NATIONAL WORK AT BRITISH MUSEUM BATHER. 625 



II. MUSEUMS AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



We offer no violence and spread no nets for the judgments of men, 

 but lead them on to things themselves, and their relations ; that they 

 may view their own stores, what they have to reason about, and what 

 they may acid or procure for the common good. — Bacon. 



Eight or nine years ago the sugar canes in a part of Mauritius were 

 found to be suffering from the attacks of a beetle larva which ate 

 their roots. The Government entomologist was called in aid and 

 provisionally determined the beetle as a species of Schizonycha, a 

 Lamellicorn genus characteristic of Africa and said to be represented 

 by two species in the Madagascan region. The only remedies that 

 suggested themselves were to dig up the root stumps and destroy 

 the larvae and to catch the beetles on the shrubs to which they flew 

 for their food at night. In this way the pest was to some extent 

 kept under, but the method of attack was lengthy and involved the 

 employment of much labour. Although more than twenty-seven 

 million insects were thus accounted for in less than half a year, the 

 natural rate of multiplication is so great that the area affected rap- 

 idly increased, and there was serious risk of ruin to the whole sugar 

 industry of Mauritius. 



Meanwhile the entomologist of the island had taken the prudent 

 step of sending specimens to the British Museum for more accurate 

 determination. Beneath the scrutiny of the specialist in Coleoptera 

 the beetle proved to belong not to the Old World Schizonycha but 

 to the American genus Phytalus. Of the actual species, however, 

 no description or record could be found. Search through the vast 

 collections of the entomological department eventually brought to 

 light three specimens labeled "Trinidad." This was evidence that 

 the species occurred in the West Indies, though unnoticed by the 

 entomologists of those islands. The latter fact indicated that it 

 could not be causing so much damage to the sugar canes in its native 

 home. Therefore the next step was to track it down so as to dis- 

 cover its natural conditions of life and, above all, what served to 

 keep it in check. A skilled entomologist who was visiting the West 

 Indies was entrusted with specimens from Mauritius and eventually 

 found both beetle and larva at the roots of cane stumps in Barbados. 

 How, then, is it that the sugar crop of Barbados has not suffered 

 from the attack of this larva to a noticeable extent? This depends 

 on two natural enemies. One of these is the so-called " blackbird " 

 {Quiscalus) , which follows the workmen when rooting up the cane 

 stumps and eats the larvae. It cannot, however, reach the larvae 

 underground. The other enemy, though less conspicuous, is more 

 successful. Attached to one of the larvae brought back from Bar- 



