158 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, '07 



and thirty words and having a blank margiti of two and one- 

 half inches. Some of the pages must have been joy to the 

 compositor, since they are rich in printer's " fat." There are 

 nine plates of merely outline drawings which would have been 

 far more useful inserted in the text, and could just as well 

 have been so inserted and thus saved cost and weight. For 

 this work we pay $6.00. 



As nearly as I can estimate, if this book be translated into 

 terms of a good, clean, well printed journal of normal size, like 

 Entomological News, it will occupy about three hundred 

 and twenty pages. I take down the first volume of Entomo- 

 logical News within reach (for 1894) and find that it meas- 

 ures six by nine and one-half by one inch, weighs fifteen 

 ounces, and contains three hundred and fifty-two pages. It 

 contains also twenty plates, of which one is finely colored, — a 

 larger work than that on the Chalcids so far as actual matter 

 goes and yet only about one-third the size and one-fifth the 

 weight ; it costs one dollar, — one-sixth of the price ! It may be 

 argued that the size and weight and price of the volume are 

 of no moment to the great laboratories and libraries. But are 

 not American entomological works published primarily for the 

 mass of American entomologists, — men of small means, — men 

 who must frequently move from place to place during their 

 earlier years, men who must crowd much into busy lives of 

 teaching and economic investigation or professional work, and 

 who need " manuals " that are workable table manuals in more 

 respects than in the mere name ? Are such works to be in- 

 tended as mere monuments by their size and worse than use- 

 less elegance to the institutions issuing them ? A book of the 

 size and weight and unwieldiness of this one on the Chalcids 

 is a veritable " bull in the china shop " on the entomologist's 

 work table ! I maintain that the questions of actual utility, 

 real usability, and availability to the greatest possible number 

 of workers are points that must be considered in American 

 entomological publishing ; and I believe that such ideas were 

 part and parcel of the original motives underlying the founda- 

 tion of the Carnegie Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the 

 Field Columbian Museum, and other institutions of the sort. 

 Surely the recommendations of such important organizations 



