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he will one day emerge into an official 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 transform 

 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 



