54 JOLRXAI. OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



The first professor of entomologj' in an American universit}' was 

 Dr. H. A. Hagen, who held this position in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology of Harvard University. But, although the influence of 

 Doctor Hagen upon the few pupils who had the good fortune to study 

 with him was very great, his teaching of entomology was subordinate 

 to his researches in systematic entomology and his work as curator of 

 the great collections of insects of that museum. 



Although Doctor Hagen came to the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology in 1870, his first course of lectures was given in the summer 

 of 1873, and his class consisted of a single student, the ^^Titer of this 

 paper. That was a course of lectures never to be forgotten by the one 

 who heard it. It was a very hot summer, and Doctor Hagen suffered 

 ^\^th the heat. About nine o'clock each morning he would come into 

 the laboratory, say a cheery good morning, take off his coat and hang 

 it back of the door, take off his vest and put it with his coat, take a 

 seat by a small table, light a German pipe with a very long flexible 

 stem, place the bowl of the pipe on the floor behind him, take a few 

 puffs, and then say, "Come and I will you tell some dings what I 

 know." The student would then take a seat on the opposite side of 

 the table, and the professor, wdth sheets of paper before him, which 

 served the purpose of a blackboard, would take up the subject where 

 it had been dropped the previous morning. 



I take the space to narrate this personal experience because this 

 course of lectures had a profound influence in shaping the develop- 

 ment of my teaching of entomology. It was just at the beginning of 

 my experience as a teacher of this subject. Although still an under- 

 graduate, I had given one course of lectures in the institution with. 

 which I am connected, and the broadening influence of this master 

 came at a very opportune time. Thus early I gained a hint of the 

 scope of entomology, and was led to realize that the practical appli- 

 cations of this science should be based upon a broad and accurate 

 foundation of scientific knowledge. 



One, however, must not forget that nearly all of the chairs of Ento- 

 mology in this country owe their existence to the economic bearing of 

 this subject; it is almost only in agricultural colleges that we find pro- 

 fessorships of entomology; and they have been estabhshed in these 

 colleges because of the great importance to agriculture of insect pests. 



While, therefore, the teacher of entomology should teach the science 

 of entomology, he should not fail to make practical applications of 

 this science so far as possible. 



Let us turn now to the more specific problems that the teacher 

 of entomology must meet. In discussing these I will state the condi- 

 tions that exist in the institution with which I am connected, and will 



