ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XIII 



of seven years, fifteen dollars ; for a patent of fourteen years, thirty 

 dollars. The documents required are petition, affidavit, specifica- 

 tions, and drawings ; a model being unnecessary. 



Recent Progress in Natural History. Professor Owen, of 

 England, gives the following as the ratio at which our knowledge 

 of the class of mammalia has advanced during the last thirty years ; 

 namely, from, say 1,350 species in 1830, to 2,500 in 1860. In one 

 order, e.g. Marsupialia, the increase has been, from 50 species, re- 

 corded in 1830, to 350 species in 1860. We should also, says Profes- 

 sor Owen, greatly over-estimate our present knowledge, were we to 

 rest upon it & conclusion that there remained but very few more 

 forms of Mammalia to provide room for in our museums ; an assertion 

 which derives strength from the great augmentation of the species 

 of the Quadrimanous (apes) order, recently made through the re- 

 searches of Du Chaillu and others in tropical Africa. 



The Smithsonian Institution has recently made arrangements for 

 the preparation of works on the different orders of insects found in 

 North America, with a view to identifying the species, and of system- 

 atizing the study of their relations and habits. This is a subject not 

 only of much scientific interest, but also of great practical importance 

 in regard to its connection with agriculture. When it is considered 

 how much loss is annually caused in this country by the ravages of 

 the Hessian fly, the army and cotton worms, the curculio, the grass- 

 hopper, and numerous other species of insects, it must be evident that 

 anything that may tend, in however slight a degree, to throw light 

 upon the means of preventing such ravages, is of great commercial 

 importance. But before we can make use of the experience of other 

 countries on this subject, it will be necessary to identify the insects, 

 since, in regard to them, as well as other objects of natural history, 

 the same name is often popularly applied to widely different species. 



The greatest deficiency in American natural history is to be found 

 in the department of entomology, there being no original treatise in 

 reference to this country, applicable to the wants of the present day. 

 The Institution has therefore made arrangements with eminent ento- 

 mologists for the preparation of the following series of reports on the 

 different orders, in the form of systematic lists, of all the North Amer- 

 ican species hitherto described, and an account of the different fami- 

 lies and genera, and, whenever practicable, of the species of each 

 order, namely : 



Coleoptera (beetles, etc.), by Dr. John L. Le Conte, of Philadel- 

 phia. Neuroptera (dragonflies, etc.), by Dr. Hagen, Konigsberg. Hy- 

 menoptera (wasps, bees, etc.), by H. De Saussure, Geneva. Diptera 

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