344 Fiftieth Eeport on the State Museum 



tains a Professorship in Entomology, with courses of lectures, laboratory 

 work and Museum. Lectures in course upon it are given at Harvard 

 University, the State College of Maine, the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, the Michigan State Agricultural College, Purdue University 

 at Lafayette, Ind., the Illinois Industrial University, the Iowa Agri- 

 cultural College, the Kansas State Agricultural College, and the 

 Leland Stanford Jr., University in California. In each of these State 

 Institutions particular attention is paid to the economic aspect of the 

 science. 



The above, with the exception of some academic instruction in other 

 States is the sum, so far as known to me, of what is being done in our 

 institutions of learning in this department of Natural Science. 



The reason for its almost entire neglect in our schools, is, undoubtedly 

 the want of text books adapted to the young student. It might have 

 rivaled Botany in popularity could its collections be named with the 

 facility of plants. But for this we may never hope. The volumes that 

 would be required for the simple identification by means of three- or four- 

 lined diagnoses ol the known United States species of insects, would be, 

 at least, twenty of the size of Gray's School and Field Book of Botany — 

 a series which would certainly prove inconvenient for general class use. 

 A reference catalogue alone of the Diptera (flies) of North America, forms a 

 volume three-fourths the size of the one above named; and a catalogue of 

 the known Insects of the small State of New Jersey, giving name and oc- 

 casionally brief annotations of locality and distribution, fills 486 pages 

 octavo. 



We should not wait for the desired text-books, such as will enable us 

 to name our collections, for there is much else to learn of insects besides 

 their names, as, for example, their structure, habits, transformations, and 

 economic value. With " Packard's Guide to the Study of Insects" and 

 " Comstocks Manual for the Study of Insects," in the possession of the 

 student for reference, and with the insects before him upon his table, the 

 teacher, having qualified himself for the work, may, in a series of lectures 

 give to his class a better foundation for future study than could be 

 acquired from books alone. 



I lately had the privilege of attending one of the Lowell Institute 

 Free Course ot Lectures on Zoology, at Boston, given to the teachers of 

 the Public Schools. Each of the about three hundred teachers in attend- 

 ance had upon his or her table a box containing a half-dozen represen- 

 tative species in the order of Neuroptera, and a vessel of water in which 

 were some macerated specimens with which to study structure. The 

 lecture was further illustrated by diagrams and charts upon the wall. I 

 was delighted with the lecture, and with the promise that it gave of the 



