— 251 — 
Dr. K. Jordan (Tring) said : Dr. A. Pagenstecher has 
published a list of specimens of the Gerning collection preserved 
in the Museum at Wiesbaden. Many of these specimens were 
figured by Esper in his Europäische Schmetterlinge and his 
Ausländische Schmetterlinge. The Insects are mostly in good 
order and of great value to systematists. Papilio amulius Esper 
is represented in the collection by the type, which appears to be 
still the only example in museums. 
Dr. H. Skinner (Philadelphie) said it was the thought of some 
entomologists that unique types are the property of the scientific 
world and that the museums where deposited are only custodian 
and that the scientific world have a just grievance if such types 
were destroyed through being loaned for study. 
La parole est donnée à M. R. Garcia y Mercet (Madrid) 
pour la lecture de son travail, écrit en espagnol, sur 1’ « Histoire de 
l'entomologie en Espagne » et dont nous n’avons pas reçu ni 
le résumé, ni le manuscrit. 
Le Président donne la parole à M. Henry Skinner (Phila¬ 
delphie) : 
One hundred years of entomology in the United States. 
The earliest notes on Insects date from 1745 to 1763, but very 
little was accomplished prior to the year 1800. In 1806, 
F. V. Melsheimer of Pennsylvania published a catalogue of the 
Coleóptera of his State. 
Real progress dates from the time of Thomas Say, who has 
been called the father of American entomology. In 1812, when Say 
became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila¬ 
delphia, the collection consisted of a half dozen common Insects, 
a few corals and shells, a dried toad Fish and a stufted Monkey. 
Say’s work on American Insects was a fine piece of work for that 
time and reflects credit on this pioneer worker. In 1859 the 
American Entomological Society was founded and the work it 
accomplished made a great impression on the study in America. 
Its publications are well known throughout the world. At the 
present time there are many magnificent institutions carrying 
