18 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



Another article intended for the Miscellaneous Collections is a synop- 

 sis of American vespidse, or wasps, by Professor De Saussure, of Geneva, 

 translated from the original manuscript by Mr. Etlward Norton, of 

 Farmington, Conn. This work was commenced a number of years 

 ago, but owing to the absence of Mr. Norton from the country and 

 other causes of delay, it was suspended and has only been resumec' 

 during the last year. It will now be completed as rapidly as the cor 

 rected proof-sheets can be received from Switzerland. The character 

 of the work is given in the following extract from the introduction, 

 which also coutains suggestions as to the philosophy of points of natu- 

 ral history well worth the attention of the general students of this 

 branch of science : 



" I propose in this volume not to give a general history of the wasps 

 of America, but only to lay the foundations of the fauna of the 

 vespidw, principally of North America. I leave aside whatever con- 

 cerns the habits of these insects, on which Ave have but insuflicient in- 

 formation, and shall confine myself to speaking of them with respect 

 to the genera or species which shall offer me some salient peculiarities. 

 This work is not to be taken for a mere catalogue of species, of no fur- 

 ther use than to satisfy curiosity. I think that modern zoology ought 

 to tend toward another aim. The existence of species, the composition 

 of fauna, their relations with the parts of the globe which they inhabit, 

 are not merely accidental facts. In my opinion we must therein detect 

 the last material and tangible manifestation of physiological forces, the 

 study of which belongs to the domain of the highest natural philosophy. 

 By him who adopts this view of the subject a far-searching study of 

 species ought to be considered as one of the bases from which the 

 search after the origin of species may start. 



"It woukl seem that in zoology we ought to take for a starting 

 point the actual existing forms in which life manifests itself, to ascend 

 thence up to the primitive stock, just as in geology we start from 

 the actual existing structure of rocks, and from the external configura- 

 tion of the soil follow up the concatenation of the ancient ev^ents which 

 have brought about as a last result the present state of the earth's crust. 



" The study of species ought especially to serve as a means of reveal- 

 ing to us their variations and the affinities between them. These affini- 

 ties point to a common relationship which is to be explained only by a 

 direct filiation of the types. The study of forms, combined with that of 

 their geographical distribution, comes afterward to throw light on the 

 cause of the filiation which the graduated resemblances of the species 

 seem to reveal to us. It shows that this filiation obeys laws which have 

 also their regularity in so far as they are intimately connected with the 

 physical laws which hold sway in every region of our globe. 



" Toward these grand philosophical questions zoology ought in our 

 time to tend, and species ought to be studied with a view to the solu- 

 tion of such questions. As in geology the study of the actual existing 



