REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



• awakening an interest in entomology, and in facilitating- the collecting; 

 of specimens. It. was, however, not stereotyped; and as the methods 

 of gathering and preserving insects have been much improved since the 

 date of its preparation, it has been thought advisable to request Dr. A. 

 S. Packard, jr., a leading authority on entomology, to furnish a new 

 treatise on the same subject. In compliance with this request he has 

 prepared a work corresponding with the present state of our knowledge. 

 This work was published during the past year, and forms an octavo 

 pamphlet of 5S pages, with 55 illustrations. 



Two other articles, which will form parts of the eleventh volume of 

 the Miscellaneous Collections, and will constitute a part of the series 

 for facilitating the study of certain branches of natural history, are 

 a continuation of works previously prepared by Dr. John Le Oonte, 

 of Philadelphia, on the North American Coleoptera, and published by 

 the Institution. One of these consists of a description of new species 

 of coleoptera, described since the publication of the first work on the 

 same subject, and the other a supplement of the "Classification of the 

 coleoptera of North America." The object of these works, as far as they 

 relate to the genera of coleoptera, is to enable those who have a desire 

 ' beyond that of merely collecting specimens to acquire sufficient infor- 

 mation to enable them to consult with profit the various works in which 

 are contained the descriptions of the species. The parts now printed 

 comprise one hundred and forty pages, and will be followed by other 

 supplements, descriptive of such other species as may be obtained from 

 Smithsonian collaborators and other sources. 



In the report for 1856, is given a plan by the late Mr. Charles Babbage,. 

 of London, of a series of tables to be entitled the "Constants of Nature- 

 and Art." These tables were to contain all the facts which can be ex- 

 pressed by numbers, in the various sciences and arts, such as the atomic 

 weight of bodies, specific gravity, elasticity, specific heat, conducting 

 power, melting point, weight of different gases, liquids, and solids, 

 strength of different materials, velocity of sound, of cannon-balls, of elec- 

 tricity, of light, of flight of birds and speed of animals, list of refractive 

 indices, dispersive indices, polarizing angles, &c. 



The value of such a work, as an aid to original investigation, as well 

 as in the application of science to the useful arts, can scarcely be esti- 

 mated. To carry out the idea fully, however, would require much labor 

 and perhaps the united effort of different institutions and individuals,, 

 devoted to special lines of research. Any part of the entire plan, may,, 

 however, be completed in itself, and will have a proportionate value to 

 that of the whole. The Institution commenced about fifteen years ago 

 to collect materials on several of the points of this general plan, under 

 the direction jf Professors John and Joseph Le Conte, then o£ the Uni- 

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