LETTER OE TRANSMITTAL. 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
Division of Entomology, 
Washington , D. C., October 15, 1896. 
Sir: In transmitting for publication the final part of the Bibliog¬ 
raphy of the More Important Contributions to American Economic 
Entomology, the first part of which was published in 1890, it seems 
necessary, in view of certain public claims by Mr. B. Pickman Mann 
as to the authorship of the bibliography, to make a further statement 
for the information of those who may be interested in the question. 
It became the writer’s duty in 1889 to transmit for publication Parts 
I, II, and III, during the prolonged absence of the chief of the division. 
Mr. Henshaw’s name appeared on the title page of these parts, as well 
as subsequent parts, as the author, and to this Mr. Mann has taken 
exception, as well as to the statement made by the writer in his origi¬ 
nal letter of transmittal, to the effect that the manuscript which he 
had prepared “was turned over in an incomplete and fragmentary con¬ 
dition” to Mr. Ilenshaw, who had “ added greatly to it and practically 
rewritten portions already prepared.” Subsequent investigation has 
convinced the writer that in this statement he did not give Mr. Mann 
sufficient credit, and this omission is hereby publicly acknowledged. 
Nevertheless, the claims which Mr. Mann has made can not be recon¬ 
ciled with statements by Mr. Henshaw as to the condition of the manu¬ 
script when received by him and the difficulty in reconciliation is 
indicated by the following statement from Mr. Mann and introductory 
note from Mr. Henshaw: 
mr. mann’s statement. 
This work was in its original conception modeled upon the bibliographical record 
of “Psyche,” under my editorship, and I was employed in the preparation of it during 
my six years’ connection with the Department of Agriculture. I completed more 
than five-eighths of the material, except the indexes, composing the first volume, 
mainly in Part III, and left this, at the time of the severance of my connection with 
the Division of Entomology, December 31, 1886, in condition for publication as pre¬ 
pared, together with about 5,000 titles of other articles, the latter largely without 
analytic notes, for the subsequent parts, and an estimated number of more than 
18,000 index references to the same. 
Of the titles prepared for the parts subsequent to Part III I find only the more 
important to have been published. 
B. Pickman Mann. 
Washington, July 4, 1896. 
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