14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 
There are two morals to be drawn from this story. In the first 
place, observations of this sort can be made by any one of you. They 
are full of interest and a knowledge of the behaviour of insects under 
various conditions helps us to realize their ways better, and a realiza- 
tion of habits may often form the foundation of a successful means of 
control in cases when they are doing damage. In the second place, 
you should try to remember that Biology is not an exact Science like 
Mathematics. When you are dealing with living animals or plants you 
cannot always employ general rules, because the individuals may tend 
to modify their actions under different conditions. In dealing with 
insects it comes to this, that every different species requires separate 
study. 
This brings us to the subject of text-books. There is rather a ten- 
dency in India, I am afraid, to demand on every subject a text-book 
which is looked on as the be-all and end-all of knowledge on each subject. 
Anything not in the text-book is incorrect or need not be considered, 
and what the text-book says must be true. That may be all very well 
in the case of exact Sciences, but it is distinctly not the case in inexact 
Sciences such as Biology. In the case of a subject such as Entomology 
which deals with an almost unrealizable number of separate organisms 
differing widely amongst themselves in structure and habits, it 1s abso- 
lutely impossible for any general text-book to meet all the facts of the 
case. Our knowledge is continually expanding and progressing year by 
year, and statements made to-day may be challenged. to-morrow. But 
accurate observations will always endure and be useful. I want to 
impress upon you, therefore, the necessity for checking for yourselves, 
so far as you can, any previous statements or observations, whether 
your own or anybody else’s. Try always to make your information 
more complete. As I have already told you, all our information on - 
Indian Insects is at present sadly incomplete. In the preface to South 
Indian Insects I particularly said that it was not to be looked on as a 
text-book because I realized, as I stated, that it was incomplete. All 
our records are incomplete and we must largely rely on you, Provincial 
workers, to make them more complete than they are at present. At 
present we cannot even attempt to prepare a list of Crop-pests which 
will be final and not subject to numerous additions and alterations 
within a very short period of time. 
Whilst on the subject of exact observations of Indian Insects, I 
should like to say a few words about the publication of short notes of 
this kmd. If you make new observations on insects you should take 
some steps to make them available to other workers. With this object 
in view I have initiated a system of publication of such Short Notes 
