Decembek 18, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



925 



as the experiments and ' ' conspicuous headlines 

 and catchwords have been freely used." 



Another part of the work that has been most 

 conveniently and systematically arranged is the 

 chapter on 'The Important Blowpipe and Chem- 

 ical Reactions. ' It consists of a tabulated ar- 

 rangement of the reactions observed and is 

 ' intended to be used especially for the interpre- 

 tation of unknown reactions which are en- 

 countered in blowpipe analysis,' and it can 

 be made to serve as a course in qualitative 

 blowpipe analysis in examining unknown sub- 

 stances. 



The chapter introductory to the tables as well 

 as the tables are the same as in the former edi- 

 tion, but as stated by the author in the preface : 

 "A complete revision of the tables for the deter- 

 mination of minerals will be made as soon as 

 possible, and a short chapter on crystallography 

 and the physical properties of minerals will be 

 prepared." 



One feature of the book that especially com- 

 mends it to the mineralogist is that in the tests 

 taken up, no one arbitrary method is employed, 

 but the best ones, whatever their character, are 

 described, thus making the work general and 

 covering all the physical, chemical and blow- 

 pipe tests useful for the identification of the 

 elements and minerals. J. H. Pratt. 



Yale Univeesity. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

 DECEMBER 3, 1896. 



R. H. Pettit, St. Anthony Park, Minn., and 

 F. A. Sirrine, Jamaica, N. Y., were elected 

 Corresponding Members. 



Under the head of exhibition of specimens, 

 Mr. J. D. Patten showed living examples of 

 Lasioderma serricorne, and exhibited a cigar from 

 which the beetles had emerged. Mr. Ashmead 

 exhibited a small collection of micro-Hymenop- 

 tera, made by Mr. Townsend at San Rafael, 

 Mexico. Mr. Howard exhibited specimens of 

 two new Coccidse allied to Icerya. 



A paper by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell was read 

 Avhich consisted of notes on the recently pub- 

 lished No. 1, Volume IV., of the Proceedings 

 of the Society. 



In the discussion of this paper the fact was 

 brought out by Messrs. Ashmead and Schwarz 

 that Eciton and Labidus are unquestionably 

 distinct and that the true female of Eciton has 

 been found in North Carolina by the Rev. P. 

 Jerome Schmidt, who has had a good drawing 

 of it in his possession for at least two years. 



Mr. Schwarz presented some notes on the 

 ' Lerp Insects ' (Psyllidse) of Australia. After 

 reviewing the literature on the subject he dis- 

 cussed the various forms of cases spun by these 

 Psyllid larvse on the leaves of Eucalyptus trees, 

 illustrating his remarks with drawings and ex- 

 hibition of specimens. For the more or less 

 conical larval cases which on the surface are 

 provided with longitudinal ribs Signoret's gen- 

 eric name, Spondyliaspis, has to be accepted 

 and includes the Psylla eucalypti, described by 

 Dobson. The remarkable structure of the first 

 joint of hind tarsi already observed by Dobson 

 as well as the structure of the hind tibiae, the 

 posterior apical edge of which is produced into 

 a stout mucro, fully justify the erection of a 

 new sub-family under the name Spondyliaspi- 

 nse for P. eucalypti and congeneric species. 

 Another Psyllid, the larvse of which weaves the 

 beautiful shell-like structures described by Dob- 

 son as his third form of lerp, was made by Mr. 

 Schwarz the type of a new genus and species 

 under the name Cardiaspis artifex. 



This paper gave rise to an animated discus- 

 sion participated in by Messrs. Gill, Stiles, 

 Howard and Schwarz, on the advisability or 

 necessity of the adoption of generic and other 

 names based upon excretions of or structures 

 formed by insects or their larvae and by other 

 animals, the animals themselves being un- 

 known. The general opinion seemed to be 

 that where such a structure or secretion is an 

 expression of morphological character it has 

 sufficient taxonomic value to carry the name. 



L. O. Howard, 



Secretary. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 254th regular meeting of the Anthropo- 

 logical Society was held Tuesday evening, De- 

 cember 1, 1896. 



The first paper, by Mr. Arthur Bibbins, Pro- 

 fessor of Geology of the Women's College of 



