OF WASHINGTON. 11 



admiration of the scientific world. To its liberal policy Amer 

 ican entomology is deeply indebted, for we owe to it a splendid 

 series of the most valuable and indispensable works on classi 

 fication of North American Insects, which -are too well known 

 to be enumerated here. It suffices to say that while a few of 

 these catalogues and synopses could possibly have been pub 

 lished by societies or through other channels, most of these 

 Smithsonian works could not have been presented in any other 

 way. The Monographs of North American Diptera, by Dr. 

 H. Low, for instance, would probably not have found a pub 

 lisher in this country, and certainly not in Kurope, because 

 they were written by the greatest authority on Diptera. This 

 would seem to be a strange and paradoxical objection, but I 

 shall explain it presently. 



Another and not inconsiderable series of separate volumes 

 on North American entomology we owe to what are known 

 as "authors' extras," which I consider amongst the greatest 

 inventions, so to speak, of modern science. The study of en 

 tomology and that of any other science would, in fact, be 

 completely blocked without "authors' extras," and rendered 

 possible, and this under great difficulties and inconvenience, 

 only to the few living in cities with very large libraries. I am 

 too ignorant in bibliographical matters to know when and 

 where this praiseworthy custom originated, but at any rate we 

 are enabled thereby to add to the list of separate works, or at 

 least to consider as such, all the Reports of the State and 

 United States Entomologists : and what a blessing it is to 

 handle and quote them as such, instead of as parts of awkwardly 

 large and long-titled Transactions, most of us will know. It 

 is certainly to be regretted that that splendid series of Reports 

 which constitutes a unique feature in the American entomolog 

 ical literature and which embodies a branch of our science in 

 which America has become a model for other countries, could 

 not be published originally as separate volumes ; for the Agri 

 cultural Transactions of which they form a part have not 

 always attained a very high scientific standard, and are, most 

 of them, by no means attractive samples of typographical art. 

 The paper is miserable, the printing poor, and of the beauty 



