October— Decern her 1S.S4. 



PS re HE. 



223 



PSYCHE. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., OCT.-DEC. 1S84. 



Communication!!, exchaji^es and editors' copies 

 should be addressed to Editors of Psyche, Com. 

 bridi^c, Mass. Communications for publication in 

 Psyche must be properly authenticated, and no anony- 

 mous articles ivill be published. 



Editors and contributors are only responsible for the 

 flatements made in their ozvn communications. 



Works on subjects not related to cutomologv zvilt not 

 he reviewed in Psy-che. 



For rates of subscription and of adTCrlisinff, see ad- 

 vertising columns. 



INDEX TO ENTOMOLOGICAL LITER- 

 ATURE. 



The time consumed by special students in 

 seai-ching tlirough a whole literature t'ov 

 those portions of it which bear upon their 

 special studies is largeh- wasted. The litera- 

 ture of special subjects is so scattered, and 

 that of different subjects so intermingled, 

 that each student who tries to find for him- 

 self what relates to the subjects he is studying 

 is obliged to peruse a great deal of literature 

 that is not of service to him, far inore. in- 

 deed, than that wliich he can use. in propor- 

 tion as the subjects he is studying form but 

 a fraction of all the subjects treated in the 

 literature. Here, as in other fields of labor, 

 specialization carries with it economy and 

 efficiency. The diligent worker who, labor- 

 ing to that end, by comprehensiye methods 

 forms an inde.v to all the special subjects 

 treated in the literature as he examines it 

 finds himself at last able to refer without 

 hesitancy or waste of time to all the litera- 

 ture which treats of any of these specialties. 

 He is then in a position to supply the needs 

 of the specialists first mentioned. While 

 but few persons are interested in these refer- 

 ences as a whole, each specialist finds the 



portion referring to his own field of study of 

 great value. Having accumulated an im- 

 mense stock of references to the literature of 

 entomology, I will furnish references on 

 special subjects at ten cents each reference, 

 or fifty cents per decade. The system upon 

 which these references will be furnished is 

 the following. The person seeking refer- 

 ences shall send me his list of references 

 already obtained; the references I furnish 

 will then only be those additional to this list, 

 so that no one will have to p,ay for that which 

 he already has. If any person finds the 

 transcription of the references which he 

 already has not worth the saving of the cost 

 under this rule, he can not complain of the 

 cost of the references furnished him. Extracts 

 from and translations of portions of litera- 

 ture on desired subjects will also be pro- 

 cured on demand. 



The publication of bibliographical records 

 in the pages of Psyche and other works and 

 the indexing of these records place a consid- 

 erable number of references at the disposal 

 of specialists without special payment there- 

 for. So rapidly as means admit these 

 records and indices in Psyche will be en- 

 larged. Meanwhile the pages of Psyche 

 stand open for contributions from the stores 

 of specialists who have already gathered for 

 their own use references to the literature of 

 their specialties. When it is considered with 

 how great labor these lists of references are 

 gathered, and how one student after anether 

 is obliged to perform this labor anew, for 

 \vant of the publication of lists once made, 

 it may be seen of how great service to the 

 public would be the publication of these 

 lists. The very persons who inav be dis- 

 posed to depreciate the value of general 

 indexes such as mine, for the reason that 

 they in their special fields have fuller indexes 

 or those most complete to date, ai-e the ones 

 who may render the greatest service to their 

 fellows-workers by publishing their lists. 



B : PiCKM.^N M.\NN. 

 \\'ashington, D. C, Nov. 18S4. 



