NOTES. 257 
A new scientific organization has been established at Wash- 
ington under the name of “The Philosophical Society of Washing- 
ton.” The following is the list of officers :— President, Prof. 
Joseph Henry (Sec’y Smith. Inst.). Vice presidents, Gen. Horace 
Capron (Comm. of Agric.), Prof. J. E. Hilgard (Asst. Sup. Coast 
Survey), Gen. M. ©. Meigs (Quart’mast. Gen. U.S. A.), and Wm. 
B. Taylor (Principal Examiner Pat. Off.). Treasurer, Rev. Peter 
Parker, D. D. Secretaries, Dr. B. F. Craig (Chemist, Surg. Gen- 
eral’s Off.), Prof. Theodore Gill (Asst. Libr. of Congress). Eg- 
ecutive Committee, Prof. Thomas Antisell (Chemist Dep. Agric.), 
Maj. Gen. J. K. Barnes (Surg. Gen. U. S. A.), Prof. S. F. Baird 
(Asst. Sec’y Smith. Inst.), Col. T. L. Casey (Eng. Dep. U.S. A.), 
Prof. J. H. Coffin (Nautical Almanac), Adm’l Thornton Jenkins 
(U. S. Navy), Prof. Simon Newcomb (Naval Observatory), Gen. 
W. T. Sherman (U. S. A.), and Dr. J. J. Woodward (Army Med. 
Mus. Surg. Gen. Office). A 
In a late number of this journal, we called attention to the ex- 
pedition of Mr. G. W. Belfrage of Waco, Texas, to New Mexico, 
for the purpose of collecting insects. We may say, here, that 
during his absence, shares in his collections may be had at any 
time by paying the money ($25.00) to Swenson, Perkins & Co., 
80 Beaver street, New York. 
While Mr. Belfrage is industriously collecting in the extreme 
south, a good, neat and careful collector is needed for the north- 
ern and western states. Specimens of the smaller moths, care- 
fully mounted, of the rarer and smaller beetles, hymenoptera, and 
diptera are wanted by entomologists, who would pay a fair price 
for them. College students and others could more than pay the 
expenses of a summer trip by careful and minute collecting. 
Messrs. J. A. Allen and Richard Bliss, jr., of the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass, with Mr. C. W. Bennett 
of Holyoke, Mass, started late in April on a six months collecting 
trip to the Plains and the Rocky Mountains. The primary object 
of the expedition is to collect the larger mammals of the West. 
Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, has received 
the decoration of ‘“* Commander of the Order of St. Olaf,” from 
Charles King of Sweden and Norway. A joint resolution has 
been offered in Congress to enable the Professor to accept the 
honor. 
