August 2, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



85 



of visitors in France by Napoleon. Attention has been given not 

 only to spectators, deputations, and victims, but also to those 

 writers who sympathized with the downfall of the ancien regime. 



— Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, has made arrangements with 

 Longmans, Green, & Co. for the publication of an account of his 

 recent Greenland expedition. The book will be ready early next 

 spring, and will be illustrated with maps and plates. 



— Kegan Paul, Trench, .& Co. will shortly publish the first num- 

 ber of a new serial devoted to the reproduction of selected works 

 of the foremost photographers of the day. It is proposed to issue 

 quarterly a portfolio of four photogravure pictures from the nega- 

 tives of " Sun Artists," such as will tend to advance photography 

 in the estimation of the art-loving public, and obtain for it the posi- 

 tion which it now claims. The first number of " Sun Artists " will 

 consist of four studies by Mr. J. Gale, on imperial quarto paper, 

 with letterpress. 



— Funk & Wagnalls have just issued a practical little book, en- 

 titled "Emergency Notes," in which Dr. Glentworth R.Butler tells 

 in a clear, easily understood way what to do in the emergencies 

 that are ever arising in this world of multiplied diseases and acci- 

 dents. 



— A. C. Armstrong & Son have, by arrangements with Rev. C. 

 H. Spurgeon and his English publisher, issued the first volume of 

 his new work entitled " The Salt Cellars," being proverbs and 

 quaint sayings, together with homely notes thereon. It is alpha- 

 betical in arrangement, and brings the proverbs down to the let- 

 ter M. 



— D. Appleton & Co. will publish immediately " Christianity and 

 Agnosticism," a controversy consisting of the papers by Henry Wace, 

 Professor Huxley, W. H. Mallock, the Bishop of Peterborough, 

 and Mrs. Humphry Ward, which have been appearing in different 

 periodicals, and which many persons desiring to get at the complete 

 discussion will be glad to have in one volume. ' . 



— George O. Seilhamer, 112 l^orth 12th Street, Philadelphia, 

 has nearly ready the second volume of his " History of the Ameri- 

 ■can Theatre," treating of the period during the Revolution and 

 after. The last volume, which is in preparation, will treat the 

 subject in the " Last Years of the Eighteenth Century." 



— Little, Brown, & Co. have in preparation " Myth and Folk- 

 Lore of Ireland," by Jeremiah Curtin, an original and fresh contri- 

 bution to the already rich store of the folk-lore of the "Emerald 

 Isle," extracted by the author from Gaelic sources. 



— Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication about Oct. i, 

 ' History of the Roman People," by Professor W. F. Allen of the 

 University of Wisconsin. This will replace the second part of 

 Myers's " Outlines of Ancient History." This sketch of Roman 

 history will place especial emphasis upon two series of events, — 

 first, the policy and process by which the Roman Dominion was 

 secured and organized during the republic, its re-organization un- 

 der the empire, and final disruption at the time of the German 

 migrations ; second, the social and economical causes of the failure 

 of self-government among the Romans, and the working of the 

 same forces under the empire (in this point of view, the history of 

 religion among the Romans will be carefully traced). 



— Hereafter the American Jour?ial of Psychology will be pub- 

 lished from Clark University, Worcester, instead of from Johns 

 Hopkins University, Baltimore. Remittances and business com- 

 munications should be addressed to the clerk of Clark University, 

 Worcester, Mass., and scientific and editorial communications to 

 G. Stanley Hall, editor, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 



— G. P. Putnam's Sons announce among their first autumn pub- 

 lications, " The Industrial Progress of the Nation, Consumption 

 Limited, Production Unlimited," by Edward Atkinson, author of 

 ■"The Distribution of Products," etc. ; " A Race with the Sun," a 

 sixteen-months' trip around the world, by Hon. Carter H. Harrison 

 of Chicago, illustrated by many full-page plates ; " The Modern 

 Chess Instructor," by W. Steinitz ; " Christian Theism, its Claims 

 and Sanctions," by D. B. Purinton, LL.D., vice-president of West 



Virginia University, and professor of metaphysics ; " To the Lions," 

 by Alfred Church; "A Woman's War Record, 1861-1865," by 

 Mrs. Gen. Charles H. T. CoUis ; " Lectures on Russian Litera- 

 ture," by Ivan Panin ; "The Practical Pocket Dictionary in Four 

 Languages, — English, French, German, and Italian ; " and " Tales 

 from the Korea," collected and translated by Henry N. Allen, sec- 

 retary of the Korean Legation. In the Story of the Nations Series 

 they will publish " The Story of the Hansa Towns," by Helen 

 Zimmern ; and in the Knickerbocker Nuggets, " Sesame and' 

 Lilies," by John Ruskin; "The Autobiography of Benjamin 

 Franklin ; " " Tales by Heinrich Zschokke ; " and " Great Words 

 from Great Americans," the last comprising the Declaration of 

 Independence, the Constitution of the United States, Washington's 

 Inaugural Addresses, Lincoln's Inaugural Addresses, Lincoln's 

 Gettysburg Address. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



* ^* Correspondents are requested to be as brie/ as possible. The writer's name it 

 in all cases regttired as proof of g^ood faith. 



The editor will be fflad to publish any Queries consonant with the character o_f 

 the journal. 



Twenty copies of tlie number containing his communication will be furnished 

 free to any correspondent on request. 



A Circular Note to Working Entomologists. 



Mosquitoes and house-flies are perhaps the most numerous, 

 widely distributed, and persistent of the creatures that attack the 

 health and comfort of human beings. Of their attacks upon our 

 comfort every one is aware. Scientific investigation favors the be- 

 lief that tuberculosis and ophthalmia are carried from diseased 

 persons to healthy ones by the house-fly, and German experimen- 

 ters have shown that serious blood maladies may be transmitted by 

 the mosquito. 



Certainly, therefore, any suggestion, however remote, of a means 

 of decreasing the numbers of or exterminating these pests, should 

 be followed with all possible skill and patience. 



I have observed dragon-flies gathering in scores around my camp 

 in Minnesota to feed on the mosquitoes. I recently saw a dragon- 

 fly that had devoured over thirty house-flies still voracious for more. 

 Entomologists have observed the larvae of the dragon-fly swallow- 

 ing undeveloped mosquittoes in large numbers. 



Now, may we not have in the active, voracio.us, harmless " mos- 

 quito-hawk," an agency for greatly diminishing the numbers of the 

 smaller insects ? 



Professor Baird's success in producing millions of healthy fish in 

 a few laboratory boxes and jars, the propagation of silkworms by 

 scores of millions from eggs carried half around the world to Italy, 

 the success of the plan for breeding foreign humble-bees in Aus- 

 tralasia to fertilize the red clover, — these and many other similar 

 facts seem to show that scientific methods have reached a stage 

 where it is reasonable to hope that a plan may be devised whereby 

 whole tribes of noxious insects may be exterminated by the artificial 

 multiplication of their innoxious enemies. 



Not being an entomologist, I have consulted with several dis- 

 tinguished students of that science as to the best means of reach- 

 ing some practical result in the direction above indicated, and 

 they agree with me that the following preliminary step may be 

 usefully taken : — 



For the purpose of drawing the attention of entomologists to the 

 subject mentioned, I have placed in the hands of Morris K. Jesup, 

 Esq., president of the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York City, §200, to be paid by him in three prizes of $150, $30, and 

 §20, for the three best essays, based on original observations and 

 experiments, on the destruction of mosquitoes and files by other 

 insects. 



The following suggestions are made as to the direction in which 

 the investigation should be carried and the essay formulated : I. 

 Observations and experiments upon various insects that destroy 

 mosquitoes and house-flies, stating the method of and capacity of 

 destruction ; 2. Observations and experiments to determine the 

 best dragon-flies to be artificially multiplied for the two above- 

 named objects, — probably species of .■Esc/iiui, Libellula, or Di- 



