169 
Entomologist’s office since May 11, 1891. The manner in which 
the Sporotrichum penetrates its living host and develops there is 
described, and the dried ripe conidia are said “to be proof against 
at least ordinary winter temperatures and against summer heat of 
104° Fah.” The virulence of the disease varies according to the 
kind of insect attacked, “the resisting power of the individual, the 
condition of the weather, and apparently also to some extent ac¬ 
cording to the previous history of the spores.” Gives mode of 
cultivating and preserving the fungus. 
Artificial cultures of Botryiis tenella received from Parisian 
chemists were much less effective than Sporotrichum for the white 
grub and other insect larvae. 
Mentions Prof. Snow’s use of the so-called gray fungus (Empusci 
aphidis) disease of the chinch-bug, with other diseases, for the 
wholesale destruction of chinch-bugs in the fields. He says of 
this fungus: “It is incapable of artificial culture, but may per¬ 
haps be kept in hand alive in relatively small quantity by using 
hothouse plant-lice as a medium.” Calls attention to a special 
difficulty attending the study of the bacterial diseases of Hemip- 
tera, and to the establishment of a particular point during his in¬ 
vestigations this season. Special reference is made to Prof. Snow’s 
“remarkably extensive, suggestive, and thoroughly conscientious 
work.” 
Believes that neither botanists nor entomologists will be satis¬ 
fied until the subject of insect diseases is thoroughly investigated 
according to the “strictest methods of experimental science.” He 
says, “Without these we should presently find ourselves swamped 
by a mass of errors or dubious results which could best be dis¬ 
posed of by leaving them on one side as hindrances rather than 
helps to progress ” Emphasizes the necessity of guarding the ag¬ 
ricultural public against a “too eager appropriation of unverified 
results”—thus bringing the subject into discredit—and against the 
tendency “to trust the safety of a crop prematurely to this method 
to the neglect of other more certain but more expensive measures.” 
Snow, F. H.—Contagious Diseases of the Chinch-bug. (First 
Ann. Hep. Direc. Kan. Univ. Exper. Station, 1891.) 
A brief resume of work done in 1888, 1889, and 1890, followed 
by a discussion of the observations and experiments of 1891. 
This report is too voluminous for abstract here, but its scope is 
indicated by the following list of its principal headings: General 
Notes and Results, Laboratory Observations and Experiments, Re¬ 
port of the Field Agent, Reports from Field Experimenters, List 
of Field Experimenters making Reports, Summary of Field Ex¬ 
periments, Summary of Estimates of Crops saved, Map showing 
Distribution of Field Experiments and Results, Meteorological 
Conditions and the Chinch-bug, History of the microphytous Dis¬ 
eases of the Chinch-bug in the United States, Bibliographic Rec¬ 
ord [of his own publications], Statement of Expenditures, and Direc¬ 
tions for obtaining and applying Infection. There are also plates 
of Micrococcus, Sporotrichum, and Empusa. 
