THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 234.] SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1861. [Price Id. 
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 
A discussion having arisen in our 
columns as to the cause of the origin 
of the ‘Journal of Entomology,’ and 
a high authority having laid down the 
proposition that the delay in the publi- 
cation by the Entomological Society 
of the papers read before it has been 
the main cause why the ‘Journal of 
Entomology’ has been started, we have 
been led to refer to the earlier volumes 
of the ‘Transactions of the Entomo- 
logical Society of London,’ with the 
two-fold object of investigating the 
laws which regulate the number of 
Members who furnish papers to the 
Society, and of ascertaining whether 
the dilatory conduct of the Society 
is a new or an old offence. 
The Entomological Society of London 
was founded in the year 1833, and 
consequently the year 1834 was the 
first complete year of the Society’s 
operations. 
The papers published in the ‘ Trans- 
actions ’ of the Society show that in 
the year 1834 thirty papers were read, 
being contributed by sixteen authors. 
Of course the first year of the ex- 
istence of a Society cannot be taken 
as any criterion of the future average 
productiveness of its Members, for no 
doubt many of the Members had a 
mass of materials then accumulated, 
which was at once readily available for 
the manufacture of papers. 
In 1835 seventeen gentlemen con- 
tributed twenty-seven papers. 
In 1836 sixteen gentlemen con- 
tributed twenty-two papers. 
In 1837 nine gentlemen contributed 
twenty-two papers. 
Up to this period we see no great 
falling off in the number of papers, 
though a considerable diminution in 
the number of authors; the figures 
being respectively 30, 27, 22, 22, and 
16, 17, 16, 9. 
In the last year of the four two 
gentlemen (the Rev. F. W. Hope and 
Mr. Westwood) contributed exactly one 
half of the papers. 
It is interesting also to observe that 
of the twenty-two papers read in 1837 
seven were published in 1840, two in 
1841, and five in 1842; i.e. more than 
half the papers were published three 
years after they had been read. 
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