286 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 84 



techny, became in 1891 independent and was entrusted to Mr. Poskin, 

 Doctor of Natural Science, who was commissioned to give to ento- 

 mology, which was then sadly neglected, its true importance in 

 natural science." 



True work in economic entomology, therefore, may be said to 

 date from 1891 when this commission was given to Professor Poskin. 



Professor Poskin published a series of reports (probably annu- 

 ally — 1 have not seen them all) that contained many interesting and 

 important short articles. In the Annales de Gembloux for 1907 is 

 published. a very important address delivered by Professor Poskin 

 at the solemn seance of the opening of the academic year, on ento- 

 mology in its applications to agriculture. It was a very competent 

 address showing familiarity with work done in other parts of the 

 world and especially in the United States, urging among other things 

 the use of arsenical sprays. Dwelling upon the imjxirtance of the 

 subject he says (translated) " Can one treat as a negligible quantity 

 an almost microscopic creature that in the course of the year will 

 kill 1,500,000 trees?" After further detailing many facts, he uses 

 the significant words (translated) " It would be puerile to exaggerate 

 the importance of this problem, but it must be done to indicate the 

 general ignorance of the people." 



In the volume of these Annales are to be found numerous articles 

 on applied entomology. In 1905, for example, was published an 

 account of the frit-fly by Alb. Carlier. 



Professor Poskin was still writing in 1921. In that year he pub- 

 lished in the Annales an article on silviculture and agriculture. 



Rather serious damage to forests by insects occurred toward the 

 latter part of the last century, and the Sui>erior Council of Forests of 

 Belgium found itself confronting a condition which demanded serious 

 attention. Prof. G. Severin, then Curator of the Royal Natural 

 History Museum in Brussels, was ofificially charged by the Govern- 

 ment to study the situation, and for some time he paid much attention 

 to forest insects. It was while he was engaged in this work that I 

 first met him in Brussels in 1902. Severin was and is (he is still 

 living) a very unusual man. His work in the Museum at Brussels 

 has always been of a very high character, and he has concerned 

 himself with the study of several groups of insects. He acted as the 

 scientific executor of De Selys-Longchamps and brought out a beauti- 

 ful edition of his com])leted writings on the Odonata. The Natural 

 History Museum in which he was Curator is one of the best planned 

 museums of the kind in existence. In no other natural history museum 

 has the same attention been paid to the arrangement of the exhibits 



