THE PEESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Ixiii 



properly applied when the powers of the mind have been 

 brought to bear upon the Insect world, or some particular 

 division of it, and something more is known of this part of 

 God's glorious Creation than the colour and shape of different 

 individuals, and the localities in which they may be found. 

 Not that an Entomologist is, of necessity, one who publishes 

 descriptions of new genera and species. But what is essential, 

 and what alone can give one a right to the title, is actual 

 study, careful observation, and accurate examination of the 

 insects within his reach, and an exact comparison of them with 

 each other so as to discover the particulars in which they are 

 alike and in which they differ. 



Our Society will hare come short of one of its highest objects, 

 if the number of such students does not increase. To form, to 

 assist, and to encourage them is perhaps the most important 

 work which we have before us. Collections and published 

 descriptions have no doubt a value of their own ; but one, at 

 least, of the greatest benefits which they can confer, may be 

 justly regarded as derived from this, — that they are means 

 whereby the number of Entomological students may be 

 increased, as well as encouraged and assisted. 



There are some who are deterred from entering upon this 

 course of study, by an idea of its vastness, and, in particular, 

 of the number of the works required. Let me say a word or 

 two with reference to each of these obstacles. 



If the vastness of the study be felt to be such, — if the 

 almost infinite variety of species in the insect world is felt to be 

 an obstacle (though this to many is a chief attraction) — the 

 student may well, and, properly speaking, ought, to take up 

 some one branch and master it before he proceeds. For a 

 commencement he should take up a single family, carefully 

 examine each species as he adds it to his collection, compare it 

 with others already examined, and either by sketches, or in 

 manuscript, or in some other way, record his observations. 

 Thus he would at once lay the foundation of a just claim to 

 the name of an Entomologist. And if Linnets rule, nulla dies 



