34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 415 



affect our future existence. There is uot room for two 

 national organizations having the same objects in view, and 

 meeting at the same time and place, goes, I think, without 

 saying; and if the committee of the general association is to 

 be any thing more than a committee in the proper sense of 

 the word, or if it is to assume with or without formal con- 

 stitution the functions of our own association, then our own 

 must necessarily be crippled, and, to do aay good at all, 

 must meet at a diiTerent time and a different place. A com- 

 mittee or section, or whatever it may be called, of the gen- 

 eral association with which we meet, would preclude active 

 membership of any but those who come within the constitu- 

 tion of that body. Our Canadian friends and many others 

 who have identified themselves with applied entomology, 

 . and do not belong to any of our State or government institu- 

 tions, would be debarred from active representation, however 

 liberal the association may have been in inviting such to 

 participate, without power to vote, in its deliberations. Our 

 own association has, or should have, no such limitations. 

 Some of us who are entitled to membership in both bodies 

 may feel indifferent as to the course finally decided upon, 

 and that it will not make any difference whether we have an 

 outside and independent organization, as that of the Associa- 

 tion of Official Chemists, or whether we do, as did the 

 botanists and horticulturists, waive independence in favor of 

 more direct connection with the general association, provid- 

 ing there is some way whereby the committees of the general 

 association are given sufficient latitude and time to properly 

 present their papers and deliberate; but there are others who 

 feel more sensitive as to their action, and are more immedi- 

 ately influenced by the feelings of the main body. I hope, 

 that, whatever action be taken at this meeting, the general 

 good and the promotion of economic entomology will be kept 

 in mind, and that no sectional or personal feeling will be 

 allowed to influence our deliberations. 



Suggestion an4 Comment. 



You will, I know, pardon me if, before concluding these 

 remarks, I venture to make a few comments which, though 

 not altogether agreeable, are made in all sincerity, and in 

 the hope of doing good. The question as to how far purely 

 technical and especially descriptive and monographic work 

 should be done by the different stations or by the national 

 department is one which I have already alluded to, and upon 

 which we shall probably hold differing opinions, and which 

 will be settled according to the views of the authorities at 

 the different stations. Individually I have ever felt that one 

 ostensibly engaged in applied entomology, and paid by the 

 State or National government to the end that he may benefit 

 the agricultural community, can be true to his trust only by 

 largely overcoming the pleasure of purely entomological 

 work having no practical bearing, I would therefore draw 

 the line at descriptive work, except where it is incidental to 

 the economic work and for the purpose of giving accuracy 

 to the popular and economic statements. This would make 

 our work essentially biological; for all biologic investigation 

 would be justified, not only because the life-habits of any 

 insect, once ascertained, throw light on those of species 

 which are closely related to it, but because we can never 

 know when a species, at present harmless, may subsequently 

 prove harmful, and have to be classed among the species in- 

 jurious to agriculture. 



On the question of credit to their original sources of re- 

 sults already on record, it is hardly necessary for me to ad- 

 vise, because good sense and the consensus of opinion will 



in the end justify or condemn a writer, according as he 

 prove just and conscientious in this regard. 



There is one principle that should guide every careful 

 writer ; viz., that in any publications whatever, where facts 

 or opinions are put forth, it should always be made clear as 

 to which are based upon the author's personal experience, 

 and which are compiled or stated upon the authority of 

 others. We should have no patience with a very common 

 tendency to set forth facts, even those relating to the most 

 common and best-known species, without the indications to 

 which I have referred. The tendency belittles our calling, 

 and is generally misleading and confusing, especially for 

 bibliographic work, and cannot be too strongly deprecated. 



On this point there will hardly beany difference of opinion; 

 but I will allude to another question of credit upon which 

 there prevails a good deal of loose opinion and custom. It 

 is the habit of using illustrations of other authors without 

 any indication of their original source. This is an equally 

 vicious custom, and one to be condemned, though I know 

 that some have fallen into the habit without appreciation of 

 its evil effect. It is, in my judgment, almost as blame- 

 worthy as to use the language or the facts of another with- 

 out citing the authority. Every member of this association 

 vrho has due appreciation of the time and labor and special 

 knowledge required to produce a good and true illustration 

 of the transformations and chief characteristics of an insect 

 will appreciate this criticism. However pardonable in 

 fugitive newspaper articles in respect of cuts which, from 

 repeated use, have become common, or which have no in- 

 dividuality, the habit inevitably gives a certain spurious 

 character to more serious and official publications ; for as- 

 sumption of originality, whether intended or not, goes with 

 uncredited matter, whether of text or figure. Nor is mere 

 acknowledgment of loan or purchase, to the publisher, in- 

 stitution, or individual who may own the block or stone, 

 what I refer to, but that acknowledgment to the author of 

 the figure, or to the work in which it first appears, which 

 is part of conscientious writing, and often a valuable index 

 as to the reliability of the figure. 



It were supererogation to point out to a body of this kind 

 the value of the most careful and thorough work in con- 

 nection with life histories and habits, often involving, as it 

 does, much microscopic study of structure The otficers of 

 our institutions who control the funds, and more or less fully 

 our conduct, are apt to be somewhat impatient and inappre- 

 ciative of the time given to anatomic work ; and where it is 

 given for the purpose of describing species and of synopsizing 

 or monographing higher groups, without reference to agri- 

 culture, I am fli'mly of the belief that it diverts one from 

 economic work ; but where pursued for a definite economic 

 purpose it cannot be too careful or too thorough, and I 

 know of no instances better calculated to appeal to and 

 modify the views of those inclined to belittle such structural 

 study than Phylloxera and Icerya. On the careful com- 

 parison of the European and American specimens of Phyl- 

 loxera vastatrix, involving the most minute structures and 

 details, depended originally those important economic 

 questions which have resulted in legislation by many dif- 

 ferent nations, and the regeneration of the affected vine- 

 yards of Europe, of our own Pacific coast, and of other 

 parts of the world, by the use of American resistant stocks. 

 In the case of Icerya purchasi the possibilities of success in 

 checking it by its natural enemies hung at one time upon a 

 question of specific difference between it and the Icerya 

 sacchari of Signoret, — a question of minute structure, 



