114 THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
The most interesting contribution to the American literature of the 
Cicada of this period, comprising two papers with valuable editorial 
notes, is contained in the Barton Medical and Physical Journal of 1804, 
already cited. The first title reads: " Some particulars concerning the 
locust of North America. Written at Nazareth, in Pennsylvania, Aug. 
27th, 1793. Communicated to the Editor, by the Reverend Mr. Charles 
Reichel, of Nazareth." The paper gives a number 'of dates of occur- 
rence in Pennsylvania and some interesting notes on the habits of the 
Cicada — some errors in which are corrected in a note by the editor, who 
announces that he has "for several years, devoted a great deal of 
attention to the natural history of this insect" and "designs to publish 
an extensive memoir on the subject," which, however, he seems never 
to have doue. 
The second paper (pp. 56-59) reads: "Additional Observations on 
the Cicada Septendecim. By the late Mr. John Bartram. From a MS. 
in the possession of the Editor." The older paper indicated in this 
title Phave not seen, but it is evidently included in an account of travels 
by Bartram in Pennsylvania and Canada, printed in London in 1751. 
Under the title quoted are notes on the appearance of a brood in the 
neighborhood of Philadelphia in 1749, which began to emerge May 10, 
but "in the latter end of April * * * came so near the surface of 
the ground, that the hogs rooted up the ground for a foot deep, all about 
the hedges and fences, under trees in search of them." There follow 
quite accurate notes on oviposition. The editor concludes the article 
by the citation from Moreton which has been already quoted. 
Thomas Say, the father of American entomology, has one brief com- 
munication on the periodical Cicada, in which he criticises the use of 
the name Locust, and gives references to earlier literature and a brief 
note on habits. 1 
Another interesting communication of about the same period is by 
Dr. J. F. Davis 2 in which the author controverts the " 14 or 15 " year 
period suggested by Colliuson and quotes two letters, one from the 
Hon. Judge Peters, of Belmont, Pa., and the other from Myers Fisher, 
esq., of Philadelphia, to substantiate the 17-year period. Referring to 
the noise of this Cicada, Judge Peters says: " One of your Spa fields 
meetings can give you a faint idea of their incessant aud unmusical 
cheering and noise. If Hogarth had known these locusts, he would 
have placed them about the ears of his enraged musician. Knife- 
grinders, ballad singers, etc., would have been lost in their din." 
Mr. Fisher gives a very accurate, though brief, statement of the life 
cycle of the species (if his belief that they occur at great depths be 
excepted), aud adds the very significant statement that " there is 
reason to believe that they appear every year in some part or other of 
the United States, with the complete period of seventeen years between 
every local appearance." 
1 Mem. Phila. Soc. Prom. Agric, 1818, v. 4. p. 225. 
2 Jour. Sci. and Arts Roy. Inst., 1819, v. 6, pp. 372-374. 
