540 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 379. 



For the use of the expert or specialist the 

 index is not a complete one, as only the more 

 important articles in the transactions of engi- 

 neering societies are included. The oldest 

 and most influential engineering society, the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Bri- 

 tain, issues annually four volumes of proceed- 

 ings, but these are not included in the list of 

 periodicals indexed. Some important special 

 German publications, like the Zeifschrift fur 

 V ermessungswesen, a high authority on geod- 

 esy and precise surveying, and Baumateriali- 

 enkunde, the leading journal on the testing 

 of materials, are also not included. A few 

 special American periodicals, like Cement and 

 the Metallographist, are likewise omitted, but 

 it is plain that it would be a difilcult task to 

 index all the literature of all the branches of 

 the vast field of engineering. 



Any index to literature should be prepared 

 with the definite aim of being useful to a 

 definite class of people. This has been done 

 in the case of the present volume, the definite 

 class being the readers of the Engineering 

 Magazine, who include men of all professions 

 having interest in transportation, manufac- 

 turing and construction. To these the index 

 is admirably adapted, and it would be difficult 

 to outline a plan that would produce better 

 results for the engineering profession in gen- 

 eral. The volume may appear somewhat in- 

 complete to engineers who are experts in a 

 special line like hydraulics, but when they 

 turn to other headings they are likely to be 

 astonished at the number of references and 

 the number of periodicals that have been in- 

 dexed. The expert may properly object to 

 including titles of popular articles on engi- 

 neering topics from the mon^thly literary mag- 

 azines, but beyond this he has cause only for 

 congratulation. The work has been carefully 

 prepared on a comprehensive plan, and it 

 should immediately find a place in every pub- 

 lic library as a record of progress in the sci- 

 ence and art of engineering, and in every 

 technical library as an indispensable aid to 

 research. 



Mansfield Merriman. 



Lehigh University. 



Insects Injurious to Staple Crops. By E. 



D WIGHT Sanderson, B.S., AgT. New York, 



John Wiley & Sons. 1902. 



Under the above title Professor Sanderson, 

 entomologist of the Delaware Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, has brought out a hand- 

 book of 295 pages, with 162 illustrations, the 

 subject matter being disposed in 25 chapters. 

 Besides topics of a general nature the follow- 

 ing are discussed: ' Insects Injurious to 

 Grains and Grasses,' 'to Wheat,' 'to Indian 

 Corn,' 'to Stored Grain,' 'to Clover,' 'to Cot- 

 ton,' 'to Tobacco,' 'to the Potato,' 'to the 

 Sugar-beet,' and 'to the Hop-plant.' Although 

 the author in his preface unreservedly dis- 

 claims any originality for the contents of his 

 work, and states that, unless otherwise noted, 

 all the facts are merely compilations of the 

 writings of others, it is in some respects, in 

 the writer's opinion, the most useful book 

 covering the subject of the insect enemies to 

 staple crops that is extant. The typography 

 is excellent, and most of the illustrations are 

 well produced. In its arrangement it is, in 

 some respects, not imlike the 'Farmers' Bulle- 

 tins' that have been published on entomology 

 by the Division of Entomology of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture; and the pre- 

 sented matter is grouped together in such 

 manner that any one desiring information on 

 any of the topics considered can find ready 

 access to them. 



The main incentive for the compilation of 

 this work, as the author states, is due to the 

 fact that our sources of information concern- 

 ing injurious insects are so widely scattered 

 throughout the circulars, bulletins and reports 

 of the state agricultural experiment stations 

 and of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 a few books on economic entomology and 

 many other publications, that the farmer, 

 provided he be not also an economic entomolo- 

 gist, is unable to obtain the facts which he de- 

 sires concerning any given insect, unless it so 

 happens that the species is treated in popular 

 form in some publication from his own state. 

 Again, most works upon American economic 

 entomology give such meager descriptions 

 and accounts of the life-histories of insects 

 that the agriculturist cannot secure a clear 



