November 19, 1009] 



SCIENCE 



719 



the lamentable departure of his brilliant col- 

 league, the late Professor Penfield, mineralog- 

 ical science has lost two of its foremost and 

 ablest promoters. 



Arthur S. Eakle 

 University of California 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 Journal of Economic Entomology, Vol. I., 



February, 1908-December, 1908; Vol. 11., 



February, 1909-December, 1909. 



It is not often that it is possible to write a 

 review of a periodical with its numerous con- 

 tributions of varying merit, and it is possible 

 in this case only because it is a growth and 

 illustrates the growth of a science and its de- 

 velopment along practical lines. It is stated 

 on the cover that this is the official organ of 

 the Association of Economic Entomologists, 

 and any note of the Journal must contain 

 some record of this association. 



It was at Toronto, in August, 1889, that the 

 Association of Economic Entomologists was 

 bom at the call of the late Dr. James Fletcher, 

 with the extremely limited membership of 

 twenty-two, which elected the late Dr. C. V. 

 Riley, then entomologist to the TJ. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, as its first president, and 

 the writer of this review as its secretary. 

 During the twenty years following that initial 

 gathering, the writer has been in attendance 

 at most of the meetings, and has seen its 

 membership increase until, under new restric- 

 tive laws, there are 119 active, 125 associate 

 and 47 foreign members — a total of 291. More 

 entomologists here, more or less engaged in 

 active research work, than the wildest dreams 

 of the founders considered possible at the 

 initial meeting. 



From the beginning, the relation of this as- 

 sociation with the TJ. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture was close. Small as the entomological 

 division of the department was at that time, 

 compared witli its present-day development, it 

 represented to the rest of the country a source 

 of authority and information which, in all 

 subsequent development, has not lessened in 

 value, even if not as dominant now as then. 



Dr. Eiley, as the first president of the as- 

 sociation and one of its most active promoters, 

 was naturally interested in securing publicity 

 to its transactions, and reasoning rightly that 

 any force that made for impressing upon the 

 agricultural public the value of entomological 

 work was worth using, he induced the then 

 commissioner of agriculture to authorize the 

 publication of the proceedings of the associa- 

 tion in Insect Life, where the record of the 

 organization takes up a part of pages BY and 

 88 of Vol. II., and the records of the first an- 

 nual meeting take up pages 177-184: of the 

 same volume. During the continuance of 

 Insect Life, an ever-increasing space was oc- 

 cupied by this association until, in 1893, at the 

 fifth annual meeting, an entire number of 

 Insect Life, of about 145 pages, was taken up 

 by its records. After the discontinuance of 

 this periodical, the records of the association 

 were published in the bulletins of the depart- 

 ment, and Dr. L. O. Howard, who succeeded 

 Dr. Riley as head of the entomological divi- 

 sion, followed the policy of his former chief 

 in recommending the publication of the pro- 

 ceedings of the association by the department. 



But, as the membership increased and as, to 

 speak metaphorically, the association felt its 

 oats, the tendency was to divorce the associa- 

 tion, loosely constituted as it was and in no 

 position to assume publication, from the de- 

 partment and to throw it upon its own re- 

 sources. It solved the problem of support for 

 the proposed journal by the organization of a 

 publishing company which assumed financial 

 responsibility, while the association furnished 

 material to be published, as well as the sub- 

 scribers. 



The writer was one of the conservative mem- 

 bers who, by age and long habit, was wedded 

 to past methods, and who opposed the estab- 

 lishment of the Journal of Economic Ento- 

 mology. It gives him pleasure to admit that 

 he was all wrong; that the establishment of 

 the Journal was justified by results, and that 

 the cause of economic entomology was mate- 

 rially advanced by the action of the associa- 

 tion in 1908. 



