WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY- — HOWARD 73 



In an address which I made at the dedication of the Entomology 

 and Zoology Building of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 

 November, 1910, I spoke of C. H. Fernald who began to teach ento- 

 mology at the Maine State College in 1872, of J. H. Comstock who 

 began to teach in 1873, and H. A. Hagen already teaching at Har- 

 vard, as practically the pioneers. I pointed out that, while Fernald 

 was Professor of Natural History and had to teach all sorts of things, 

 Comstock was confined to entomology and invertebrate zoology, 

 Hagen being really the first professor of entomology. 



The publication of this address in the journal Science and in Ento- 

 mological News brought some interesting correspondence, and I 

 found that I had overlooked the fact that in 1867 A. J. Cook was 

 really teaching entomology at the Michigan Agricultural College. 

 The catalogues of that institution for the year 1867-68 show that he 

 was an instructor in mathematics. In 1869 he was made Professor of 

 Zoology and Entomology. But Dr. E. A. Bessey has written me that 

 his father, Prof. C. E. Bessey, took a course in entomology under 

 Professor Cook in 1867, and that during 1867 and 1868 he gave a 

 half-year course of entomology in addition to his mathematics. 



Mr. A. B. Seymour wrote me that according to his recollection 

 Prof. T. J. Burrill was teaching entomology at the University of 

 Illinois as early as 1868. I wrote to Professor Burrill, who was then 

 living, and he replied that, upon the organization of the University of 

 Illinois, Major J. W. Powell was elected Professor of Natural His- 

 tory and he was appointed Assistant Professor. It seems that Major 

 Powell never took up his duties at the institution. Burrill had been 

 with Major Powell on his first Rocky Mountain expedition in 1867, 

 and in 1868 geology was taken away from the rest of the natural his- 

 tory subjects, but Burrill taught entomology from 1868 until 1884 

 when S. A. Forbes joined the faculty. He wrote me under date of 

 December 14, 1910, " I had much too slender preparation for instruc- 

 tion in this department, but we had an enthusiastic succession of 

 students taking the work — not a great number, however. The year 

 was then divided into three terms, and we gave the spring term of 

 ten weeks to it, five days in the week." 



Since I began to write this section two interesting papers have been 

 published relating to this general subject, and incidentally they have 

 gone into the matter to a certain extent from the historical point of 

 view. The first is " The Courses in Entomology Offered in Ameri- 

 can Colleges," by Roger C. Smith, Ph. D., published in the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College Bulletin of January i, 1928. The second 

 is the first of a scries of articles by Paul Knight, of the University of 

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