Apeil 12, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



353 



nearly the original estimate of the experts 

 than the final estimate of the Congressional 

 committee. I have shown that our estimate 

 of the loss is based at about ten per cent, 

 of the possible production of our crops 

 taken as a whole. Who is in position to saj' 

 that it would not be twenty per cent.. were 

 it not for the general use of remedies al- 

 ready found and continually being im- 

 proved by the students of insects? — ^in 

 which case the saving would be more than 

 a billion of dollars a year to the United 

 States alone. And how many people can be 

 fed with a billion dollars a year, and what 

 work could they do ! 



This is perhaps the high spot in our 

 treatment of this subject. It must be re- 

 membered that the work which brings about 

 these results is done for the most part by 

 trained scientific men. To find a remedy 

 for an injurious insect presupposes a long 

 training followed by the closest observation. 

 It includes a broad knowledge of the struc- 

 ture, of the classification, of the life his- 

 tories, of the behaviors of the species in- 

 volved, of laboratory methods and tech- 

 nique, and that inspired insight which is a 

 part of the nature of the best men of sci- 

 ence. "Workers in pure science are inclined 

 to look down on workers in applied science, 

 but nowhere have the qualities of the re- 

 search man come into closer play than they 

 have in the investigations in economic ento- 

 mology along the line of crop enemies ; and 

 the same may be said of all of the other 

 work in applied zoology. 



We are accustomed to think of the in- 

 sect enemies of growing crops as those of 

 main importance, but after the crops are 

 harvested and food products are stored they 

 are attacked by a host of species. In the 

 present crisis the problem of preserving 

 food stuffs for considerable periods after 

 harvest from the attacks of insects has be- 

 come of the utmost importance. Long be- 



fore the Russian revolution a conference of 

 all of the entomologists of Russia was held 

 to consider this very question. During the 

 present month one of the most experienced 

 entomologists of England, Professor H. 

 Maxwell-Lefroy, passed through this coun- 

 try on his way out to Australia to look into 

 the condition of Australian wheat ready 

 for export to the United States, for the pur- 

 pose of preventing damage by weevils and 

 other insects injurious to stored grain. 

 Much depends on the success of this man. 

 Conditions are readily conceivable under 

 which this great store of grain, which 

 means so much to this country at the pres- 

 ent time, may be utterly destroyed — an al- 

 most catastrophic prospect — and any re- 

 duction in its amount will upset the close 

 calculations which concern themselves with 

 the vitally important grain trade of to-day. 

 The United States has sent milled grain in 

 great quantities to England. To avoid the 

 long sea haul, Australian grain will go to 

 the port of San Francisco and will be milled 

 in this countrj' to replace the supply al- 

 ready sent to the East. 



And then comes the enormous problem of 

 medical zoology, in which the entomologist 

 has a most important interest. Other as- 

 pects of this question will be treated by 

 another speaker, and it is true that most of 

 the important discoveries concerning the 

 carriage of disease by insects have been 

 made by medical men and not by entomolo- 

 gists. But even in these cases, the discovery 

 once made, the entomologist, with his 

 training in methods of investigating the 

 life history and habits of insects, plays the 

 important part in the investigation of every 

 point in the life history, habits and behav- 

 ior of the insect carrier and in the perfec- 

 tion of the methods for its destruction. I 

 have even gone so far as to state, what to 

 me seems a self-evident fact, that the pre- 

 vention of insect-borne diseases is a matter 



