ANNALS 



OF 



The Entomological Society of America 



Volume X MARCH, 19 17 Number 1 



FOSSIL INSECTS.* 



By T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



In these serious days, it seems just a little grotesque that I 

 should cross half a continent to address you on a subject so 

 remote from the current of human life as fossil insects. The 

 limitations of our society do indeed forbid such topics as the 

 causes of the war or the evil effects of intercollegiate athletics; 

 but I might have chosen to discuss lice or mosquitoes — any of 

 those insects whose activities have before now decided the fate 

 of nations. My excuse for avoiding these more lively topics only 

 aggravates the offense, for it is the fact that I have never given 

 them adequate attention, but have in the past ten years occupied 

 myself with matters having for the most part no obvious 

 economic application. 



There is, however, another point of view. Many years 

 ago I had the good fortune to meet the eminent ornithologist, 

 Elliott Coues, at Santa Fe. We spent a considerable part of 

 the night discussing a variety of subjects, from spiritualism to 

 rattlesnakes, and when we parted he made a remark which 

 those who knew him will recognize as characteristic. He said, 

 "Cockerell, I really believe that if it had not been for science, 

 you would have been a dangerous crank!" Surely experience 

 and history alike confirm the essential sagacity of the observa- 

 tion, as applied not merely to your lecturer, but to mankind in 

 general. How often has our poor human race exhibited the 

 qualities of a dangerous crank, owing to the lack of those 

 which devotion to science may stimulate! Has it not been so 



* Annual Address before the Entomological Society of America, delivered at 

 New York, December 28th, 1916. 





