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The Entomological Society of America 
Volume XIV Sa PE NMBER, h92)1 Number 3 
SOME LITTLE EMPHASIZED GUIDE-POSTS TO 
MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY.* 
WILLIAM A. RILEY. 
To address the members of the Entomological Society of 
America on the subject of the history of medical entomology 
may seem a needless presumption. ‘Immediately when the 
topic is mentioned there occurs the thought that medical ento- 
mology is a branch of our favorite study too young to have 
a history. 
The discoveries of the relations of insects to disease which 
have revolutionized the attempts to control some of the most 
devastating diseases of man and animals have been made 
within the memory of even the younger in this audience. So 
spectacular have they been in some instances, and so far-reaching 
in their application that they have been featured by the pop- 
ular mayazines and by the daily press. Today it is common 
knowledge that many diseases, whose origin and spread were 
shrouded in mystery a few short years ago are insect borne. 
It is often said that these discoveries have all been made 
within the past twenty-five years. And yet, the worker in 
science knows that no new discovery—no pregnant theory— 
originates suddenly. There is no more a spontaneous generation 
of important scientific theories, uninfluenced by pre-existing 
knowledge and thought than there is spontaneous generation of 
the higher forms of life. 
*Annual address before the Entomological Society of America, Chicago, II1., 
December, 1920. 
159 
