( xciii ) 
he will one day emerge into an oflBcial position which he has 
not yet held, but which he, if any one, is fully competent to 
fill. 
Entomology and Evolution. 
In my former Presidential Address I took as a subject 
a matter of special morphological interest. On the present 
occasion I propose to ask your attention to a topic of 
somewhat wider scope. It is not often that the opportunity 
arises of dealing in a general way with the methods and 
objects of entomological science. Such treatment is rightly 
considered to lie outside the proper range of our Transactions, 
nor would it be more in place in the record of our less formal 
discussions, or in the midst of those discussions themselves. 
But a Presidential Address affords a legitimate occasion for 
such generalities. It is possible there, without impertinence 
or irrelevance, to give expression to personal views of a larger 
application than to any one department of our subject, or to 
any particular example of the advancement of entomological 
knowledge. I wish, then, to devote a little time to a brief 
consideration of some of the matters with which we entomo¬ 
logists are brought into contact, in their bearing on biological 
science in general; and incidentally to notice the relation 
which obtains, or should obtain, between different sides of 
entomological study. 
With the recent Darwin celebrations still so fresh in our 
recollection, it is scarcely necessary to remind ourselves that 
most biological pursuits derive their main interest and im¬ 
portance from the light they are able to throw on the process 
of organic evolution. This is perhaps especially the case with 
entomology. The intrinsic interest of the study is great, and 
has been so felt by many lovers of nature in days before 
Darwin. But it needed the Darwinian touch to transfoi’m 
the dry bones of description and classification into a living 
and breathing organism. Under the stimulating influence of 
the theory of selection, all the scattered items of entomological 
knowledge were found to have their proper place and signi¬ 
ficance in relation to the whole structure, and every addition 
to our store of entomological fact was welcomed as marking a 
