Publications of the Entomological Society of London. 751 
the cover in one or other of these libraries in every case 
where there was no copy in its original cover in our 
own possession ; but, unfortunately, only in one single case 
does this date seem to have been correct, rarely even 
approximately so, and sometimes glaringly deceptive. 
After this revelation it will not be surprising to learn 
that when only the month was given, parts were frequently 
dated one month, and sometimes two, or even three, prior 
to the actual time of publication. At last I bethought 
me to apply for help, in very doubtful cases, to Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co., who have published for the 
Society from the first, and who interpreted my request 
with such astonishing generosity as to send me, in the 
course of a few days, a complete list of the days on which 
they received each part of each volume from 1834 to 
1911. Now here, it might be said, is all that can be 
desired as giving the exact date of publication in every 
case. But this is by no means the fact, for the Society 
has also from the beginning acted as its own publisher, 
and the dates at which the various parts were delivered 
by the printers at the Society’s rooms are often (when 
obtainable) earlier than those at which they were received 
by Messrs. Longmans & Co.; and, in fact, a comparison 
of the dates leads one to suppose that they were always 
in former times delivered direct to the Society, who for- 
warded copies to Messrs. Longmans & Co., except that 
once or twice in August, when there was apparently no 
one to receive them at the Society’s rooms, Messrs. Long- 
mans & Co. were not kept waiting for their copies, which 
seem to have been then delivered direct from the printers. 
In a very able letter written by Mr. J. H. Durrant to 
a former Secretary, a copy of which he has kindly placed 
at my disposal, it is argued that the delivery of books to 
the Society does not constitute publication, because the 
general public has not access to the Society’s rooms. This 
argument would of course be unanswerable if the pre- 
mises were correct, but that is the very reverse of being 
the case. It is indisputable that at the present time 
non-members can, and frequently do, both write and come 
in person to buy copies of the current number of the 
Transactions, and it is actually the only way in which 
back numbers of more than three or four years past can 
be obtained. I make this statement on the authority of 
the Resident Librarian, and it is easy for any unbeliever 
to test the matter for himself; but it might be supposed 
