74 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL PATHOLOGICAL 



ENTOMOLOGIST. 



(F. M. HowLETT, B.A., F.E.S.) 



The programme for the past year has been considerably 

 modified in consequence of the much closer relation with 

 medical work which now exists. I am indebted to the 

 Administrators of the Medical Research Fund for the addi- 

 tion of three posts to my staff, of which two have already 

 been filled. These extra men will be engaged exclusively 

 with " medical " entomology, and there will thus be at 

 least two men available for Veterinary, Agricultural, and 

 general work. The provision of these posts has rendered 

 the question of accommodation more acute than ever, and 

 a portion of the extra space required has been j^rovided 

 by the erection of a small supplementary laboratory now 

 completed. 



I have already put forward certain suggestions for the 

 establishment of a medico-entomological laboratory for 

 Northern India where entomologists and medical officers 

 could work at any group of blood-sucking insects under the 

 best conditions for obtaining material and observing the 

 living insects in their natural habitat without undue risk 

 to health. Such a laboratory should be in a district where 

 blood-sucking insects attain their maximum abundance and 

 variety : examples of such tracts are the lower slopes of the 

 Himalayas and the Western Ghats and certain parts of 

 Assam. It should be in some place having a climate suffi- 

 ciently cool to allow of operations such as section-cutting 

 to be carried on without inconvenience at any season, but 

 should be on a railway or good road affording easy access 

 to tracts where insects abound. The establishment of such 

 a laboratory at some place fulfilling these conditions {e.g., 

 Shillong, the Kurseong neighbourhood, the Naini Tal road 

 from Kathgodam, Igatpuri) would not necessarily entail 

 any large expenditure if a site were available, and would 



