ON SPECIALIZING 33 



now profess a thorough knowledge of more 

 than part of the subject, and that often a 

 comparatively limited section. A humorous, 

 yet truthful, statement of this fact occurs in 

 The Poet at the Breakfast Table. The poet 

 was seated next a man whose profession or 

 occupation he was unable to guess. A chance 

 remark showed that he was interested in 

 insects, and the poet asked whether he was an 

 entomologist. The answer was emphatic and 

 unexpected, 'Not quite so ambitious as that, 

 sir. I should like to put my eyes on the 

 individual entitled to that name ! A society 

 may call itself an Entomological Society, but 

 the man who arrogates such a broad title as 

 that to himself, in the present state of science, 

 is a pretender, a dilettante, an impostor ! ' 

 Asked what was his proper title, he replied that 

 he was sometimes called a ' coleopterist,' but 

 ' scarabeeist ' was the description he claimed. 

 His life's work was confined to the genus 

 Scarabaeus, and he was content to let his 

 reputation rest upon his labours in that single 

 division of the beetles. There are many men 

 to-day, whose field of study is even more 

 limited than this. 



