34 THE EEPOET OF THE No. 36 



up the meetings with great interest. No one has so far been found to take his place, 

 and accordingly the operations of the branch have been suspended. 



A similar fate, we regret to say, has befallen the branch of the Society in 

 British Columbia. Mr. E. V. Harvey, Headmaster of the University School at 

 Victoria, has found his time so much occupied that he has been unable to give any 

 attention to the work of the branch. Its operations have on this account been sus- 

 pended for the time being, but it is hoped and expected that before very long its 

 operations will be resumed. The great difficulty consists in the geographical distri- 

 bution of the members, who are very widely separated from one another and conse- 

 quently are unable to hold meetings. 



The Council has to deplore the loss of Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy, of Honolulu, who 

 died in San Francisco on the 2nd of February last. He was a very able and energetic 

 entomologist and contributed frequently to the pages of our magazine. He especially 

 devoted himself to the Hemiptera, and had begun a catalogue of the species through- 

 out the world, the first volume of which has just been issued. 



Eespectf ully submitted, 



Tennyson D. Jarvis, President. 



FIEST INTEENATIONAL CONGEESS OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

 Henry H. Lyman^ Montreal^ Quebec. 



If anyone entertained any doubts of the possibility of making a Congress de- 

 voted exclusively to Entomology a success, such doubts must have been dispelled 

 by the results of the First International Congress of Entomology held at Brussels 

 from August 1st to 6th, 1910. 



A correspondent of the London Times writing of the Congress said: "Ento- 

 mology is at last recognized officially as an important science. The study of 

 insects, so long looked upon with disdain as a pastime for children and old men, 

 has at last vindicated its claim as a valuable branch of human mental activity. 

 That is to say, from being a purely intellectual exercise, entomology has developed 

 a most important practical aspect that will, in the near future, have a profound 

 and far reaching effect upon the lives and fortunes of millions. The discovery 

 of the astonishing phenomenon that one species of mosquito, and one only, is the 

 vehicle for the transmission of yellow fever, another of malaria, while a single 

 kind of biting fly communicates sleeping sickness to the teeming millions of the 

 African continent, has a direct and vital influence upon tropical medicine; and 

 the Americans have long since realized that an accurate knowledge of the habits 

 of one kind of beetle may save agriculturists from damage that may result in 

 the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Thus entomology has won the 

 serious attention of practical men who, acting together with the purely academical 

 devotees of the pure science, have demonstrated their attachment to and ap- 

 preciation of their study by organizing an International Congress that has re- 

 ceived the hearty support of institutes, departments and governments." 



The following important bodies were represented at the Congress: the 

 British Colonial Office, the Tropical African Entomological Eesearch Com- 

 mittee. Cambridge University, Oxford University, the Board of Agriculture, 



