272 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



I have elsewhere spoken of the coordination between the study 

 of entomology and longevity, and this is perhaps another in- 

 stance. 



Speaking of entomology, the first meeting of this society was 

 held in the house of an entomologist, the late Doctor Riley, but 

 the first paper read before the society was by an icthyologist, 

 the late Dr. Tarleton H. Bean. 



When the society was founded I was a youngster of twenty- 

 two. I had been elected a member of the Philosophical Society, 

 but the secretary had forgotten to notify me of my election. I 

 was an assistant to Prof. J. H. Comstock, at that time entomolo- 

 gist of the Department of Agriculture with a force consisting of 

 Theodore Pergande, of a superannuated negro messenger with 

 a taste for alcoholic preservatives, and myself. One day Dr. 

 G. Brown Goode, young, filled with energy, and of charming 

 presence and manner, called at our office and invited Professor 

 Comstock and me to join in the movement to found the new 

 society. Thus I became one of the original members. 



In those days scientific men not only quarrelled (which, of 

 course, they don't do any longer) but they absorbed the work 

 of their assistants in the most extraordinary manner, some of 

 them publicly defending this course and considering it entirely 

 ethical. Looking over the proceedings of the society in the early 

 years, we find no printed records of quarrels, but to men with 

 good memories the titles and the brief printed statements recall 

 many things which were never recorded in print and which it is 

 lucky, probably, were never recorded in print. Thus, at the 

 May 6, 1881, meeting Professor Comstock read a paper on scale 

 insects. The record shows that on May 20th Doctor Riley dis- 

 cussed this paper and was replied to by Comstock. Just what 

 they said has been lost. Requiescat in pace ! 



I attended very few of the early meetings. My evenings were 

 otherwise spent — not so profitably perhaps, but more pleasantly 

 to one in his early twenties. Undoubtedly I would have been 

 a better and broader biologist if I had religiously attended all 

 of the meetings, but I would not have had half as much fun, and 

 probably I gained something elsewhere which has been of equal 

 use to me in after life. This is heretical, but susceptible of argu- 

 ment. 



In 1884 Doctor Riley (or rather one of his assistants — Web- 



