June 5, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



491 



treating of kerosene emulsions ; and we are 

 glad to see considerable space devoted to 

 ' words of caution and advice ' as to the 

 dangers attending their use : for it can hardly 

 be said that the discussions of the kerosene 

 question in these reports have been heretofore 

 conducted "in the spirit of an investigator, 

 and not in the spirit of an advocate." 



The experiments with kerosene, and the in- 

 vention of devices for applying insecticides, 

 have been the characteristic features of the 

 work of the bureau during the past four years. 

 This work has been of great importance ; but 

 it is hard to see on what grounds the late com- 

 missioner of agriculture claimed that " the 

 chief remedies and insecticide appliances now 

 quite generally employed with satisfaction, and 

 constantly discussed and recommended in the 

 agricultural press, have originated during my 

 administration of the department " (p. 13). 



The successful introduction of Apanteles 

 glomeratus, a parasite of the imported cabbage- 

 worm, is one of the most practical results of 

 the work of the bureau ; and the working-out 

 of the life-history of the cranberry-fruit worm 

 is also important. The article by Mr. Hub- 

 bard, on the rust of the orange, is very complete, 

 except that nothing is said to lead the reader 

 to think that any thing has ever been published 

 before concerning this disease. This is the 

 more surprising; since we find, that, although 

 the mite which is supposed to cause the rust 

 is carefully figured, the name given to it by 

 Ashmead five years ago is nowhere used in the 

 report. The creature is referred to as simply 

 1 the rust-mite,' or as ' the mite.' 



The illustrations are not so good as we have 

 learned to expect in these reports. Of the fig- 

 ures on the ten plates, nearly one-half are re- 

 productions, and the original figures are nearly 

 all photo-engravings. The photo-engraving 

 processes are a great boon to impecunious 

 investigators who cannot afford to employ 

 engravers ; but in a small report, which is 

 almost the only visible result of the expen- 

 diture of a vast sum of money, we have a right 

 to look for something better. It is due to the 

 artist, however, to say that the new figures 

 bear inherent evidence of truthfulness. 



In looking at the report as a whole, we find 

 much in it of value, but still not so much as 

 might fairly be expected when we consider the 

 large number of entomologists employed (we 

 think, fifteen) , and the size of the appropria- 

 tion made to the bureau (nearly $30,000 for 

 the year ending June, 1884). It is true that 

 the entomologist complains that the work of the 

 bureau has outgrown its present means of put- 



ting results before the public ; but this com- 

 plaint would have more force if he were more 

 economical of the space at his disposal. If 

 the bureau has accumulated large additions to 

 knowledge which are of great interest to the 

 agriculturists of the country, wiry devote what 

 is more than one-fourth of the report to an 

 article on cabbage-insects, the greater part of 

 which is a compilation from sources which are 

 easy of access? or why devote seven pages 

 to republishing an address on ' General truths 

 in applied entomology ' ? 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At a meeting of the American society for psy- 

 chical research held in Boston, June 4, a report was 

 made by the committee on thought-transference which 

 covered a discussion of the results of the experiments 

 upon guessing digits and the colors of cards, which 

 were described in a circular issued by the society dur- 

 ing the winter. A large number of returns were re- 

 ceived, but no evidence was obtained of the existence 

 of thought-transference among ordinary persons for 

 such matters as the value of a digit or the color of a 

 card. Prof. E. C. Pickering of the Harvard-college 

 observatory also presented a discussion of the obser- 

 vations taken at the observatory in the revision of 

 the star catalogues, — observations in which it was 

 supposed that some thought-transference might take 

 place, as the recorder knew the magnitude of each 

 star as given in the Durchmusterung before he re- 

 ceived the observer's estimate. If thought-transfer- 

 ence existed, this fact might have an influence upon 

 the observer's mind; but no evidence of this influ- 

 ence was found in a discussion of some ten thousand 

 observations. One of the members of the society 

 has met with some success in the reproduction of 

 drawings after the plan of the English society. The 

 committee on mediumistic phenomena made a brief 

 report, stating that they had visited a number of medi- 

 ums, and had arranged several private seances on their 

 own terms, but had met with nothing satisfactory; 

 they will, of course, continue their work, as will the 

 other committees of the society. 



— Reports are received from the Pacific coast of 

 unusual damage by insects destructive to crops. Lo- 

 custs, presumably Camnula pellucida, are just now 

 very destructive in the unfledged condition in some 

 ten counties of California, especially in the San- 

 Joaquin valley. The genuine Hessian-fly is also do- 

 ing much damage to the grain districts embraced in a 

 line drawn from Vallejo in Solano county to Benecia, 

 thence to Suisun, thence to Napa City, and back to 

 Vallejo ; also in parts of Sonoma county. 



— The Athenaeum states that the Russian traveller 

 Piassetsky, who accompanied Col. Sosnoffsky on his 

 journey through China and Mongolia in 1872, and a 

 translation of whose travels was published last year 

 by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, is about to set out on 



