24 



Mr. Kotinsky thought that the only objection thus far made to the 

 separation of the plant index from that of the insect index is that one 

 constantly discovers himself looking in the wrong place. He thought 

 that use might be made of Mr. Felt's suggestion of heading the respec- 

 tive pages with the words "plant index" or "insect index" as the 

 case might be. He thought the plant index should be made particu- 

 larly with reference to the idea of indicating the food plants of the 

 insects and thought use should be made of Mr. Schwarz's suggestion 

 of not making an index simply of names, but an index of information 

 that would be found in the publications cited. If the plant index be 

 used to indicate the food plants of insects and at the same time 

 measures be taken to avoid confusing plant and insect names as Mr. 

 Banks had found himself doing, he thought a considerable advance 

 would have been made. 



Mr. Felt remarked that in making an index the work should be con- 

 sidered not only from the standpoint of the specialist, who is looking 

 perhaps for some particular record, but from the standpoint of all 

 who ma} 7 have occasion to use that index. Generally speaking, he was 

 inclined to think that an entomologist would hardly use and incor- 

 porate the name of an -insect in his report without accompanying it 

 with some fact which would probably be useful to some person, and 

 while Mr. Schwarz's criticism of indices of Dr. Lintner's report might 

 be true, he did not think that it would apply in all cases. Mr. Felt 

 stated that he had modified the method of making indices somewhat in 

 later years, and had omitted indexing some matter which Mr. Schwarz 

 would probably be very glad to have left out; and yet, as a matter of 

 fact, he thought these minor references might have been of some 

 service to others. Mr. Felt spoke further on a little device which he 

 had used in his indices, namely, the inclusive reference. He con- 

 sidered it a serious mistake to index a name, say of the Hessian Fly, 

 wherever it occurred in a publication without giving any idea what- 

 ever as to the character of the reference, particularly where there 

 was a detailed account. He thought that if the inclusive reference 

 was used, giving a little synopsis, a much more serviceable index was 

 secured, and then it was easy to distinguish between extended notices 

 and mere references. 



Mr. Howard referred to the indices of the Proceedings of the 

 Entomological Society of Washington, prepared by Mr. Schwarz, and 

 considered them perfect models of short indices. 



Mr. Banks queried whether recent nomenclature should be used in 

 index work or the nomenclature well known to entomologists. 



Mr. Felt remarked that he had considered incorporating something 

 about this matter in his address, but thought it might prolong it 

 unduly. 



