10 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



There are several instances on record where useless books 

 have been printed at the public expense, but there has never 

 been a more striking illustration of waste of money. The 

 work is utterly worthless from whatever side it may be consid 

 ered; it " remains a permanent example of misplaced confidence 

 and liberality : an equal disgrace to the legislation, the science 

 and the art of the great State in which it was published." 



Like most other civilized governments, that of the United 

 States has largely promoted and subsidized in various ways 

 scientific research, and assisted in or undertaken the publica 

 tion of scientific books. Up to the middle of the present cen 

 tury its efforts in this respect cannot be said to be very pre 

 eminent, but this has greatly changed since, and the number 

 of splendid and valuable volumes issued by the government in 

 all branches of natural history, as well as the liberality with 

 which these volumes are made accessible to the public, consti 

 tute a peculiar American feature, and have never been equalled 

 in any other country. Entomology has largely profited by 

 these government publications, but most of the numerous 

 papers published in the various surveys must be considered 

 under the head of serials, and the Annual Reports of the U. 

 S. Entomologists come unfortunately also in the same cate 

 gory. But we have Packard's Monograph of Geometridse and 

 Thomas' Acrididse, which both may be considered as separate 

 volumes ; further the four reports hitherto issued by the U. S. 

 Entomological Commission are to be included here, and also 

 the special publications on insects issued by the U. S. Depart 

 ment of Agriculture. The Bulletins of the U. S. National 

 Museum are comparable to the British Museum lists, and must 

 be included under the head of separate volumes ; the Bulletins 

 of the U. S. Entomological Commission and those of the 

 Entomological Division of the Department of Agriculture are 

 difficult to classify bibliographically ; they occupy an inter 

 mediate position between separate works and serials. 



The Smithsonian Institution is something entirely unique. 

 There is nothing comparable thereto in Europe or anywhere 

 else, and its eminent services to natural sciences, and more 

 especially to zoology, have always called forth the universal 



