1914 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 37 



PEESIDENTIAL ADDEESS. 

 Rev. Prof. C. J. S. Bethune, O.A.C, Guelph. 



For nearly a year now I have been unable to write, and for a longer period 

 unable to read without considerable difiSculty; you can, therefore, understand that 

 it' has been quite impossible for me to prepare a fonnal address to present on this 

 occasion. It has been suggested to me that it might interest those who are here 

 to-day to tell you something about the formation of the Society, and also of the 

 conditions under which we, who were young at that time, had to work, so different 

 from those of the present day. 



To tell you about these things involves speaking about myself, and I may be 

 considered somewhat egotistical, but that is natural if one speaks of one's self. When 

 I was a student at Trinity College, Toronto, a good while ago, I became very much 

 interested in entomology. There were classes at the college in Elementary Physics, 

 called then " Experimental Philosophy," in Chemistry and Geology, but there were 

 no lectures in Biology. At that time meetings of the Canadian Institute were held 

 on Saturday evenings through the winter months. I was enabled to join as a 

 junior member and used to attend these meetings, which concluded with coffee and 

 biscuits in a sociable way, and thus the members got to know each other. Though 

 only a young man, I formed acquaintance with the professors at the Toronto 

 University, with which Trinity College had nothing to do in those days. Dr. Croft, 

 professor of Chemistry, and Prof. Hincks of Botany, were two with whom I be- 

 came most intimate. 



I was given access to the University Library, and found a good many old works 

 on entomology. One day Prof. Croft said, " You ought to know young Saunders of 

 London; he is a chemist but is much devoted to entomology, you should make his 

 acquaintance." So I wrote to "young" Saunders, and that was the beginning of 

 a friendship which has now lasted for over half a century. We began writing fre- 

 quently, and subsequently visited each other, which led on to the formation of this 

 Society. At that time he was a very slight and delicate young man, one would 

 hardly think he could live for any length of time, and one could not imagine then 

 that he would develop into the broad shouldered man he afterwards became. I 

 think his improvement in strength was largely due to doing entomological work 

 and spending all the time he possibly could out of doors. In those days he was a 

 druggist and chemist, kept a drug store in London, and lived in rooms above, 

 having a laboratory in the rear. Dr. Saunders was one of the most remarkable men 

 1 ever met through his capability for doing good work in so many different direc- 

 tions. He was an excellent botanist, and one of our foremost men in economic 

 entomology. He was greatly interested in growing fruit, and knew all about the 

 different varieties, having a fruit-farm on the outskirts of the city and being at 

 times President of the Ontario Fruit- Growers' Association. He was also well known 

 amongst pharmaceutical people, and was President of the American Society of that 

 name. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science; one of the original Fellows of the Poyal Society of Canada; Director of 

 the Huron and Erie Savings Society, and interested in other business organiza- 

 tions. On Sundays he had a class of about seventy young children whom he used 

 to instruct in a delightful manner. Finally, possessing all these accomplishments 

 and attainments, he was chosen as Director of the Experimental Farms of the 



