46 THE EEPOET OF THE No. 36 



Mr. Day extended the conviction that Bombycia improvisa and B. fasciata, at 

 first thought to be varieties of one moth, are two distinct species. 



Mr. Wilson presented an interesting paper on the Distribution of Plant and 

 Insect Life. His paper, together with that of Dr. Hadwen, will appear in the 

 publication on the proceedings now in process of being printed. Copies of the 

 proceedings can be had on application to the Secretar}'^ (25c.) 



The following officers were elected : 



Hon. President, G. W. Taylor; President, T. Wilson; Vice-President, E. 0. 

 Day; Secretary, E. C. Treherne, 1105 Broadway W., Vancouver, B.C.; Advisory 

 Board, Messrs. Wilson, Day, Treherne, W. H. Lyne, E. S. Sherman, J. E. Anderson. 



Eespectfully submitted, 



E. C. Treherne, Secretary. 



EVENING SESSION— THUESDAY, NOV. 33rd, 1910. 



A public meeting was held at 8 o'clock, p.m., in the Massey Hall Auditorium, 

 which considering the inclemency of the weather was fairly well attended by 

 members of the Society, students of the College, and Macdonald Institute, and 

 visitors from the town. The chair was occupied by President Creelman, who 

 opened the meeting with a short address of welcome in his usual cordial manner. 

 Dr. William Eiley, who was to have been the speaker of the evening was unfor- 

 tunately prevented by illness from being present, but his place was ably filled 

 by Dr. Hewitt, whose interesting address on " Insect Scourges of Mankind " was 

 illustrated by many excellent lantern slides. 



INSECT SCOUEGES OF MANKIND. 



[An Abstract from the popular lecture by C. Gordon Hewitt, DSc, Dominion 



Entomologist, Ottawa.] 



Most of us are accustomed to consider insects in their relation to man, as 

 affecting his crops, forests and other natural products. The last few years, how- 

 ever, have witnessed a most remarkable development in the study of insects as 

 affecting man himself. Few people realize that it was not the hostility of native 

 tribes nor the impassable nature of tropical forests that prevented the opening up 

 of Africa to the white man, but the presence of a few species of insects, which 

 we now know to be the carriers of the causative organisms of certain diseases 

 fatal to the white intruder. The presence of the disease-bearing mosquito played 

 a more important part in preventing the construction of the Panama Canal by 

 the French than the lack of financial support. It is safe to say that the discovery 

 of the important relationship of insects to man has been more responsible in 

 compelling people, especially statesmen, to entertain a true conception of the 

 importance and value of entomological knowledge than any other aspect of 

 economic entomolog}^ When we see in a country such as India over a million 

 people dying annually from Malaria, and in a portion of Uganda over one hundred 

 thousand natives killed in three years by the Sleeping Sickness, even indifferent 



