June 19, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



905 



vestigation of- such states, but the admission 

 is hardly prominent enough to prevent the 

 reader from forming the notion that all hyp- 

 notic research is humbug and deception. In- 

 deed, in the preface to the second edition, 

 Mr. Hart goes so far as to say "Hypnotism, 

 when it is not a pernicious fraud, is a mere 

 futility which should have no place in the life 

 of those who have work to do in the world." 

 Such a statement entirely overlooks the large 

 number of critically authenticated cases of the 

 therapeutic application of hypnotism; it ignores 

 the significant and important contributions to 

 the understanding of psychological principles 

 that have sprung from this study. As a popular 

 fad or amusement such topics are certainly per- 

 nicious in the extreme; but it will hardly do to 

 associate with this the painstaking and scientific 

 investigations of able and discerning experts. 

 Joseph Jastrow. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADE31IE8. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 



JUNE 4, 189B. 



Me. Ashmead exhibited a specimen of the 

 genus Cardiochiles, of Nees, and announced its 

 identity with Say's genus Toxoneura. It has 

 priority and forms the type of a subfamily dis- 

 tinct from the Microgasterina. 



Mr. Howard exhibited specimens of an adult 

 and cocoon of Attacus jorulla Westwood, to 

 which he had referred in a note in Science, of 

 May 2^h. 



■ Mr. Schwarz exhibited specimens of Atimia 

 confusa Say, a Longicorn beetle previously 

 taken in the Lake Superior region, District of 

 Columbia and northern Texas, the food habits 

 of which were unknown until recently. He had 

 found it attacking Juniper in the District of 

 Columbia. He also exhibited specimens of 

 Lachnosterna crihrosa from Texas. 



Mr. Marlatt presented a paper entitled ' Notes 

 on Texas Insects,' relating to. some of the com- 

 mon insects of southwestern Texas which he 

 had collected in April and May of the present 

 yeai'. The collecting had proved to be poor, 

 owing to a severe protracted drought, and was 

 only fair in such of the arroyos as had not 

 been pastured by stock. 



Mr. Schwarz presented for publication a 

 paper entitled ' Notes from Southwestern 

 Texas, No. I"V ; Food-plants and habits of 

 some Texan Coleoptera,' in which he particu- 

 larly described the coleopterous fauna of the 

 Mesquite and Cactus. In discussing this paper 

 Mr; Marlatt referred to the flowering Opuntias 

 of the dry plains of Colorado and Kansas as 

 affording extremely rich collecting fields, while 

 the same plants in southern Texas did not offer 

 the same opportunity to collectors. This was 

 explained by Mr. Schwarz as due to the fact 

 that the Mesquite and Opuntia flower simul- 

 taneously in Texas, and the former proves more 

 attractive to the insects and draws them away 

 from the Cactus. Some discussion ensued upon 

 the superstitions regarding various insects per- 

 vading southwestern Texas, some of which 

 were said by Mr. Schwarz to be probably of 

 very ancient origin. Both the speaker and Mr. 

 Marlatt referred to the dread of the inhabitants 

 of the common Pasimachus californicus and P. 

 duplicatus. These harmless ground beetles are 

 known to the Mexicans as the ' cucurazza ' and 

 are supposed to be extremely poisonous, while 

 in certain localities the English-speaking 

 people know the Pasimachus as the ' shear- 

 bug ' and state that it is very injurious to grape- 

 vines and vegetables by cutting young plants, 

 a statement which is fully as erroneous as the 

 one made by the Mexicans. 



L. O. Howard, 



Secretary. 



CHEMICAL society OF AVASHINGTON, 



The eighty-eighth regular meeting was held 

 Thursday, April 9, 1896. The Society was 

 called to order at 8 p. m. by the President, Dr. 

 A. E. de Schweinitz, with thirty members and 

 ten guests present. The first paper was by Mr. 

 V. K. Chestnut upon ' Some Vegetable Skin Irri- 

 tants and their Chemical Composition.' The 

 paper consisted of a review of the work of 

 Dunstan and Miss Boole on croton oil, and of 

 Pfaff on Toxicodendrol — a new oil-like body 

 from the poison ivy, Rhus radicans ; together 

 with an account of some vesicating plants Avhich 

 have been but little studied. Specimens of this 

 plant were exhibited, and the effect of an alco- 

 holic solution of lead acetate as an antidote to 



