TL 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XIII. No. 1. January 15th, 1901. 



Our Century Number. 



It has occurred to us that the end of the nineteenth century was 

 a very fit and proper time to give a brief review of the entomological 

 work that has been done during the past hundred years, and for this 

 purpose we have asked some of our leading working entomologists to 

 contribute a short article on what each considered the more important 

 factors of progress in his own particular line of study. To our 

 request we have had a generous response, and this number is the 

 result. 



In order to recognise the progress made in entomological science 

 during the century, it is necessary to consider what goes to the making 

 of entomological science, and even a superficial consideration will 

 show that the work comprised falls pretty clearly into the following 

 lines : (1) The alphabet work of describing and naming the material 

 with which one has to deal. (2) The study of the material with a 

 view to its proper genealogical arrangement. (3) The accumulation 

 of facts by experiment and observation. (4) The collection of 

 isolated facts into systematic order and the deduction of sound 

 generalisations relating to the phenomena of life from these facts. 

 The intelligent observer and the capable reasonor are undoubtedly the 

 two factors that make most for the advancement of science; the proper 

 arrangement and classification of the facts observed and the clear 

 setting forth of the conclusions reached, may then be added. 



There can be no doubt, whatever, that the progress of systematic 

 work will be the feature by which the nineteenth century will be 

 specially known to future generations of naturalists. In 1758 the 

 known number of lepidoptera in the world was 535, by the end of the 

 last century it had reached 2100, i.e., just about the number of species 

 now known to inhabit the British Islands ; at the present time the 

 number of described species of lepidoptera can be little short of 80,000, 

 and the work in other orders has been in this direction as hugely 

 progressive. This work is necessarily of the greatest importance, and 

 much more has still to be done in the same direction, yet one cannot 

 but feel that it has been largely mechanical, that, in fact, the work of 

 the century has been particularly dominated by what we may term the 

 Linnean entomology. We have had since Herold scarcely anyone 

 to compare with Reaumur, Bwammerdam, or !Sepp, particularly in 

 Britain, unless one can mention Newport, Spuler, Walter, Lowaie 

 and Miall with these old masters, and this, in spite of the parallel 



