264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



capacity visited several of the Western Territories, and publislied 

 a large quarto memoir on the family of geometrid moths, familiar 

 examples of which are those forms the larvae of which are known 

 as canker-worms. 



The year 1873 witnessed the establishment of the Anderson 

 School of Natural History on the illy adapted island of Penikese, 

 and here for two summers (the whole period of the existence of 

 the school) Dr. Packard gave the instruction in the articulates. 

 When the Penikese experiment was abandoned, the idea of a 

 summer zoological station where students could come for the 

 summer and pursue a course of study was taken up by the Pea- 

 body Academy of Science, which for five years maintained such 

 a school. During the first three years of the existence of this 

 Salem school (1876-78) Dr. Packard was at its head, giving lect- 

 ures, assisting in demonstrations, and in every way trying to 

 make it a success. 



The years from 1873 to 1876 will long be remembered by the 

 inhabitants west of the Mississippi, from the terrible devasta- 

 tions of the Rocky Mountain locust, or grasshopper, as it is more 

 familiarly known. Over enormous tracts of country everything 

 green was devoured by these insect pests, and an enormous 

 amount of suffering was caused by the destruction of the crops 

 of the farmers. Indeed, so serious were the ravages that Con- 

 gress was implored to create a commission of eminent entomolo- 

 gists to seek some way to check the locusts and to prevent their 

 ravages. Congress passed the desired bill, and the Secretary of 

 the Interior appointed, as the United States Entomological Com- 

 mission, Prof. C. V. Piley, Prof. Cyrus Thomas, and Dr. A. S. 

 Packard. If the logic of post hoc, ergo propter hoc, be valid, no 

 better appointments could have been made, for the very year 

 these persons began their duties the locust troubles were very 

 materially diminished. The three members of the commission 

 divided the field between them, and Dr. Packard made several 

 trips to the Territories to study the extent of the locust ravages, 

 and to ascertain their breeding-grounds. One of these trips took 

 him to California, Oregon, and Washington Territory. As has 

 been said, the locust invasions ceased almost the moment the 

 commissioners were appointed, but other insects became serious 

 pests in other parts of the country, and so Congress enlarged the 

 scope of the commission, and directed its members to investigate 

 the chinch-bug, the Hessian iiy, and the cotton-worm, and limited 

 the duration of the existence of the board to five years. The 

 commission have published three annual reports, large octavo 

 volumes, filled with information regarding various destructive 

 insects, besides numerous smaller bulletins. They have another 

 and final report now in press. 



