Howard — Early Days of the Biological Society. 273 



ster) made an important discovery, which included not only 

 proof of a phytophagic habit on the part of an Hymenopterous 

 parasite but established an alternation of generations with the 

 species. Riley read a paper on the subject before the Biological 

 Society, and I attended at his special request. The paper was 

 couched in technical terms; its significance was not in the least 

 understood by the audience, and I made my first speech before 

 the society, under the head of discussion, by attempting to put 

 into simple words of one syllable adapted to the limited under- 

 standing of botanists and ornithologists and mammalogists and 

 paleontologists the fundamental biological importance of what 

 Riley, in compliment to the wise physiognomies of his audience, 

 had couched in polysyllabic terms of classical etymology. 



The next time I was on my feet before the society, March 19, 

 1887, I read a paper of my own about a little aquatic insect of 

 the genus Hy dropsy che which makes webs under the water in 

 Rock Creek and catches in these webs the larvae of Simulium, 

 the adults of which are called buffalo gnats, or black flies, as well 

 as other insects. That meeting had a greater interest than this 

 personal one to me, since Alfred Russel Wallace was present and 

 discussed this particular paper, expressing his astonishment that 

 there existed forms which spun silk under water. Wallace was 

 in Washington several weeks at that time, and attended more 

 than one meeting of the society. His interests were very broad. 

 He discussed from his wealth of experience, all aspects of biology. 

 Unfortunately, he went into other things as well. He had al- 

 ready become a spiritualist, and his credulity regarding the acts 

 of the most transparent charlatans almost destroyed the scien- 

 tific idol which I had in a way worshiped since I first read "The 

 Malay Archipelago." 



This talk is not historical ; it is simply gossipy and reminiscen- 

 tial, and it will necessarily be brief. 



I wonder if some of those meetings would have seemed as 

 extraordinary to you as they seemed to us. The story has often 

 been told of how the society spent one whole meeting in discuss- 

 ing the position of the tail of the extinct Steller's sea cow, and 

 then followed it two weeks later with another evening on the 

 same topic, and then two weeks later with a third, the last of 

 these three meetings continuing the discussion by special vote 

 until half past ten' There you see were six and a half mortal 



