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He who studies attentively any common plant or animal may form a 

 conception, often an imperfect one, of the widely extending lines and cross 

 lines of inter-relationships with other plants and animals. The work of 

 science is to classify and describe these inter-relations, and in this line much 

 progress has been made since Darwin's day. The economic entomologist and 

 botanist, who are specially interested in the control of injurious insects 

 and plants, must keep constantly in view this idea of relationships in Nature 

 if they would deal successfully with the problems confronting them. 



At the recent meeting of the American Association of Economic Ento- 

 mologists at Philadelphia many prominent leaders emphasized the necessity 

 for a more thorough biological study of all injurious forms. In other words, 

 more attention should be given to oecologic or bionomic relations; that is, 

 to the study of the Web of Life. 



A knowledge of inter-relations, even in departments not usually con- 

 sidered in close alliance, is often essential in unravelling the intricate pattern 

 of life's web. 



"All fields are but perfectly fitted portions of a cosmic whole, and that, 

 as the botanist and the astronomer in particular must come to know — 



"Thou canst not stir a flower 

 Without troubling a star." 



"Over a ploughed field in the summer morning we see the spider-webs 

 in thousands, glistening with dew-drops, and this is an emblem of the in- 

 tricacy of the threads in the web of life — to be seen more and more as our 

 eyes grow clear. Or, is not the face of Nature like the surface of a gentle 

 stream, where hundreds of dimpling circles touch and influence one another 

 in an intricate complexity of action and reaction beyond the ken of the 

 wisest ? ' ' — (Thomson) . 



To Prof. J. Arthur Thomson of Aberdeen I am much indebted for many 

 fine illustrations of the Web of Life. "The Study of Animal Life," "Dar- 

 winism and Human Life, " and "The Wonder of Life" are books which will 

 hold the interest of every student of Nature. No clearer exposition of those 

 phases of life which fall under the general titles of Struggle for Existence 

 and the Web of Life can be found anywhere else in the English language. 



