36 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



"The scientific attitude is not only agnostic, but also universal. To 

 the scientific mind there are no isolated facts or discrete phenomena, 

 but all are integral parts of the great structure of knowledge. To him 

 the separate sciences and subsciences become of importance' and signifi- 

 cance only as he sees them as elements of more comprehensive units, 

 which in turn make up the ultimate unit which he calls Nature, Weltan- 

 schauung or world picture." 



A further justification would be unnecessary. Bueno, in a 

 little paper on the "Ways of Progression in Waterbugs," Ento- 

 mological Netvs, 1906, concludes with the following lament: 



"The meagreness of information regarding these habits has led me 

 to the studies outlined above. It is to be hoped that the rising genera- 

 tion of entomologists may give a little less time to hair-splitting classi- 

 fications and devote its energies to investigations of habits and life 

 histories of other than economically important groups, or than those 

 which, like butterflies, are largely aesthetic; and to such lovers of the 

 insect folk do I look for further light on these highly interesting but 

 financially unremunerative subjects." 



The ecological significance of forms has come tardily to the 

 agricultural and horticultural entomologist, but it has come 

 indeed to make a profound impression, as the deeper relations 

 have been understood. It will come more speedily as the 

 farming of the waters takes a larger place in our activities. 

 The problems here are different and the factors so diverse and 

 unknown, that any light upon the interrelationship of aquatic 

 societies will stand as a substantial contribution to the ulti- 

 mate solution of the baffling problems of the present. 



The observations of Swammerdam concerning the preda- 

 tory tendencies of the water bugs has been followed by numer- 

 ous records. Merrian graphically figures a large Belostomid 

 in the act of eating a polliwog. Thomas (1871) cites a Corixid 

 as eating fish eggs. Earlier writers mention Corixid eggs, 

 and their use as food by the Mexicans. A few writers indeed 

 have written upon the economic importance of water bugs. 

 Thus Kirkaldy, in an article on "An Economic Use for Water- 

 bugs" (1898), devotes himself to an account of their use as 

 food, and the following notes are from this paper. 



Thomas Gage (1625), who traveled in Mexico, mentioned 

 the sale of cakes made of a "kind of froth" from the Mexican 

 lakes. Thomas Say (1832) said that the adult Corixids were 

 used as food in the City of Mexico. Guerin Meneville (1857) 

 publlished a long account on this subject in some five journals, 

 and Virlet d'Aoust (1858) gives a review of the same subject. 



