December, '08] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 415 



Current Notes 



Conducted by the Associate Editor 



Professor John Bernard Smith, state entomologist of New Jersey, passed 

 his fiftieth birthday November 21. A fortnight prior he confided to a friend 

 that he proposed to celebrate the event by calling a special meeting of the 

 Brooklyn Entomological Society, of which he has always been an active mem- 

 ber, and entertaining them at dinner, a surprise party. The news leaking 

 out, action was taken by the three societies of the Metropolitan district, 

 Brooklyn, New York and Newark. A joint committee arranged a surprise for 

 Professor Smith at a dinner given in his honor at the Imperial Hotel, Brook- 

 lyn, on the evening of his birthday. 



Fifty entomologists assembled. Charles W. Leng, president of the New 

 York Entomological Society, acted as chairman of the meeting. R. F. Pear- 

 sail, president of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, and H. Wormspacher, 

 president of the Newark Entomological Society, assisted. E. L. Graef, the 

 veteran Brooklyn lepidopterist, acted as toastmaster. A silver loving cup, 

 the gift of individual members of the three societies, was presented with 

 fitting remarks by C. H. Roberts, the authority on aquatic Coleoptera, who, 

 with Professor Smith, is a charter member of the Brooklyn Society. A 

 stein, capacious enough for a draught by all those present, was sent by Dr. 

 R. Ottolengui, the monographer of Piusia. 



Among those present were Dr. Henry Skinner and Mr. Daacke of the 

 Feldman Social, Philadelphia; Prof. R. C. Osburn of Columbia University; 

 F. A. Lucas, chief of the museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 

 Sciences ; Wm. Beutenmuller and Mr. Muehler of the American Museum of 

 Natural History; E. B. Southwick, entomologist of Central Park; Edward 

 Moore, Brooklyn city entomologist; L. A. Best, president of the department 

 of entomology of the Brooklyn Institute; G. P. Engelhardt, curator of the 

 Brooklyn Children's Museum; Rev. J. L. Zabriskie, Geo. Franck, Jacob Doll, 

 lepidopterist of the Brooklyn Museum, and J. J. Levison, forester of Pros- 

 pect Park. The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station was repre- 

 sented by J. A. Grossbeck, E. L. Dickerson and H. H. Braehme. 



Letters of congratulation came from Dr. L. O. Howard, Washington; Dr. 

 E. P. Felt, Albany; Prof. W. M. Wheeler, Harvard University; Karl Fuchs, 

 San Francisco; Prof. J. H. Comstock, Cornell University; Dr. William Barnes, 

 Illinois, and many others. 



The occasion was most pleasurable to all and Professor Smith was forced 

 to admit that the testimony of his loving friends almost compensated for the 

 crossing of the fiftieth year mark. 



A. H. Kirkland, Superintendent for Supi)ressing the Gypsy and Brown Tail 

 Moths, has, we learn through the press, resigned his position on account of ill 

 health. Mr. Kirkland has been a most conscientious official and we feel that 

 his resignation means a serious loss to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

 since it will be very difficult to fill the position he has made vacant. 



Prof. Glen W. Herrick has resigned the office of State Entomologist of Mis- 

 sissippi and accepted the position of State Entomologist of Texas. Address, 

 College Station, Texas. 



