THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



them that an entomologist is not necessarily a confounded crank. 



At all events, I made hundreds of friends, and many warm 

 ones. When it appeared that my job might well be taken on by 

 a younger man, the Council apparently had no hesitation in 

 making me president of the Association. Of course this, too, 

 helped to broaden the concept of an entomologist. 



It is the custom of the Association to ask its president to 

 deliver his retiring address at the meeting following the one 

 over which he presides, and thus it happened that, although I 

 occupied the chair at the meeting held in Chicago in the Christ- 

 mas holidays of 1919, I gave my address at the meeting in 

 Toronto, Canada, in the holidays of 1920-1921, 



This mention of the time of the year when these meetings 

 were held reminds me of another matter which should be men- 

 tioned. In the early days the annual meetings were held in 

 August, following the plan of the British Association. Since 

 this was during the long vacation, it was especially convenient 

 for the professors in the colleges and universities and for the 

 teachers in the schools. Moreover, although August in the States 

 is not so distinctly the vacation month as it is in European 

 countries, it is chosen by many people. But with the new century 

 we made a change, and since that time we have held the 

 annual meeting in the week which includes January i. In order 

 to bring this about we conducted a lengthy correspondence 

 with most of the university people and secured the very general 

 adoption of what is now called "Convocation Week," in which 

 most of the learned societies now hold their meetings. Nearly 

 all of the colleges and universities have arranged their Christmas 

 vacation schedules so that their people may attend these meet- 

 ings. The expression "Convocation Week" is now to be found 

 in the later American dictionaries. 

 I remember that this idea originated in the old Committee 



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