Murcli— April 188,5. J 



psrcHE. 



31 



P'SYCHE. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., MAR.-APR. 1SS3. 



CommitHicationSy exchanges and editors' copies 

 should be addressed to Editors of l*i;YCHE, Cam- 

 bridge^ Jlfass. Comtfiitnications for pHhtication in 

 Ps\ciiE must be properiy authenticated, ard no anony. 

 marts articles ^vill he published. 



Editors and contributors are oniy resp'cusible for the 

 statements made in their ozvn communications. 



Works on subjects not related to entomology zvill not 

 be revinvcd in Psyche. 



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 vertising columns. 



FALSE DATES. 



So far a.s our examination has gone, we 

 have not learned that is was the custom of 

 anv scientific periodical to publish the actual 

 date of its issue in a systematic manner, 

 before such a practice was adopted in Psyche. 

 Whether Psyche was or was not a pioneer 

 in this direction is of little importance com- 

 pared with the importance of the principle 

 tlius illustrated. We are pleased to notice 

 the adoption of tliis practice in one and 

 another of our contemporaries. Psyche 

 has practised it from the outset. 



With the concluding numero of its last 

 finished volume (December 1SS2), the Cana- 

 diaii eiiiomologL^t began to print, o)i the 

 nnmcro. the date of printing of each numero 

 of its issue. How much better it would be 

 to announce, in one numero, the date of 

 actual issue of the preceding! Accidents 

 frequently occur, after a signature, or a 

 numero, is partly or even wholly printed, 

 to dehiv its issue beyond the expected date, 

 and the signatures cannot be, in that case, 

 thrown away, or their date changed, with- 

 out loss or trouble which will rarely be in- 

 curred. No reliance, in most cases, therefore 

 can be placed on such an annoimcement. 

 As an announcement of date of printing 

 and not of date of issue, it has no value in 

 a question of prioritv. The announcement. 



if intended as a statement of tlie date of 

 issue, is positively false, in that it is made 

 in advance of issue; however strictly the 

 fact may be made subsequently to coincide 

 with the announcement. In case, however, 

 the announcement is made after the event, 

 it has a positive value. 



It is rarely the case that so excellent an 

 opportunity oi illustrating the evils of the 

 practice of putting the date on the signatiu'e 

 to wliich it refers is given, as in the state- 

 ments of dates of issue which are appended 

 to the last two volumes of the Proceedings 

 of the ISoston society of natural history. It 

 is probable that a similar discrepancy be- 

 tween the pre-announced and the actual 

 dates of issue occurs in the issue of the pro- 

 ceedings of many other societies, but in 

 general there is no means of detecting the 

 discrepancy. Even here it is not until two 

 or three years after the issue of the first sig- 

 natures before the true date of issue is made 

 kno\yn. Meanwhile, what misunderstandings 

 might arise, either controversially or pri- 

 vately, from the erroneous impression con- 

 veyed by the dates printed on the signatures! 

 It will be noticed, in the lists given below, 

 especially from volume 20 of the Proceedings, 

 in how many cases the announcement is 

 false, and how great, in many cases, is the 

 discrepancy. 



Dates of :ictii:il publication of tlic Proceedings of the 

 Boston society of natural history, v. 20 and 21, as 

 compared witli tlie dates printed on the signatures. 



