538 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



ciation for the Advancement of Science, my first realization of this 

 fact came to me at the Second International Congress of Entomology 

 in Oxford in 1912. Economic entomology was only one of a number 

 of sections of the Congress, and I had been made President of the 

 first session of this section. In view of the fact that the attendance 

 at the Congress was composed largely of morphologists and tax- 

 onomists, I had supposed that the section on economic entomology 

 would be poorly attended, and was therefore suprised and gratified 

 on entering the room to find that nearly every seat was taken. It was 

 thus plainly shown that the admirable scientific work done by the 

 economists during the preceding few years had brought about a 

 change of sentiment and a real interest in the applications of the 

 science. 



The Third International Congress of Entomology was to have been 

 held in 191 5, at Vienna, but the World War came on in 1914 and all 

 thought of international congresses was lost for nearly 10 years. 



There is no doubt that the war showed in many directions the use- 

 fulness of the economic entomologist. A knowledge of medical ento- 

 mology naturally played a great role, as it always does where masses 

 of men are brought together for any purpose. But perhaps it was 

 especially in the loss of food supplies through insects that entomology 

 was most insistently brought into view. The necessity of bringing 

 together enormous quantities of stored food supplies facilitated 

 greatly the multiplication of insects that live in such products, while 

 the extreme necessity for the production of food by agriculture made 

 the loss through the work of insects on growing crops a matter of 

 enormous importance. 



Many of these things are brought together in an article entitled 

 " Entomology and the War " published in the Scientific Monthly for 

 February, 1919. It was during the war, it may be stated incidentally, 

 that the Federal Bureau of Entomology began its system of record- 

 ing closely the increase of crop pests all over the country. 



At the close of the war there was a period of several years during 

 which the deep animosities which had been engendered remained too 

 strong for rapprochement to be thought of between even the scientific 

 men of the opposing nations. In fact, I believe it was not until 1923 

 when English, French, Belgian, Italian, and American workers in ento- 

 mology first met in international conference with German. Austrian, 

 Hungarian and other nationalists of recently established countries 

 formerly under the dominion of the Central Powers. This meeting 

 occurred at Wageningen, Holland, and brought together both applied 

 entomologists and phytopathologists, and the object of the conference 



