386 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



Mr. Thompson published reports in the Gazette for 1895, but in 

 that Journal for November, 1896, he is referred to as " late Govern- 

 ment Entomologist." His portrait, published in the Journal for 

 March, 1895, is that of an able, vigorous man, possibly in his late 

 forties. 



Mr. Thompson was succeeded in office by Mr. A. M. Lea, previ- 

 ously in Western Australia. Mr. Lea published practical bulletins 

 from time to time until 1914, when his work was taken over by 

 Mr. H. M. Nichols under the title of Government Microbiologist. 

 Mr. Nichols still holds this office, and has published a great deal, more 

 on plant diseases than on injurious insects, and of late years has had 

 charge of the microscopical examination of milk and cream. 



Victoria. — The State of Victoria was greatly interested in the Phyl- 

 loxera as early as 1873. The State had a Department of Agriculture 

 at that date, and its annual report contained entomological articles 

 before there was any definite appointment of an official charged with 

 entomological work. In the report for 1874 there is an account of 

 some Australian wood-boring beetles, by Charles French. Although 

 the Secretary for Agriculture, in an introduction to this article, 

 expressed the hope that this would be the beginning of a systematic 

 inquiry in regard to injurious insects, it was not until August, 1890, 

 that a conference was held at Melbourne, attended by various inter- 

 ested boards and councils, to consider means for the suppression of 

 injurious insects. In 1891 Mr. Charles French was appointed Ento- 

 mologist to the Government, under the Department of Agriculture. 

 He went to work at once very diligently, and in two years had pub- 

 lished two parts of an important handbook on the destructive insects 

 of Victoria, the first published in 1891 and the second in 1893. The 

 reports were written in popular style and gave much attention to 

 means of destruction. Perhaps their most striking feature consists of 

 their illustrations, which are colored. The third part of the handbook, 

 published later, considers also certain valuable insect-destroying birds. 

 I believe that a fourth part was published, but I have not seen it. 



Beginning with 1902, there has been published a Journal of the 

 Department of Agriculture. I have seen 25 volumes, down to and 

 including that for 1927. Before the beginning of the first volume, 

 Mr. French had published several bulletins about different insects, 

 as well as a report of the locust plague throughout the north and 

 northwestern districts of Victoria. Articles by Charles French occur 

 in practically every volume of the Journal down to 1908. A number 

 of them were published as formal rei)orls for the current year. In 



