INSTITUTE NOTES. 



With this number the Institute completes the publication 

 of the third volume of its Prockkdings. Our endeavor has 

 been to make the contents of the journal as interesting and 

 instructive as possible in a publication of this class, and we 

 think we have succeeded. The Procrkdings have been very 

 favorably received by the scientific world, notes from our 

 articles have been abstracted in various periodicals, and four 

 of our longest articles have been quoted in full in one of the 

 leading scientific journals of the country. Considering every- 

 thing, the Institute is well pleased with its venture, and hopes 

 the subscribers to the Proceedings have been equally so. 

 The Title Page and Index to Volume III, bound in with this 

 number, are for use of those who wish to have the Proceed- 

 ings put into book form. The three volumes now issued 

 make a very convenient size for binding into one book. 



Mexican Jumping Beans, a few samples of which recently 

 came into the possession of the Institute, have been attracting 

 the attention of the members. These beans have the faculty in 

 some cases of moving themselves with considerable force, espe- 

 cially under the stimulus of slight heat. The movement is due 

 to the fact that within each bean is a small, parasitic worm, the 

 larva of a genus of moth, Carpocapsa, which worm, in climb- 

 ing around the inside of the bean, causes it to turn over or 

 shake. The larva is very destructive to various fruits, as the 

 name of the genus implies (KapTros, fruit; kcltttuv, devour). 

 The worm consumes the inside of the bean to sustain itself ; 

 it then passes into the pupa state, and later, under normal 

 conditions, the full-fledged moth comes out of the bean 

 through a hole previously cut by the larva. Under artificial 

 conditions it is scarcely likely this will occur, although the 

 future of the beans will be watched with interest. 



James G. Vail, a member of the Institute and chemist of 



