THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 197 



have had instruction in the use of the microscope and in preparing 

 microscopic specimens and sUdes, and if he has a ready use of German 

 and French it will be very helpful to him in his study. It is also desir- 

 able that the student should have had a full course in botany. The 

 students of our college have had three terms of botany, one devoted entirely 

 to microscopic botany, before they begin the study of entomology. I con- 

 sider this very valuable preparatory work. Entomology is very close pre- 

 cise work, and the laboratory work if carried on for a less space than 

 three hours at a time is not satisfactory. But three hours of such close 

 work is very wearying unless the student has had a fitting preparation. 

 Thus I am pleased that our students have had vertebrate dhsection with 

 human and comparative anatomy and physiology before they commence 

 entomology. I know this seems the reverse of the natural method ; as 

 nature proceeds from lower to higher ; vertebrate dissection is lighter and 

 less trying to eye and brain than is the study of insect anatomy ; thus I 

 am pleased to have Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates precede that 

 of the Arthropoda in our course. In our College the student attends a 

 course of sixty lectures on the anatomy and physiology of insects, 

 systematic entomology and the economic bearing of the subject. These 

 lectures are illustrated by use of models, the student's collection of 

 insects, already referred to, by microscopic preparations, mostly prepared at 

 the College, and elaborate charts and drawings also prepared specially for 

 our use. In connection with this course there are 36 hours of laboratory. 

 Each student works three hours one day each week for twelve weeks. In 

 this time they are able to study the internal anatomy, and to examine 

 carefully and accurately one insect of each order. In connection with 

 this several insects are traced to the genus by such keys as Leconte and 

 Horn, Cresson, Williston, etc. Besides the above, each student makes a 

 collection of from ten to twenty-five insects of each order, all neatly put 

 up with date and locality label ; each order by itself and all labelled as 

 far as time will permit. Many students succeed in naming a large 

 number of their specimens. Each student is also required to mount 

 insects in all the approved ways. Small insects mounted on triangular 

 pieces of cardboard or rectangles of cork with silver wires, while the 

 larvae are put in bottles of alcohol with rubber corks and also prepared 

 by eviscerating and drying, while distended with air, in a heated oven. 

 The students are also encouraged to prepare biological collections, in 



