Cn) 
Outside the number of our own Fellows, we miss four well- 
known names from the ranks of British entomologists :— 
Witiiam Duppa Crorcu, M.A., F.L.S., a keen student of the 
Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hemiptera; Epwarp Roperr 
Date, son of the eminent J. C. Dale, and himself an eager 
entomologist in his younger days; THz Very Rey. Canon 
Bernarp Smitu of Great Marlow, an enthusiastic collector and 
breeder of the British Lepidoptera ; Samurt James WILKINSON, 
author of the celebrated “British Tortrices,’’ published in 
1859. 
We sympathise deeply with our brethren on the continent 
in their grief for the eminent men who have passed away in 
1903 :—Jonannes Faust, the eminent authority upon the 
Curculionidx, whose collection contained over 13,000 species, 
of which more than 2000 were described by himself ; Pro- 
FESSOR AvuGustus RapciirreE Grote, A.M., the celebrated 
student of the Lepidoptera. 
“WHAT IS A SPECIES?” 
The late Professor Max Miiller, in an eloquent speech 
delivered at Reading in 1891, spoke of the necessity of 
examining, and, as time passes by, re-examining the meaning 
of words. He referred as an illustration to the man at the 
railway station who taps the wheels with his hammer, test- 
ing whether each still rings true or has undergone some 
change that may mean disaster. In almost the same way, 
the speaker maintained, a word may slowly and unobtrusively 
change its meaning, becoming, unless critically tested to 
ascertain whether it still 1ings true, a danger instead of an 
aid to clear thinking, a pitfall on the field of controversy. 
He then went on to say, that Darwin had written a great 
work upon the Origin of Species, and had never once explained 
what he meant by the word Species. So decided an utterance 
—the statement was made emphatically—ought to have in- 
volved a careful and critical search through the pages of 
the work that was attacked. However this may be, it is 
quite certain that the search was unsuccessful; and yet a 
few minutes’ investigation brought me to a passage in which 
the meaning attached by the author to the term Species is set 
PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., v. 1903. G 
