152 ANNUAL MEETING PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



was ready for the press ; and I imagine that, with the hearty co-operation 

 of all the members of the Societies of this Union, sufficient first-rate 

 material could in time be collected to make it a certainty tbat any 

 publisher would be glad of the chance of such a work. 



With regard to the plan for presenting prizes for competition for 

 scientific essays and such like, I am sure that it is a step in the rigbt 

 direction, and it is certainly following the example of old-established 

 Societies, which have found such a method to produce excellent 

 results. I see that the Royal Society has this year offered an open prize 

 for the best essay on the Pea Weevil, its life-history, and the best method 

 of preventing its ravages. That affords a very good example of the use of 

 such competitions, for it cannot fail to elicit all the best information to be 

 obtained on this subject, and it turns the attention of entomologists 

 in an eminently practical direction. 



I feel that, being more especially a student of Entomology, it will not 

 be out of place if I make a few remarks on that science. I regret to have 

 observed that amateur entomologists are too apt to take what I may 

 characterise as a rather superficial line of study, and this in either one 

 of the two following directions. In the first place, one finds that 

 their attention is too much confined to the mere occurrence of 

 species in a particular district, and, in the second place, many 

 are apt to be led away by the fascinations of collecting, thus 

 seeming to lose sight of the truth, viz., that one new fact con- 

 cerning the economy of some well-known insect, whether that insect be 

 reckoned among our friends or foes, is of far more importance than the 

 discovery and record of the rarest and least known species in any 

 particular locality. Of course it is a very great triumph to secure a 

 specimen of some rare moth or butterfly, but it cannot be so useful or 

 such a triumph as to discover the best means of finding and destroying 

 the eggs and larva? of some common garden pest. 



Finally, I would suggest that it is time for tbe Societies forming this 

 Union to endeavour to enlarge their useful sphere of action in a direction 

 which, I hope, I may be allowed to call a liberal one. I mean to say 

 that, having all the advantages of culture that we have, we should 

 endeavour to share them as much as possible with those who have neither 

 the means nor opportunity of themselves taking up the study of the natural 

 sciences. We should not, I think, confine the knowledge we have acquired 

 only to those who are in our own class of life, and it would be, I think, a 

 glorious thing to undertake a crusade against the ignorance of the poorer 

 classes of even the simplest facts in natural history and other sciences. 

 I think it would be a step in the right direction if the eminent scientific 

 gentlemen amongst us were, in their different districts, to consent to give 

 a course of free lectures ; and if the whole society brought its influence 

 to bear in every possible way to advance the teaching of the sciences in 

 our schools. 



Amongst other sciences, I think perhaps that, with the ever-extending 

 franchise of this country, it would be well if political economy 

 were not so much neglected, and after reading, writing, and arithmetic, 

 instruction in the true principles of political economy ought to come first, 



