SOCIETIES. 63 



age of the Palfearctic insects existing in our midst. This fact helps to 

 explain why the insularity of British entomologists has never been so 

 fatal to tlieir scientific aims as would have been expected, and at the 

 same time, why a thorough studj^ of the British fauna has often formed 

 an admirable education for those who have afterwards made their names 

 as entomologists or naturalists of tlie world. 



This variety of geological conditions has combined with the isolation 

 of the Britisli Isles as a wliole and the still gi-eater isolation of some of the 

 smaller islands, to give us a fauna unequalled, probably, in its range of 

 variati(.)n, l)y that of any other part of the Pala^arctic area. The com- 

 bination of two strong influences — that produced by natural selection 

 acting on differences of environment (geological), and that produced by 

 isolation — has resulted in the variation of many species which in other 

 parts of the Pahearctic area are but little subject to change. These 

 varietal differences were but little noted until a few years ago ; but the 

 writings of Darwin have largely changed this, and our learned biolo- 

 gists of to-day have gathered from a study of the variation of insects 

 the facts on which have been founded some of the most important 

 theories that have ever yet been formulated by the human mind. 

 Wallace, Weismann, Poulton and others are essentially entomologists 

 and biologists combined, and we all know how large a place entomology 

 takes in their work. The ease with which insects may be obtained, and 

 the rapidity with which generation succeeds generation, make them 

 particularly suitable subjects for experiment, and this is sufficient in 

 itself to explain why there is such a strong tendency to rest the proof 

 of the theories advanced on the facts connected with our favourite study. 

 But this phase of our subject leads me again to point out what a gap 

 there is between those people who collect for the mere sake of collect- 

 ing, and those who study what they collect. The latter, if I may so 

 put it, have passed from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to 

 light. Can anyone tell the vast gulf that has been bridged here, or 

 how greatly the enjoyment of life has been increased ? Can anyone de- 

 fine the exquisite change of feeling with which an entomologist regards 

 an insect once the barrier has been passed ? 



I have before pointed out the value of collections, and therefore the 

 6o}uZ^/irfe position of collectors. I have shown how necessarily limited 

 is the range of the collector compared with the whole field of natural 

 science. I have suggested that a collector may be a mere cumberer of 

 the ground, but have also indicated how, under favourable conditions, 

 he ma}^ take a humble place among the scientific workers of his age, 

 and aid in unravelling some of the many tangles and puzzles, the many 

 mysteries of Nature which everywhere surround us. 



This leads me at once to the value of entomology as a subject of 

 study. There are people who thiiik that the only value of a thing is 

 the money that it will fetch, utterly forgetful that money itself is only 

 of use in so far as it adds to happiness. The value of the study of a 

 scientific subject cannot be gauged in this way. An old pliilosopher 

 once said, " Whatever it has been worth God's while to create, it must 

 be worth man's while to study." The mental pleasure which the 

 subject gives must be the rule by which its value is measured. The 

 constant and continuous pleasure afforded by entomology, the industry 

 required in separating the wheat from the chaff in the more philoso- 

 phical branches of the subject, can be pointed out as bringing about a 



