132 [May 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



[The Conductors of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS solicit and will thankfullyreceive 

 items of news likely to interest its readers from any source. The author's name 

 will be given in each case, for the information of cataloguers and bibliograph- 

 ers.] 



To Contributors. All contributions will be considered and passed upon at 

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PHILADELPHIA, PA., MAY, 1899. 



NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS IN THE FOREIGN MAILS 



AGAIN. 



The Wash iiigton Congress of the Universal Postal Union, 

 held in May, 1897, adopted a convention, one paragraph of 

 which admits articles of natural history to the mails of the 

 Union at the rate for, and under the conditions applicable to, 

 samples of merchandise. The Congress fixed January 1, 1899, 

 as the date when this convention should go into effect. 



Since the beginning of the present year the editors of the 

 NEWS have received several letters, from persons in various 

 parts of the United States, to the effect that postmasters have 

 refused to accept specimens of natural history intended for 

 foreign countries at the rates permitted by the Washington 

 Convention. At the wish of certain correspondents, we have 

 investigated the possible reasons for such refusals. The fol- 

 lowing letter from Mr. N. M. Brooks, Superintendent of For- 

 eign Mails of the United States Post Office, will therefore 



prove of interest. 



WASHINGTON, March 24, 1899. 

 Mr. Philip P. Calvert, Philadelphia. 



SIR. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st 

 inst. calling attention to the circumstance that, since the 1st of 

 January last, postmasters at certain United States Post Offices have 

 refused to receive packages containing " Specimens of Natural His- 

 tory '' whi ch were presented for mailing to foreign countries as 

 *' samples." 



In reply L have to inform you that such refusals must be attrib- 

 uted to ignorance on the part of the postmasters in question due 

 to their failure to observe the instructio ns published in the 



