PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIHD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 13 



should recommend in what language each proposed "recognized " publi- 

 cation would be issued and the international committee should then go 

 over these local lists and decide finally. There would probably be a 

 considerable amount of disagreement over this language question, but, 

 as feelings are after this War, the Allies would probably secure a pre-- 

 ponderance at any international meeting in the near future, and it would 

 be as well to take advantage of this before public opinion on the subject 

 becomes blunted. 



The war has at least brought home the importance of a knowledge of 

 entomology to many people whose previous idea of entomologists pictured 

 them as useless, albeit harmless, cranks whose main object in life was the 

 pursuit of butterflies by means of large green nets. The health of our 

 troops in all the areas of the war has, however, required a vast deal of 

 entomological work in controlling the various flies, mosquitos, lice and 

 other insects which are carriers of disease, especially when large bodies 

 of men are kept together in small areas under crowded and often neces- 

 sarily insanitary conditions. Never before in such a short time has such 

 a large number of entomological workers been employed on practical 

 work of this nature and never before has entomology so proved its value 

 in this particular section of its sphere of usefulness. In the South African 

 War the British Army lost nearly twice as many men from preventible 

 diseases, chiefly typhoid fever, as it. did from casualties in action. In 

 the Spanish-American war one-sixth of the American troops was attacked 

 by typhoid. Truly was it said that " Disease, not battle, digs the soldier's 

 grave.-' But we have changed all that now-a-days to a very large extent 

 and the preventible losses by disease during the recent war have been 

 reduced to a comparatively trifling proportion, thanks to the adoption 

 of scientific method, amongst which entomological investigations must 

 be included. The transport and storage of the immense quantities of 

 food-stuffs required for our forces during the war has also called forcible 

 attention to the damage dor.e to such food-stuffs by the numerous insect 

 pests which attack stored produce. And the present world shortage 

 of food and raw vegetable material is considerably aggravated by the 

 losses caused by insect pests. It is not. easily realized what these losses 

 amount to in the aggregate. Taking only the case of agricultural crops 

 grown in India, we may say that on an average ten per cent, of the total 

 produce is destroyed by insect pests. In some cases it is more and in 

 others less. The Director of Agriculture in Assam told me recentlv 

 tliat, as the result of crop-cutting experiments in some districts in Assam, 

 it was found that ninety per cent, of the paddy crop was destroyed 

 nj insect pests and this is apparently a normal figure. Of course, we 

 often find oases even of total destruction, but they are sporadic as a rule. 



