472 



SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 481. 



Dr. J. C. Nielsen has two papers in the same 

 volume of the same periodical. One treats of 

 the development of Bombylius pitmilus, a fly 

 parasitic in the nest of a bee — Golletes 

 daviesiana. He shows that when the Bom^ 

 hylius is ready to issue the pupa bores through 

 the earth, and does not follow the channel 

 of the nest. The second article is on the life- 

 history of the longicorn beetle, Oberea linearis. 

 The female beetle, after the manner of our 

 Oncideres, cuts off the twig of hazel just be- 

 yond where it has deposited an egg. It takes 

 two years for the young to reach maturity. 



About two years ago a French woman, 

 Marie Pellechet, offered a prize for a work on 

 the insects injurious to books and their bind- 

 ings. - The committee in charge of the prize 

 awarded it to Constant V. Houlbert, and his 

 essay has been published.* It is the most 

 complete work yet written on the siibject. 

 He treats of 60 different species, and gives 

 remedies or means of prevention as far as 

 known. There is a bibliography of 94 num- 

 bers, from which the author has drawn for 

 most of his facts. He finds that the worst 

 insect enemies of books are the species of 

 Anohium and allied genera, known to the 

 French as ' Vrillettes.' The remedy chiefly 

 advised is fumigation, based on American 

 methods. Nathan Banks. 



THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 

 CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, WOJf. 



The executive committee of the Seventh 

 International Geographic Congress, held in 

 Berlin in 1899, having voted to convoke its 

 next session in Washington, the National 

 Geographic Society, as the organization re- 

 sponsible for the management of the sessions 

 in the United States, will welcome the eighth 

 congress and its friends to the national capital 

 of the United States in September, 1904. 



Geographei's and promoters of geography 

 throughout the world, especially members of 

 geographic societies and cognate institutions 

 of scientific character, are cordially invited to 

 assemble in Washington, D. C, on September 

 8, 1904, for the first international meeting of 

 geographers in the western hemisphere. 



* ■' Les inseetes ennemis des livres,' pp. 269 -|- 38, 

 3 pis., 59 figs., Paris, 1903. 



On the invitation of the National Geo- 

 graphic Society, the following societies join in 

 welcoming the congress and undertake to co- 

 operate toward its success, especially in so far 

 as sessions to be held in their respective cities 

 are concerned: 



The American Geographical Society. 



The Geographic Society of Baltimore. 



The Geographic Society of Chicago. 



The Geographical Society of California. 



The Mazamas. 



The Peary Arctic Club. 



The Geographical Society of Philadelphia. 



The Appalachian Mountain Club. 



The Geographical Society of the Pacific. 



The Sierra Club. 



The American Alpine Club. 



^he Harvard Travellers Club. 



The congress will convene in Washington on 

 Thursday, September 8, in the new home of 

 the National Geographic Society, and will 

 hold sessions on the ninth and tenth, the latter 

 under the auspices of the Geographic Society 

 of Baltimore. Leaving Washington on the 

 twelfth, the members, associates and guests of 

 the congress will be entertained during that 

 day by the Geographical Society of Philadel- 

 phia, and on the thirteenth, fourteenth and 

 fifteenth by the American Geographical So- 

 ciety of New York, where scientific sessions 

 will be held; on the sixteenth they will 

 have the opportunity of visiting Niagara 

 Falls (en i-oute westward by special train), 

 and on the seventeenth will be entertained 

 by the Geographic Society of Chicago; 

 and on Monday and Tuesday, September 

 19 and 20, they will be invited to participate 

 in the International Congress of Arts and 

 Science connected with the World's Fair in 

 St. Louis. Arrangements will be made here 

 for visiting exhibits of geographic interest. 

 In case any considerable number of members 

 and associates so desire, a far-west excursion 

 will be provided from St. Louis to the City 

 of Mexico, thence to Santa Fe, thence to the 

 Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and on to San 

 Francisco and the Golden Gate, where the 

 western geographic societies will extend 

 special hospitality, afterward returning by any 

 preferred route through the Rocky Mountains 

 and the interior plains to the eastern ports. 



