Vol. XXl] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 287 



THE RAT AND ITS RELATION TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH. By various 

 authors, the Treasury Department, Public Health and Marine 

 Hospital Service, Washington, 1910. 



This is a most interesting resume of the subject, and contains the 

 following articles relating to insects: Ectoparasites of the Rat, by 

 Nathan Banks; The Flea and its Relation to Plague, by Carroll Fox. 



Doings of Societies. 



At a meeting of the Hawaiian Entomological Society held 

 March 3, 1910. a committee was appointed to draft resolutions 

 expressing sorrow upon the death of its late president, and 

 begs to report as follows : 



That this society desires to record its deep sorrow and keen 

 sense of loss experienced through the untimely death of Mr. 

 G. W. Kirkaldy, its late president, and one of its most enthu- 

 siastic members. 



The deceased w r as in his thirty-seventh year, and his unex- 

 pected demise was the result of an unfortunate riding accident 

 involving a broken leg, some five years ago. Repeated local 

 operations were unsuccessful, and whilst enjoying a brief vaca- 

 tion in San Francisco last January Mr. Kirkaldy decided to 

 undergo another operation ; at first everything seemed satis- 

 factory, but soon gangrene developed, proving fatal on Feb- 

 ruary 2d. 



Mr. Kirkaldy was born in London of Scotch parentage, and 

 while still a boy he exhibited a keen love for natural history. 

 He was educated at the City of London School, and contrary 

 to his tastes he entered a shipping firm. During this most un- 

 congenial period he assiduously occupied his spare time with 

 entomology, finally concentrating his attention upon aquatic 

 Hemiptera, publishing his first paper, "A Revision of the 

 Notonectidae," in 1897. Two years later he commenced the 

 working out of the hemipterous portion of the zoological ma- 

 terial collected by Dr. R. C. L. Perkins in the Hawaiian Isl- 

 ands, the results of which are published as the "Fauna Ha- 

 waiiensis." In 1903 the Hawaiian sugar planters' cane crop 

 was menaced by a recently introduced Fulgorid, which had 





