CURRENT NOTES. 117 



must have more frequent issues of their proceedings, a much more costly 

 arrangement than the present annual issue, or the magazines must 

 step in and publish the papers, when the societies would lose the 

 advertisement and credit. Of course the whole difficulty is one of 

 pounds, shillings and pence. No society can exist unless the sub- 

 scription is very moderate, and every society must proclaim its work 

 to the world and advertise itself by a publication. This latter is costly 

 and usually falls largely on the shoulders of a few more enthusiastic 

 members. There is always the necessity for the most rigid economy 

 in the finances of a society which would be quite impossible did pub- 

 lication of papers occur every few months. Is it worth the while 

 for these smaller societies to cripple their resource and so restrict 

 their usefulness by struggling to publish papers '? Some papers in 

 these lesser publications are naturally very limited in their appli- 

 cation and perhaps, from a scientific point of view, not worth 

 printing, while others are of more or less permanent value and their 

 restricted circulation is not only a loss to the advancement of science 

 if so published, but, even may be completely hidden away, as was for 

 so many years the now famous paper of Mendel on Heredity. Every 

 new serial publication adds to the difficulty of the future student ; at 

 the present time it is well nigh impossible for any individual worker 

 by himself to make a complete search in a question which for the time 

 being he is dealing with. On the other hand each member of a society 

 feels that he is hardly dealt with if he has nothing in return for his 

 subscription, nothing permanent to remind him of his many pleasant 

 hours of social concourse with his fellow enthusiasts. Such are some 

 of the points in a difficulty that one sees. 



Professor Forel has recently described three new species of ant from 

 South Africa, under the following names, Tetiawariinii juffrei, T. 

 frenchi, and T. popovici. — H.D. 



The Growth and Organization of Applied Entomology in the United 

 States is the title of a Reprint from the Junrnal of Kroncmic Kntnw- 

 oloyy, by P. J. Parrott. He shows that the great feature of the past 

 quarter of a century was " the rise of the entomological expert with his 

 official connections, and of organizations of workers engaged in the 

 promotion of agriculture" and that this movement " has exerted a 

 profound influence on the aims and success of this branch of science " 

 in the country. The development of iMitomology, he shows, to be 

 largely utilitarian, induced by the continued application to legislatures 

 for assistance in coping with the overwhelming insect depredations and 

 by the inability of individuals to deal unaided with the trouble. The 

 history of state-aid m applied Entomology in the States is sketched, 

 and reference is made to such eminent pioneers as Harris, Fitch and 

 and Riley. The Budget for 1918-14 provided no less than 752,210 

 dollars for this purpose in connection with agriculture. The author 

 concludes with a plea for greater opportunities for experimental work, 

 which the insistent demands of present arrangements in economic work 

 do not permit to be sufficiently undertaken. 



For many years we have been accustomed to go through the cata- 

 logues of second-hand books, not only with the object of finding a 

 bargain or a desideratum, but for the interesting comments of the 

 compiler on a large number of items. These remarks are not only 

 often very instructive from a historical, literary and scientific point of 



