April, '09] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 99 



outfit in the laboratory, and we can use it or not. and we don't have 

 several hundred dollars laying idle in special apparatus, which is, 

 perhaps, used only three or four days in the year. 



Chairman Britton : If there is no further discussion, we will 

 proceed with the next paper on the program, by Mr. F. M. Webster. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER METHOD IN ENTOMO- 

 LOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



By F. M. Webster, Washington, D. C. 



It is not my purpose to lay down a series of rules and regulations 

 governing details in the work of any one; therefore the use of the 

 word ''method" instead of ''teclmique." As a matter of fact, vari- 

 ety in insect life, and the conditions under which these must be stud- 

 ied, is so great that, beyond general principles, each investigator 

 is forced to accept situations as he finds them and to make the utmost 

 of his opportunities. 



The spirit that prompted this paper came from the fact that the 

 older entomologists of the country have, almost all of them, passed 

 away, and those of us who, a quarter of a century ago, were young 

 men are now also passing away, and a decade hence w^e shall nearly 

 or quite all of us have practically given place to the younger men who 

 now constitute by far the majority of the membership of this asso- 

 ciation. I thought that it might be possible for me to tell you of 

 some of the things learned during nearly forty years' study of in- 

 sects and insect problems, beginning at a time when entomologists 

 were few, with no such training as is offered today available, and with 

 precious few publications dealing with insect binomics. Strenuous 

 days those, but in later years I have come to look back upon them 

 with greater leniency and indeed feel thankful for them. Unfor- 

 tunate indeed is the man who is denied the opportunity to show what 

 his abilities really are, something that even he may not himself have 

 learned. 



With all of us who have the management of men there comes a 

 time when an emergency arises and some one must be detailed to a 

 most difficult piece of investigation, where only the most resourceful, 

 persevering and trustworthy are to be employed, and lucky is the man 

 who gets the opportunity. Now if I were to be asked to indicate some 

 of the most essential qualifications for such a man I should say, first, 

 honesty, and, second, common sense. Without these all of the train- 

 ing and equipment in Christendom will avail nothing. Some of us 

 do not see as clearly or as broadly as others, it is true, which is of 



