ON BIOLOGY 13 



gaining even a modicum of knowledge of a subject so 

 vast, and argues the necessity of simply knowing the 

 principal genera and the leading or characteristic species 

 in each genus. He adds: "Although we would greatly re- 

 strict the limits of the study, there are persons who will 

 think them still too wide; there are even some who con- 

 sider all knowledge of this part of natural history as use- 

 less, and who unhesitatingly pronounce it a frivolous 

 amusement. We are equally willing that these pursuits 

 should be regarded as amusements, that is, as studies 

 which, so far from being troublesome, afford pleasure to 

 the person who- engages in them. They do more, they 

 necessarily raise the mind to admire the Author of so 

 many wonders. Ought we to be ashamed of ranking 

 among our occupations observation and researches, of 

 which ihe object is an acquaintance with the works on 

 which the Supreme Being has displayed a boundless wis- 

 dom, and varied to such a degree? Natural history is 

 the history of his works; nor is there any demonstration 

 of his existence more intelligible to all men than that 

 which it furnishes." 



It is nearly a century and a half ago since Reaumur 

 published these views, and we can well imagine what his 

 surprise would be were it possible for him to stand in our 

 midst to-day. Not only have the botanists since his time 

 added many, many thousands of new species of plants to 

 the lists, but the entomologists have simply increased to 

 an enormous extent our knowledge of the insect world. 

 We have in the neighborhood of one million species 

 described, and propose to describe every new form that 

 comes to hand. Nor is this all, for the structure of these 

 minute creatures is being exhaustively studied in all direc- 

 tions by many minds and many microscopes; their habits 

 are being closely observed and recorded; their sex varia- 

 tions and metamorphoses determined; the insect parasites 

 upon insects and uoon other animals are receiving con- 

 tinuously the same kind of study. Out of all this work is 

 growing an enormous literature, but more than that the 

 government in this country has taken the matter wisely 

 in hand, and an annual appropriation supports a staff of 

 eminent workers who constitute our Bureau of Economic 

 Entomology, and I am quite confident that even Reau- 

 mur, were his eyes opened, would not consider their 

 labors in the light of a "frivolous amusement," and we 

 are well aware that the highly valuable investigations of 

 the staff of workers, to whom reference has been made, is 

 having the excellent and practical result of being of the 



