Vol. XXli] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS IO3 



mated. This spread alone is responsible probably for more 

 legislation in this country and in other countries than all the 

 other features of entomology combined. The San Jose scale 

 literature published in the last sixteen years covers hundreds 

 of thousands of pages, and hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 have been lost through the work of the insect. But through 

 the operation of new state laws many additional entomolo- 

 gists have been employed, and through their work millions of 

 dollars have been saved. 



The discovery in 1894 by Smith, Kilbourne and Salmon 

 that Texas fever in cattle is carried by a tick, the discovery by 

 Ross in 1898 that malaria is carried by certain mosquitoes, the 

 discovery by Reed, Carroll and Lazear in 1900 that yellow 

 fever is carried by a mosquito, and the later numerous dis- 

 coveries of the role of insects in the carriage of diseases of 

 man and animals have still further intensified public interest 

 in entomology and have shown anew the importance of ento- 

 mological education. Here economic entomology has touched 

 a new side of human interest ; it is the health of man and not 

 the preservation of his property that is concerned, and the 

 interest, therefore, has become a more vital one. 



In 1894 the Mexican cotton boll weevil was discovered with- 

 in the territory of the United States, and its spread to the 

 north and east year after year has presented an enormous 

 problem in economic zoology. The tremendous damage it has 

 done and the fears it has aroused in other cotton-growing 

 countries have threatened a disturbance in the balance of 

 trade for the entire world. The investigation which has been 

 carried on has been liberally supported by the general govern- 

 ment, and many trained men have been employed in the work. 



The present commanding position which the United States 

 holds in entomology and the wide-spread interest felt in all 

 entomological questions, the increased support of the govern- 

 ment in this direction, and the increased attention given to 

 education in economic zoology, are then mainly due to the 

 establishment of the experiment stations, to the advent of the 

 gipsy moth, to the spread of the San Jose scale in the east, to 



