268 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Oct., *05 



The problem of literature is the most serious one facing the 

 American student. A very small proportion of our students 

 are so situated as to be able to refer to the greater libraries.* 

 Even among professional entomologists we find that very few 

 of the outside colleges, experiment stations and similar insti- 

 tutions will buy the very special technical works that may be 

 needed in their investigations. The majority are compelled to 

 privately purchase what they need, and more — even compelled 

 to do all technical work on their own outside time, as has been 

 the case with the writer. This regrettable condition of affairs 

 is due to several causes — most unscientific and ill-advised in 

 their nature and easily remediable. There are not near enough 

 publications in the United States to-day to accommodate the 

 amount of good work which is deserving of record. But 

 among the societies and other scientific publishers, there is a 

 most deplorable lack of unity and organization, and the present 

 condition of affairs is to be expected as a natural result. I 

 can readily cite excellent examples in illustration. I am 

 studying certain groups of the Homoptera. Through various 

 means, some quite accidental, I have from time to time become 

 aware of papers on this subject published in the Proceedings 

 of the Iowa Academy of Sciences, the Bulletin of the Illinois 

 State Laboratory of Natural History, the Proceedings of the 

 Davenport Academy of Sciences, the Journal of the Cincinnati 

 Society of Natural History, the Transactions of the Maryland 

 Academy of Sciences, the O. S. U. Naturalist, and sundry 

 other reports and proceedings. Will Dr. Skinner tell me off 

 hand where these are published and from whom and how they 

 may be obtained ? Some of them certainly do not bear these 

 data in pfint. I am in a position to thoroughly sympathize 

 with the "pitiable sorrows" of even the average American 

 student who tries to run them down and get what he wishes 

 from them — to say nothing of Europeans. In a number of 

 these cases I could not buy the separate papers but was com- 

 pelled to purchase from my slender means whole bulky volumes 

 containing a little of everything from Astronomy and Anthro- 

 pology to leaf-hoppers ! But the Hymenopterist is even in a 

 worse case, for in addition he has to buy the Bulletin of the 



