370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



be of great importance to the economic entomologist. It would not 

 be proper for me to make more than this mere statement, but a pre- 

 liminary pajjor is being prepared which will contain man}^ astonish- 

 ing facts. 



The Chemical Warfare Service of the Army is carrying on an 

 elaborate series of tests against insects with different gases, and 

 has a great accumulation of records which when published will be of 

 undoubted value if only as records. These tests, in the main, have 

 been made in cooperation with the Bureau of Entomology. There 

 is an exception in the case of tests against the cotton boll weevil, for 

 which a direct appropriation was made to the War Department on 

 the initiative of a southern Senator. Even the tests from which 

 there have been no obviously valuable results will have an ultimate 

 value to future experimenters. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the 

 secrecy which necessarily must surround Army experimental work 

 with poison gases that may be used in warfare will not prevent 

 the near publication of a record of the exact experiments of the 

 Chemical Warfare Service against insects. 



It is true that certain other chemists have entered this field. 

 George Gra}'^, of California, has a large manuscript on the chem- 

 istry of insecticides, not yet published, but he has been drafted into 

 the service of the State in a somewhat different capacity and is no 

 longer able to devote his whole time to this important side. William 

 Moore, from whom we expected and still expect great thijigs, has 

 joined a commercial organization. There is this to be said for chem- 

 istry, that industrial corporations are employing numbers of research 

 men and that therefore the very research which we need maj^ be and 

 is being supported financially by such organizations. 



We must look to the chemist for the development of the most 

 perfect insecticide, which as likely as not will be a synthetic organic 

 compound. We must look to him for that greatest desideratum — a 

 cheap compound that will at once stimulate plant life and deter or 

 destroy insects. 



There has grown up in these past j^ears a beautiful spirit of coop- 

 eration among the entomologists all over the world. I doubt that 

 such a spirit exists among the workers in any other branch of 

 science. Each one of us has held himself in readiness to be of as- 

 sistance to any one of his colleagues of whatever nationality. But 

 we must not be satisfied with this. The needs of humanity demand 

 both a broader and a closer association. The prime insect pests 

 of the world are, through commerce, as we have shown, becoming 

 widespread, and the self-protection of nations demands the most 

 intimate knoAvledge of the injurious insects of all countries, since all 



