May 28, 1886.1 



SCIENCE. 



481 



of the Sacramento River, and is now making a 

 resurvey in the vicinity of Golden Gate ; various 

 acting assistants in the coast and geodetic survey 

 are preparing to take the field the first of June, to 

 continue the work of furnishing points and data 

 to different state surveys, Professor Buchanan go- 

 ing to Tennessee, Professor Campbell to Indiana, 

 Professors Barnard and Merriman to Pennsylvania. 

 Chart No. 2, from the mouth of St. John's River 

 to Jacksonville, Fla., embracing the latest hydro- 

 graphic work, and the improvements of the jetties 

 at the mouth of St. John's, is now ready for dis- 

 tribution to agents. 



— At a meeting of the Royal geographical so- 

 ciety on May 11, a paper was read by Prof. W. M. 

 Ramsay on ' Roman roads and English railways in 

 Anatolia.' Before the reading of the paper, the 

 chairman announced that royal medals had been 

 awarded to Major A. W. Greely, commander of 

 the U. S. Arctic expedition of 1881-84, for having 

 so considerably added to our knowledge of the 

 shores of the Polar Sea and the interior of Grin- 

 nell Land, and for the narrative of the expedition 

 which he has just given to the world ; and to Sig- 

 •nor Guido Cora, for his important services as a 

 writer and cartographer in advancing geographical 

 knowledge, promoting the study of geography, 

 and defining its position as a science. Professor 

 Ramsay's paper detailed the results of his re- 

 searches into the system of Roman roads in Ana- 

 tolia, and the conclusions to be drawn from those 

 researches as to the considerations which influ- 

 enced the Romans in the formation of those roads. 



— Another comet in Virgo was discovered Sat- 

 urday morning, May 22, by Mr. Brooks. As 

 determined by Professor Swift at the Warner 

 observatory at ten o'clock Sunday evening, its 

 position was, right ascension, llh 51m 15s; dec- 

 lination, north 8° 55' 15". It has a slow motion 

 south-east. It is very large, but faint. This dis- 

 covery secures to Mr. Brooks the three first Warner 

 prizes of the year. 



— Commodore George E. Belknap has been de- 

 tached from duty as superintendent of the naval 

 observatory at Washington, and ordered to com- 

 mand the Mare Island navy-yard, California, about 

 the middle of June. Lieutenant Bowman and 

 Ensign Taylor have also been detached from the 

 observatory. Commodore Belknap's successor has 

 not been announced. 



— The executive committee of the International 

 institute of statistics met at Cologne on May 1, 2, 

 3, and 4. The members present were Sir Rawson 

 W. Rawson (England), president; M. Levasseur 

 (France), Herr Hofrath Neumann-Spallart (Austria), 

 M. L. Bodio (Italy), and Mr. John B. Martin (Eng- 



land). It was decided that the meeting of the 

 institute this year should be held at Rome, from 

 Sept. 23 to Sept. 29. The programme was drawn 

 up, and a list of subjects to be discussed adopted. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



A new museum pest. 



In a collection arranged to illustrate a course in 

 paleontology at the Museum of comparative zoology, 

 a new set of labels was introduced last year, which 

 has since been very much injured by the attacks of 

 an insect, Lepisma domestica, — the silver-fish, in 

 popular language. The labels are similar in plan to 

 those which are used in the paleontological depart- 

 ment of the national museum. They are made of 

 thick paper, heavily sized with starch, with head- 

 ings, and a border-line printed in black ink. They 

 are bent at a right angle in the middle. The speci- 

 men is set on the lower half, while the description of 

 the same is written on the upturned portion, render- 

 ing it visible without the necessity of lifting the 

 specimen, — a distinct advantage, especially for 

 class-room use. There are about seven hundred 

 labels in use, and all, at the time of examination, 

 had been written within ten months ; yet not a single 

 one had wholly escaped from the attacks of Lepisma. 

 Many were eaten enough to obliterate the writing, 

 and riddle the paper with holes ; and all gradations 

 between slight and extensive injury exist. Paper 

 trays in which the specimens are kept, and which ap- 

 parently contain no sizing, are not at all eaten. The 

 labels are eaten on all parts except underneath, where 

 pressed against the paper tray by weight of the 

 specimen. The parts covered with printer's or writ- 

 ing ink are eaten quite as much as those which are 

 not, contrary to the observations of others cited be- 

 low. Careful search in the early winter led to the 

 discovery of perhaps half a dozen specimens of 

 Lepisma, but none have been seen since. 



I have seen labels written on various kinds of 

 paper, in the same and other departments of the 

 museum, eaten by Lepisma ; also a photograph, wall- 

 paper probably, and an old engraving in New York. 

 In this last the white portions were most affected, 

 but some parts closely covered with printer's ink 

 were eaten. 



I have made many inquiries from naturalists and 

 others, concerning the destruction done by Lepisma ; 

 but to most it was new. The late Prof. C. E. Ham- 

 lin of the museum said he had seen paper eaten, and 

 titles eaten off the backs of books, where they had 

 been attached by starch paste, but was confident that 

 unsized paper was never affected. Prof. R. P. 

 Whitfield of the American museum said that he had 

 known injuries to labels to have been committed by 

 Lepisma. Prof. F. W. Putnam, of the Museum of 

 archeology and ethnology, showed me many labels 

 which had been eaten, or entirely reduced to powder, 

 by Lepisma. Mr. S. Henshaw, of the Boston society 

 of natural history museum, had known of injuries, 

 and, enclosing Lepisma in a jar with paper, found 

 that the insects eat large holes in it. 



It is clear that Lepisma, if not a very common 

 visitant to museums, is at least a dangerous cne 

 when it does appear, and it behooves naturalists to 

 be on the lookout for it. Labels, of course, are a 

 most essentially important thing, and it seems not 



