4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1927 

 said, 



To describe events and to give the order of their occurrence is the easier 

 part of an historian's task ; his real difficulties begin when he seeks to interpret 

 the happenings of history, to detect the causes which produce them and explain 

 why one event follows as a direct sequence to another. 



The present account, as indicated in the preface, is not so serious 

 as the professional historian would like it to be. The subtitle " Some- 

 what Anecdotal " indicates in a way the frame of mind of the writer, 

 but there will" nevertheless be here and there some attempts at inter- 

 pretation. 



For the past twenty-five years there has been a more or less con- 

 scious effort on the part of the writer to do four things: (i) To 

 impress on everybody the enormous importance of the study of 

 insects — that this study is one of vital importance to humanity; (2) 

 To show all entomologists that, no matter what aspect of the sub- 

 ject they are studying, they are doing work of vital importance and 

 are greatly helping mankind — this in the effort to prevent all fric- 

 tion between museum and laboratory men and economic workers ; 

 (3) To show the great ])ody of scientific men that entomology and 

 entomologists, including economic entomologists, are doing sound and 

 important scientific work which should command their respect; (4) 

 To bring about a solidarity among the entomologists of the world on 

 the broad ground that the insect danger is one to all humanity regard- 

 less of national affiliation. This latter effort has perhaps been more 

 successful than the others, although the conditions have become vastly 

 better with all of them. The entomologists of the whole world, how- 

 ever, are now working in ]ierfect harmony. The results of the work 

 of all are speedily communicated to all the rest, and there are plans 

 under way to bring about united efi'ort on many problems. 



I have enjoyed writing all this that follows, and as it approaches 

 completion I realize that it has been quite worth while. It is a mod- 

 erately full and moderately exact record of a branch of applied sci- 

 ence that has sprung rather suddenly into existence and has developed 

 with extreme rapidity to meet human needs. In doing it I have relied, 

 for the American part,- on my own memory supported by my own 

 library and that of the Bureau of Entomology. For the portion relat- 

 ing to the rest of the world, I was, of course, by no means sure of my 

 ground, and, although my personal acquaintance with entomologists 

 around the world is very large and corresi)ondence with them during 

 fifty years infinitely larger, there have been great difficulties in bring- 



