December 6, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



747 



ated the United States Entomological Com- 

 mission, attaching it to Dr. Hayden's Sur- 

 vey, and the Secretary of the Interior ap- 

 pointed Charles V. Eiley, A. S. Packard 

 and Cyrus Thomas members of the Com- 

 mission. Dr. Eiley was appointed Chief, 

 and it was mainly owing to his executive 

 abilitj^, business sagacity, experience in of- 

 ficial life, together with his scientific knowl- 

 edge and practical inventive turn of mind 

 in devising remedies, or selecting those in- 

 vented by others, that the work of the Com- 

 mission was so popular and successful dur- 

 ing the five years of its existence. Mean- 

 while in 1878 while the report of the Com- 

 mission was being printed, Eiley accepted 

 the position of Entomologist to the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, and during the 

 season of 1879 and 1880 he investigated 

 the cotton insects, but owing to the lack of 

 harmony in the Department, he resigned, 

 Prof. J. H. Comstock being appointed, and 

 ably filling the position. Congress mean- 

 while transferred the cotton-worm investi- 

 gation to the Entomological Commission. 

 Eiley was reappointed to the position of IT. 

 S. Entomologist in June, 1881. His suc- 

 cessor, Mr. L. O. Howard, has stated how 

 efficient, broad and thorough was his admin- 

 istration of this office: " The present effi- 

 cient organization of the Division of Ento- 

 mology was his own original conception, 

 and he is responsible for its plan down to 

 the smallest detail. It is unquestionablj' the 

 foremost organization of its kind at present 

 in existence." Again he writes : "Professor 

 Eiley's work in the organization of the 

 Division of Entomology has unquestion- 

 ably advanced the entire Department of 

 which it is a part, for it is generally con- 

 ceded that this division has led in most 

 matters where efficiencj^, discipline and 

 system were needed. Its plan and disci- 

 pline have been cited by one of the heads 

 of the Department as worthy of imitation 

 by all, and your own honored West wood. 



in expressing, in 1883, his admiration of 

 Eiley's work, said: ' I am sure it must have 

 had a great share in inducing the activity 

 in entomological work in America, which 

 is putting to the blush the entomologists of 

 Eiirope.' " 



Indeed, so efficient, methodical and pains- 

 taking was Eiley in whatever he undertook 

 to do that had he been promoted to the 

 position of Commissioner of Agriculture he 

 would have been head and shoulders above 

 any incumbent of that office, and, it is safe 

 to say, would have administered its affairs 

 with practical results far more valuable 

 than those attained by any other Commis- 

 sioner, as such an office should have been 

 entrusted to a person who had had a scien- 

 tific education, and not given as a reward 

 for political service. As it is, he was the 

 leader, says Mr. Howard, in many impor- 

 tant innovations in the woi'k of the Depart- 

 ment. His division published the first bul- 

 letin, and in 'Insect Life' began the system 

 of periodical bulletins, which has since been 

 adopted for the other divisions of the Agri- 

 cultural Department. He also took a large 

 share in founding the Division of Economic 

 Ornithology, Silk Culture and Vegetable 

 Pathology, the first two being placed for 

 some time under his charge. In an address, 

 says Howard, before the National Agricul- 

 tural Congress, delivered in 1879, in which 

 he outlined the ideal Department of Agri- 

 culture, Professor Eiley foreshadowed many 

 important reforms which have since become 

 accomplished facts, and suggested the im- 

 portant legislation, since brought about, of 

 the establishment of State Experiment Sta- 

 tions under the General Government. 



His practical, inventive genius was ex- 

 hibited in his various means of extermina- 

 ting locusts, in the use of - kerosene oil 

 emulsified with milk or soap, ^nd in his in- 

 vention and perfection — in which he was 

 essentially aided by the late Dr. W. S. 

 Barnard, who had special charge of the sub- 



