OF WASHINGTON. 119 



The great significance of small things has come to be appre 

 ciated in the present generation more than any other, and Ray's 

 evident feeling that animals are important in proportion to their 

 bigness, as indicated by his remark in connection with his estimates 

 of the number of species of animals, finds no place in the present 

 generation. The small things are now the important ones, and 

 the student of microscopic forms of life has a much more useful 

 field than the student who investigates the grosser forms. Size is 

 not so significant as number, and in this respect insects hold the 

 mean position, and with them it is true also that the smaller species 

 are usually the more important ones, both economically and 

 as objects of scientific study. 



In the various fields of biologic investigation which have 

 resulted from the work of such men as Darwin, \Vallace, and 

 Weismann, insect studies have played a very important part. 

 The vast number of species, the ease with which they can be 

 collected and studied, their short life-periods and fecundity, all 

 are phases which greatly facilitate the investigation of such prob 

 lems as those of Heredity, Protective Resemblance, Dimorphism, 

 Natural Selection, Zoogeography, and various other matters con 

 nected with biogenesis. 



It is an interesting fact also that the great names in zoological 

 science are either of entomologists or of persons who were greatly 

 interested in the study of insects. Aristotle, Ray, Linne,'Cuvier, 

 Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, and many others who have been 

 epoch-makers in the science of zoology w r ere enthusiastic students 

 of insects. 



Other than the more purely scientific side is the practical or 

 economic phase of the study of insects. This field I shall not 

 enter. It has already been covered very largely by the paper by 

 Dr. Howard cited at the outset, but I simply wish to call atten 

 tion again to the very great interest in this department of the study 

 of insects which characterizes the present generation and to refer 

 in this connection to a remark of Reaumur's way back in the early 

 history of entomology in which he commends a course of pro 

 cedure which is pertinent at the present day. He says that "it 

 seems to me that the insects which fall under our eyes most often 

 are the ones which we ought most to study. They are the ones, 



