Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/527

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��treating of kerosene emulsions; nod we are glad to see considerable space devoted to ' words of caution and adviue ' as to the dangers attending their use: for it cao hdrdly be said that the discussions of the kerosene question in these reports have been heretofore conducted "in the spirit of an investigator, and not in the spirit of an advoeate."

The experiments with kerosene, and the in- vention of devices for applying insecticides, have been the characteristic features of the work of the bureau duriug the past four years. This work has been of great importance; but it is hard to sec on what grounds the late com- missioner of agriculture claimed that "the chief remedies and insecticide appliances now quite generally employed with satis fa<ition, and constantly discussed and recommended in the agricultural press, have originated during my administration of the department " (p. 13).

The successful introtluction of Apanteles glomeratus, a parasite of the imi^orted cabbage- worm, is one of the most practical results of the work of the bureau; and the working-out of the life-history of the cranberry-fruit worm is also important. The article by Mr. Hub- bard, on the rust of the orange, is verj- complete, except that nothing is said to lead the reader to think that any tiling has ever been published before concerning this disease. This is the more surprising; since we And, that, although the mite which is supposed to cause the rust is carefully figured, the name given to it by Ashmead five years ago is nowhere used in the report. The creature is referred to as simply ' the rust-mite,' or as ' the mite,'

The illustrations are not so good as we have learned to expect in these reports. Of the fig- ures on the ten plates, nearly one-half are re- productions, and the original figures are nearly all photo -engravings. The photo-engraving processes are a great boon to impecunious investigators who cannot alFord to employ engravers; but in a small report, which is almost the only visible result of the expen- diture of a vast sum of money, we have a right to look for something better. It is due to the artist, however, to say that the new figures bear inherent evidence of truthfulness.

In looking at the rejwrt as a whole, we find much in it of value, but still not so much as might fairly be expected when we consider the lai'ge number of entomologists employed (we think, fifteen), and the size of the appropria- tion made to the bureau (nearly §30,000 for the 3'ear ending June, 1831). It is true that the entomologist complains that the work of the bureau has outgrown its present means of put-

��ting results before the public; but this com- plaint would have more foicc if he were more economical of the space at his disposal. If the bureau has aceumulatetl large additions to knowledge which are of great interest to the agriculturists of the country, why devote what is more than one-fourth of the report to an article on cabbage-insects, the greater part of which is a compilation from sources which are easy of access? or why devote seven pages to republishing an address on ' General truths in applied entomology,'?

��NOTES AND NEWS. At a meeting of the Ainerlcan aoclet; for pif- chical regearch held In Boston, Jane 4, a report was madebythecoiamUleeoii thought-transference which covered a discuMlon of the results of the experiments upon guessing digits and the colors of cnrds. which were descrilwd in a circular issued b; the society dur^ lag the winter. A large number of returns were re- ceived, but no eTidence wm obLained of the existence of thought-transference among ordinary persoDS for such matters aa the value of a digit or the color of a card. Prof. E. C. Pickerlug of the Harvard-college observatory also presented a discussion of the obser- vations taken at the observatorr in the revision of the star catalogues, — observations in which It was supposed that some thought-transference might take place, as the recorder knew the m^uitude of each star OS given In the Durchmusteruug before be re- dblVed the observer's estimate. It tbonght-tranafer- ence existed, tlila tact might have an infiuence upon UTe observer's mind; but no evidence of this infiu- ence was found in a discussion of some ten thousand observations. One of the members of the society has met with some success In the reproduction of drawings after the plan of the English society. The committee on medlumistlc plienomena made a brief report, stating that they had visited a numberof medi- ums, and bad arranged several private stances on their own terras, but had met with nothing satisfactory; they nil), of course, continue their work, as will the other committees of the society,

— Reports are received from the Pacific coast of unusual damage by Insects destructive to crops. Lo- custs, presumably Camnula pellocida, are just now very destructive in the unfledged condition in som« ten eountiea of California, especially in the San- Joaquin valley. The genuine Hessian-fly Is also do- ing much damage to the grain districts embraced in a line drawn from Tallejo in Solano county to Benecia, thence to Suisun, thetice to Napa City, and back to Tallejo; also in parts of Sonoma county.

— The Athenaeum (States that the Russian traveller Piasaetsky, who accompanied Col. Sosnofisky on his journey through China and Mongolia in 1872, and a translation of whose travels was published last year by Messrs. Chapmaniit Hall, Is about la set out on

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