18 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



dation in other branches of knowledge." The last speaker requires 

 his students to take work in zoology, botany, Latin, German, and 

 French, not merely for their utility but also because of their cultural 

 and broadening value. Thus we have in the foregoing brief quotations 

 a forceful summary of the opinions of our older and more experienced 

 teachers on this fundamental question. But let us consider this ques- 

 tion in the light of recent developments. 



Within the last two decades, apphed entomology has shown such a 

 marked and rapid trend in a certain direction that it demands our 

 attention and careful consideration in connection with the theme of 

 this discussion. I refer to its conspicuous tendency to come closer 

 and closer to the vital activities of human beings. As a result of this 

 trend, the economic entomologist suddenly finds himself drifting 

 more and more into intimate relations with humanity. One has but 

 to recall the fly and mosciuito campaigns in many locahties of our 

 country; the work of Gorgas and his assistants in making the Panama 

 Canal a possibility; the work of the physicians. Reed, and his associates 

 on the field of Quemados and the entomological significance of that 

 work; and the campaign against fleas in San Francisco to check the 

 bubonic plague, to realize the force of the foregoing statement. More- 

 over, the work of the Horticultural Commission of California, prac- 

 tically an entomological quarantine board, in the seaports and counties 

 of that state; the functions, rights and responsibilities of the Federal 

 Horticultural Board; and the several state entomological quarantine 

 regulations, all show how intimately the economic entomologist is 

 dealing with the very life and economic forces of the people. 



I have been profoundly impressed, while watching the westward 

 march of the cotton boll-weeval, with the effect a single insect may 

 exert on the economic life of a people. This insect has changed the 

 agricultural thinking of the South and will ultimately bring about a 

 marked change in the agricultural practice of the people in the infested 

 territory. Affecting as it does the most important crop grown in 

 the United States by virtue of its peculiar economic position, because 

 cotton serves virtually as a means of exchange, and because it, beyond 

 any other exported product in the United States, serves to settle our 

 debts abroad, the weevil could not fail to affect vitally the economic 

 welfare of the people; and any entomologist dealing with it becomes, 

 by virtue of his profession, intimately associated with the welfare and 

 very existence of his constituents. 



I have also been keenly sensible of the influence of the malarial 

 mosquitoes on the energy, efficiencj' , and accomplishment of a people. 

 And the men now engaged in studying this problem will find them- 

 selves ingratiated into the lives of the people about them and will add 

 to the prestige of our profession among the people of this country. 



