with the 

 eight maps showing the vegetation of the 

 regions the insects infest, has been also pub- 

 lished separately. In addition to these top- 

 ics, information is given concerning the mi- 

 grations and ravages of locusts in other coun- 

 tries, their natural history and structure, and 

 their natural enemies. 



Cooperation as a Business. By Charles 

 Barnard. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 So-ns. Pp. 234. Price, $1. 



Mr. Barnard devotes a chapter to the 

 description of each of the principal forms 

 in which cooperation has been practiced 

 with success. In the first chapter the work- 

 ings of the Philadelphia building associa- 

 tions are explained in full ; accounts are 

 given of the English systems nearest like 

 theirs ; the English and American systems 

 are compared ; and cooperative banks are 

 explained. The second chapter is devoted 

 to the cooperative stores that have been es- 

 tablished in Great Britain for the benefit of 

 consumers; the third to those which are 

 conducted in the interest of producers, of 

 which the establishment of the Paisley shawl- 

 weavers is taken as the type. In the sue- 



