12 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



the end is by no means in sight. The thorough work done by Mr. Kirkland 

 and Dr. Howard in connection with the introduction of parasites from 

 Europe are an object lesson to the whole scientific world. 



Dr. Howard, when speaking as president of the section of Economic 

 Zoology, at the great international Congress of Zoologists held at Boston in 

 August last, referred to this work in the New England States as being the 

 most extensive campaign in economic entomology that the world has ever 

 seen. He commended most highly the practical and efficient way in which 

 it had b-een conducted, justly giving credit to Mr. Kirkland for his great 

 executive ability and discretion in dealing successfully with a most difficult 

 problem. 



Another campaign calling for enormous sums of money and the greatest 

 scientific skill, on the part of those engaged in the warfare, was made 

 necessary by the spread of the Cotton Boll Weevil from Mexico into the 

 United States. The extent of the damage done by this insect can hardly be 

 believed by those who have not studied the matter; but in some seasons of 

 great abundance the loss in a single year has been estimated at twenty-five 

 millions of dollars, and it is said that the weevil is gradually spreading far- 

 ther through the Southern States every year. 



The Hessian Fly, the Wheat Midge, the Chinch Bug, and recently the 

 Grain Aphis have all been the cause of great losses to the countries where 

 they have occurred; but it is now generally recognized that, with these in- 

 sects, as with nearly all others, farmers, fruit growers and gardeners can 

 get from expert students of insect life useful information as to improved 

 agricultural methods and as to tested remedies, by which much of the loss 

 may be prevented. The publication of popular reports by provincial, state 

 and federal governments has familiarized many with the appearance of their 

 worst insect enemies; and the introduction of the so-called Nature Study 

 into schools has taught a large number of the fathers and mothers of school 

 boys and girls throughout the country, as well as the scholars themselves, 

 that it is worth the while of every one to know something about the comm n 

 insects which they see about them every day. 



Characters which among others render insects particularly useful in 

 Nature Study and in the higher exercises of animal biology, are, the large 

 numbers of common species which are always accessible; their convenient 

 size ; the ease with which many kinds can be kept alive and reared in con- 

 finement to almost any required number, so that their habits can be studied 

 under varying conditions; and the general similarity of a large number of 

 specimens of a given species, and yet, at the same time, the wide range of 

 certain features of variation within the limits of a single species. One of 

 the greatest drawbacks to the use of insects, particularly in a school where 

 there is no regular museum, is the perishable nature of specimens, if it 

 should be desirable to preserve them. This, however, takes them out of the 

 proper field of Nature Study, into natural history pure and simple, where 

 provision must be made for the preservation of specimens so that they may 

 be available whenever required for study and comparison. 



The remarkable discoveries which signalized the close of the last cen- 

 tury, as to the conveyance of many diseases through the medium of common 

 insects, e.g., malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, the bubonic plague and other 

 diseases of mankind, and also of Texas fever and other diseases of domestic 

 animals, have opened up another field of useful investigation which has in- 

 separably linked together entomology and medical science. 



During the past summer subsequent to our summer meeting, I had the 

 privilege of travelling through our Northwestern Provinces with Dr. Henry 



