1888.] MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 215 



legist, learned that in certain sections of the State the chinch bug had made 

 his appearance in such numbers as to threaten to cut short the income of the 

 agriculturists. Realizing the danger, he stopped the i-avages of the bug very 

 summarily. Earlier in the season he had experimented at the State farm upon 

 a fungoid disease of the chinch bug, and had found that, by propagating the 

 disease, he could kill the bugs as fast as they matured. With his stock of 

 diseased chinch bugs on hand he awaited news of the pest. Then he dis- 

 tributed diseased bugs. These communicated the disease to their fellows, and 

 the bugs succumbed in immense numbers. It is probable that the grain saved 

 by this ingenious device (simple enough when understood and applied) will 

 be worth the salary of many State entomologists and experimenters for many 

 years to come, even if they were to do no further service. Prof. Lugger has 

 promised soon to publish an account of the disease. 



The Biological Section of the American Association. — Attheiecent 

 meeting this section was not so fortunate as might be desired. The attend- 

 ance was limited largely to botanists and entomologists, and there was a 

 scarcity of papers. At the British Association, meetings of this section are 

 made very interesting indeed. Might not American biologists well introduce 

 such general discussions as the British did in the case of the coral island ques- 

 tion? Physiological topics are legitimate as well as morphological ones, 

 though the former seem to predominate. A greater variety of topics treated, 

 and the attendance of representatives of all departments of biology, are the 

 points to be immediatelv considered by those who have been elected officers 

 for 1889. 



o 



Oleomargarine. — This topic forms the subject of a very full report in the 

 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health.* It 

 is written by Dr. E. G. Brackett, of the Harvard Medical College. He 

 shows, by reference to statistics, that the production of oleomargarine in that 

 State is an industry of considerable magnitude, and thereby justifies a thorough 

 examination of the matter. He describes the process of manufacture, con- 

 siders its relation to health, and shows that, at present, comparatively little is 

 fraudulently sold as butter. The paper seems to show conclusively that oleo- 

 margarine has nearly as high a nutritive value as butter, that it keeps far better 

 than butter, and that it is no more likely to be uncleanly or unwholesome than 

 condensed milk or any other manufactured food. It is, therefore, to be regretted 

 that popular prejudice still regards it as an adulteration to be avoided. Its 

 price and nutritive qualities justify its use as a substitute for butter. There is 

 now every reason to suppose that it will, in time, appear under its own true 

 name, upon its merits, like packed eggs, stale butter, salt herring, and other 

 foods which are common enough and not under any excluding ban. 



The Galapagos Islands. — These were visited by the LI. S. Steamer 

 Albatross in her exploring cruise, and Prof. L. B. Lee, of Bowdoin College, 

 one of the naturalists on board, has given in the New York Evening Post 

 a brief accovmt of the colony there. One of the largest islands, 600 miles 

 from land and under the equator, is the home of 150 persons. The islands 

 are out of the line of commerce, hence communication is nearly impossible. 

 The numbers are recruited from time to time from the criminal classes of 

 Ecuador. Male and female are about equally numerous. They seem to have 



* Boston. Wright & Potter, pp.93. i883. 



