C750) 
XXXIV. On the Dates of the Publications of the Entomological 
Society of London. By the Rev. G. WHEELER, 
M.A., F.Z8. 
[Read December 6th, 1911.] 
SOME months ago I was instructed by the Council, as a 
part of my secretarial work, to find out as far as possible, 
from the printers who had from time to time been em- 
ployed by the Society, the precise dates of publication 
of the various parts of the volumes of our Transactions, 
since some of these dates were crucial with regard to the 
priority of names in a number of species. Certain details 
on this part of the matter, which may possibly be of 
interest, I have thought it better to place together in an 
Appendix (v. App. £), and it will be sufficient to say here, 
that though I received most courteous replies from all 
those firms which I could trace as representing those 
formerly employed by the Society, very large gaps re- 
mained which I attempted to fill by reference to old 
Minute Books of our own Society, by the help given by 
the dated list uniformly kept by the Linnean Society of 
all publications received by them, and where this failed 
through the loss of one of their books, by reference to the 
British Museum copy in which the date of reception is 
stamped on the back of each part. These means, how- 
ever, were not as efficacious as might have been expected, 
owing to the extreme irregularity with which copies were 
sent out; as an instance I might quote the case (by no 
means an isolated one) in which the Linnean Society 
received on August 11th, 1868, parts 1 and 2 of the New 
Series, together with vol. iii, pt. 3, vol. iv, pts. 4 and 5, 
and vol. v, pt. 8, of the previous series. It will readily 
be seen that this afforded little help in fixing precise 
dates, though there are one or two instances in which 
these will be the nearest attainable. Up till 1850 the 
only date printed on the parts was that of the year; from 
that time till 1896 the month only was added, except 
from 1881 to 1885 inclusive, when the day of the month 
was printed on the cover, but not at the bottom of the 
first page of each separate paper, where only the month 
appeared as in other years. In this case both the Linnean 
Society and the British Museum afforded help, for I found 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1911.—PART IV. (JAN.) 
