336 
[Assembly 
the board, the late Judge Buel, giving a condensed summary of all 
the information respecting this inaect, contained in the accounts of 
Judge Havens, Dr. Chapman, and the different writers in the Ameri¬ 
can Farmer. 
In 1S40, Miss Margaretta II. Morris, of Germantown, Pa., in a 
communication to the American Philosophical Society, revives the 
theory of “ a landholder,” already noticed, that the egg of the fly 
is deposited in the grain, and that obtaining seed from uninfected 
districts will therefore be the best safeguard. The report of the 
committee upon this paper, is inserted in the society’s Proceedings 
of November, 1840, and the paper itself is published in the socie¬ 
ty’s Transactions (vol. viii. p. 49-51). 'Communications bearing 
upon the same subject were also made to the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, in 1841, by Dr. B. II. Coates, (Proceedings Acad., vol. 
i. p. 45, 54 and 51). 
In 1841, Mr. E. C. Herrick, librarian of Yale College, gave “ a 
brief, preliminary account of the Hessian fly, and its parasites,” in 
Silliman's Journal of Science (vol. xli., p. 153-15S). This paper 
announces the interesting fact of Mr. Dana’s having met with ap¬ 
parently the same insect on the shores of the Mediterranean, details 
the writer’s own accurate observations of the changes from the egg 
to the flax seed stale, and enumerates four different parasitic insects 
that prey upon it during these periods of its existence, by which 
“ probably more than nine-tenths of every generation of the Hes¬ 
sian fly is destroyed.” Another valuable paper from Mr. Herrick 
appears in the Report of the Commissioner of Putents for the year 
1844, (p. 161-167), giving a most exact and particular history of 
the transformations of this insect, and a summary view of the va¬ 
rious remedial measures that have been proposed. Both of these 
papers evince the close and patient investigation which the writer 
had made, and the utmost carefulness in announcing nothing be¬ 
yond what heJiad clearly ascertained. 
Dr. T. W. Harris’s invaluable “ Treatise on the insects of Mas¬ 
sachusetts injurious to vegetation” was also completed in 1841. 
An excellent summary of all the leading facts pertaining to the histo- 
