86 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 23, NO. 4, APRIL, 1,921 



Emmons as draughtsman and that of R. H. Pease as litho- 

 grapher. The mechanical work is of good quality and at first 

 glance some of the plates, especially those of the Coleoptera, 

 impress one rather favorably. But upon more careful exami- 

 nation this feeling is speedily dissipated because of the fact 

 that, while some of the figures are recognizable, the drawing is 

 execrable and inaccurate to a lamentable degree. The appen- 

 dages often are unequal in number and different in shape on the 

 two sides of the same insect; the outline of the subject is badly 

 distorted and carelessly drawn, and in spite of the fact that a 

 certain neatness of technique is apparent throughout, the work 

 is an example of the possible results of sloppy, careless drafts- 

 manship, coupled with a lack of competent supervision. What 

 little merit the drawings may originally have possessed has been 

 very effectively obscured by the colorist who might well have 

 used his thumb in applying the colors, so far as it is possible to 

 judge from the effects secured. The drawing and coloring of the 

 Lepidoptera are especially atrocious and I feel sure there are 

 plenty of talented children who could do better work. It is a 

 relief to turn our attention from this absurdity to the work of 

 such men as Antoine Sonrel, who was the chief illustrator of 

 Harris' ''Insects Injurious to Vegetation." All of the work 

 which we have hitherto been discussing was in color, the outlines 

 having first been printed either from engravings on copper or 

 from lithographs, and afterward tinted by hand. They have 

 consisted, for the most part, of Lepidoptera, but with the 

 appearance of Harris' work we find for the first time in American 

 books on entomology, with the exception of the short papers by 

 W. D. Peck, a serious attempt at rendering in black and white 

 the forms and true color values of insects in other orders, and it 

 is a tribute to Dr. Harris' appreciation of good entomological 

 illustrative work to remark the really wonderful success that was 

 achieved. Not only have the plates been rendered with the 

 very highest of artistic skill, but the wood engravings from which 

 the text figures were printed are among the very best that ever 

 have been produced in American works on entomology. The 

 figures of the Bombycine moths, for instance, have never been 

 equalled in any subsequent work. The figures of the Poly- 

 phemus and Cecropia moths are far superior to those of Riley's 

 Missouri Reports and several of Riley's figures of the other 

 larger moths, such as the Promethea and Luna moths, are 

 rather inferior reprints of Harris' figures. The fact that 

 Harris' Treatise on the Insects Injurious to Vegetation is still a 

 standard work on entomology, is, I believe, due largely to the 

 great excellence of its illustrations and constitutes strong evi- 

 dence that honest, painstaking work in the natural sciences is 

 practically imperishable. 



According to Charles R. Dodge, Dr. Harris first requested 



