210 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



treated by Aldrovandus, Crescentius, and Mouffet. In the second 

 volume, his opening section is devoted to economic entomology, and 

 he devotes 76 pages to this subject. Of these 76 pages, however, 10 

 are devoted to silk culture and 10 to bee culture. The greatest space 

 is devoted to locust years, and about 25 pages are given to this suIj- 

 ject. The years of great locust invasion for many countries are given. 

 The earliest of the writers on agricultural entomology mentioned 

 especially is Johann Colerus whose " Haushaltsbuch " was published 

 about 1590. This writer was bom in Silesia and died in Mecklenburg 

 in 1639. He seems to have written about a numljer of garden insects 

 and to have mentioned remedies for chronological use in the garden, 

 something on the style of one of our farmers' almanacs. 



These volumes by Doctor Bodenheimer are full of important infor- 

 mation. He has done an enormous amount of j^ainstaking and valua- 

 ble work. He has done it so thoroughly that probably no writer will 

 for many years treat of early entomology without using this remark- 

 able work. It has not yet been translated into English. I hope that 

 some one will make such a translation and publish it before many 

 years. In the meantime, those who have difficulty with the German 

 language will do well to consult the rather full reviews published in 

 Nature, both written by Dr. F. A. Dixey. The first volume is reviewed 

 in Nature for June 22, 1929, pp. 935-937. The second volume is 

 reviewed in Nature for March 29, 1930, pp. 483-485. 



In the second volume Doctor Bodenheimer calls especial attention 

 to a very early book published in England. It is entitled "A Treatise 

 of Buggs," by John Southall, and it was published in 1730. Boden- 

 heimer devotes considerable space to a description of this little book, 

 a copy of which is, fortunately, in the Congressional Library in Wash- 

 ington, where I have been able to consult it. The author is described 

 as " Maker of the Nonpariel Liquor for Destroying Buggs and Nits." 

 His story is that while living in the West Indies he learned of a 

 compound for destroying bugs from an ancient Jamaican negro. Of 

 course the bugs referred to are true bedbugs (Cimex lectnlarius). 

 A good description and figures of the insect are given with an account 

 of its development. The author states that he will use his remedy 

 for people at the rate of ten shillings and six pence for a certain 

 type of bedstead and five shillings for ordinary bedsteads without 

 furniture. The value of the book consists solely in its accurate plate 

 and its account of the development of the insect. 



Dr. Walther Horn, in a paper read at the Third International Con- 

 gress of Entomology at Zurich, showed that in the old times of the 



