Article beginning on page 223.
Psyche 4:223, 1883.

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October-December 1884.1 PS2'TfZE. 223
PSYCHE.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 0CT.-DEC. 1884.
Communications, exchanges and editors' copies should be addressed to EDITORS OF PSYCHE, Can.1- bridge, Mass. Communications for publication in PSYCHE must be properly authenticated, and no anmy. mous articles will bepublished,
Editors and contributors are only responsible for the statements made in their own communications. Works on subjects not related to entomology will not be reviewed in PSYCHE.
For rates of subscription and of ad-vertisinfl, see ad- vertising columns.
INDEX TO ENTOMOLOGICAL LITER-
ATURE.
The time consumed by special students in searching through a whole literature for those portions of it which bear upon their special studies is largely wasted. The litera- ture of special subjects is so scattered, and that of different subjects so intermingled. that each student who tries to find for him- self what relates to the subjects he is studying is obliged to peruse a great deal of literature that is not of service to him, far more, in- deed, than that which he can use, in propor- tion as the subjects he is studying formbut a fraction of all the subjects treated in the literature. Here, as in other fields of labor, specialization carries with it economy and efficiency. The diligent worker who, labor- ing to that end, by comprehensive methods forms an index to all the special subjects treated in the literature as he examines it finds himself at last able to refer without hesitancy or waste of time to all the litera- ture which treats of any of these specialties. He is then in a position to supply the needs of the specialists "first mentioned. While but few persons are interested in these refer- ences as a whole, each specialist finds the portion referring to his own field of study of great value. Having accumulated an im-
mense stock of references to the literature of entomology, I will furnish references on special subjects at ten cents each reference, or fifty cents per decade. The system upon which these references will be furnished is the following. The person seeking refer- ences shall send me his list of references already obtained ; the references I furnish will then only be those additional to this list, so that no one will have to pay for that which he already has. If any person finds the
transcription of the references which he already has not worth the saving of the cost under this rule, he can not complain of the cost of the references furnished him. Extracts from and translations of portions of litera- ture on desired subjects will also be pro- cured on demand.
The publication of bibliographical records in the pages of PSYCHE and other works and the indexing of these records place a consid- erable number of references at the disposal of specialists without special payment there- for. So rapidly as means admit these
records and indices in PSYCHE will be en- larged. Meanwhile the pages of PSYCHE
stand open for contributions from the stores of specialists who have already gathered for their own use references to the literature of their specialties. When it is considered with how great labor these lists of references are gathered, and how one student after anether is obliged to perform this labor anew, for want of the publication of lists once made, it may be seen of how great service to the public would be the publication of these lists. The very persons who may be die-
posed to depreciate the value of general indexes such as mine, for the reason that they in their special fields have fuller indexes or those most complete to date, are the ones who may render the greatest service to their fellow-workers by publishing their lists. B : PICKMAN MAXN.
Washington, D. C., Nov. 1884.




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