THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



Hope Museum, over which the venerated John Obadiah West- 

 wood presided for so many years, attracted many of us even 

 away from some of the sessions of the Congress. 



A very encouraging feature to me was the first meeting of 

 the section on apphed entomology. Practically down to that 

 time the so-called economic entomologist, devoting himself al- 

 most entirely to agricultural entomology, had been considered 

 by the university laboratory men, by the museum men, and by 

 the amateurs interested wholly in Taxonomy, as a sort of 

 farmer, with nothing like the same scientific standing as them- 

 selves. I think that there had been no section on applied ento- 

 mology at Brussels, and I believe that this was the first time 

 the experiment had been tried. I had been named as the chair- 

 man of the first session of this especial section, and I entered 

 the meeting room with a fear that the speakers would have 

 no audience and that their papers would not be discussed. My 

 fears, however, were unjustified. The group was large, and no 

 section had a better attendance. I am inclined to rate the 

 Oxford Congress as a high point in the progress of applied 

 entomology in the esteem of other branches of science. 



I recall the final dinner with especial pleasure. Many excellent 

 speeches were made. It was announced that the next congress 

 would be held in Vienna, and that Anton Handlirsch would 

 be president. HandHrsch, delightful man that he is, sat at 

 Poulton's right, and in response to the applause following the 

 announcement made a charming little speech in German. 



But the Vienna Congress was never held, for in the summer 

 of 1914 Vienna was in almost a volcanic condition. In fact, 

 the Fourth Congress did not take place until thirteen years 

 later. Apropos of the interrupting, catastrophic war, I recall 

 that at the Oxford meeting, Poulton unexpectedly called upon 

 me to make some remarks, and that I fancifully said that we 



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