208 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



as "the entomologists' bible") as very complete, and we have all 

 been surprised and delighted with the recently published Index to 

 Entomological literature brought out by Drs. Walther Horn and 

 Sigmund Schenkling. These indefatigable workers have found no 

 less than 7,929 articles not listed by Hagen and all published prior 

 to 1863, and they have brought the total number of articles on ento- 

 mology published before that date from 17,300 up to 25,229. More- 

 over, they have discovered that there were no less than 3,326 authors 

 writing on entomological topics prior to that date whose names do 

 not appear in Hagen. The authors of the Index have not been able 

 to take up the laborious task of preparing a Sachrcgister supplemen- 

 tary to that published by Hagen, but there are doubtless in the nearly 

 8,000 additional titles many that are directly or indirectly concerned 

 with economic entomology. Of course, the list includes American 

 writers as well as those of the Old World. 



As a matter of fact a great many of these articles amounted to 

 little from the modern point of view. The remedial measures sug- 

 gested in practically all the general books and papers on economic 

 entomology in Europe prior to 1870 have been comparatively unim- 

 j)ortant and ineffective. A modern entomologist has spoken of them 

 comprehensively as " old Scotch gardeners' stuff." Nevertheless, the 

 entomologists of those days did their share in making known the life 

 histories and seasonal habits of the insect enemies of the gardens and 

 fields. They were not farmers or gardeners themselves as a rule, 

 although Bouche was Gartcndircktor in Berlin, and they knew little 

 of such arts. Boisduval puts it very pleasantly in the preface to his 

 " Entomologie Horticole " (1867) ^s follows (translated): 



This book will meet with the same reproach that, has been applied to all its 

 predecessors. They complain that, while we describe the damage the insects do, 

 we do not always point out the remedy. To this we reply that the same 

 observer cannot do everything, and that we have always helped the horti- 

 culturists by showing them the habits of the insects against whose ravages we 

 have not always been able to suggest remedies. In their own ranks there are 

 many excellent observers who will soon discover how to free their gardens from 

 these pests for which we have been able to suggest nothing. 



We must not, however, fail to mention the fact not only that some 

 common pests were rather well understood, but that there were here 

 and there general regulations or decrees or laws calling for the hand 

 destruction of certain forms at certain stages of their growth. Bouvier, 

 for instance, has called attention to the old French law of the 28th 

 Ventose, year IV of the Republic (March, 1796) especially enacted 

 against the brown-tail moth and requiring the collection and destruc- 



