FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



tion to the Vice-Presidency. Recently the Roosevelt Distinguished 

 Service Medal was presented to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, w^hom I 

 have mentioned on an earlier page, and Merriam's address after 

 receiving the medal is published in full in Science for February 

 12, 1932. It is entitled "Roosevelt the Naturalist." In this address 

 Dr. Merriam modesdy referred to a meeting of the Biological 

 Society of Washington, at which he had discussed the validity of 

 several species of western animals, crossing swords with Roose- 

 velt. That was when the future President was a member of the 

 United States Civil Service Commission, somewhere between 

 1889 and 1895. I remember that meeting very well, since I was 

 president of the Biological Society at the time. 



One day the program committee of the society asked Dr. 

 Merriam to present a paper at the next meeting. It seems that 

 in the columns of the journal Science, Roosevelt had criticized 

 Merriam's classification of the big game animals of North Amer- 

 ica, not so much from the standpoint of the systematic zoologist, 

 but from the standpoint of a hunter, claiming that Merriam went 

 into too many refined details, and that lots of points known to 

 the old trappers and hunters should be taken into consideration 

 in basing a classification. Merriam told the committee that he 

 would prepare a paper on big game animals if Mr. Roosevelt 

 could be induced to be present at the meeting and discuss the 

 paper. So it was arranged. 



After the meeting had opened (it was in the old hall of the 

 Cosmos Club) Mr. Roosevelt and W. Hallett Phillips came in 

 at the back of the hall and sat on a rear seat. They were rather 

 conspicuous because they were the only persons in the room in 

 evening dress. They listened intently to Merriam's talk, in which, 

 of course, he riddled Roosevelt's argument in Science. It was a 

 long and very interesting address. At its conclusion, from the 

 chair, I invited Mr. Roosevelt to take part in the discussion 



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