770 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 675 



entire world was described, and tlie condi- 

 tion at that time in tlie different European 

 countries, in the United States and Canada, 

 in South America, India, South Africa, 

 Australia, New Zealand and the then 

 Hawaiian Republic, was given. 



In the light of the progress of the last 

 thirteen years it is interesting to read that 

 address. At the time when it was written 

 it was rather a surprise to those who read 

 it, to see when all the facts were brought 

 together, what an important subject eco- 

 nomic entomology had grown to be, but 

 from even this short distance of time it is 

 safe to say that it was then in its infancy, 

 and perhaps it is even now in its infancy— 

 who can tell ? 



The closing words of the address were as 

 follows : 



We have then done good -work; we have accom- 

 plished results which have added greatly to the 

 productive wealth of the world; we have justified 

 our existence as a class (remember that the sub- 

 ject was "Official Economic Entomology"). We 

 are now better equipped for the prosecution of 

 our work than ever before, and it may confidently 

 be expected that the results of the closing years 

 of the century will firmly fix the importance of 

 economic entomology in the minds of all thinking 

 men of all countries. 



This prediction has been more than justi- 

 fied. Up to 1894, the great features in 

 this practical work had been the invasion 

 of Europe by the grape-vine Phylloxera 

 and the work done against this destructive 

 creature by American and European scien- 

 tific men; the work done by the different 

 countries against locust invasions, the work 

 done by the different states of the United 

 States, 'and by the general government, 

 against many species of injurious insects, 

 notably the cotton caterpillar, of the south, 

 and the very remarkable work carried on 

 by the state of Massachusetts, which had 

 then been in operation with increasing ap- 

 propriations from the state for four years 

 (at that time $325,000 had been spent), 



and in the address just cited it was called 

 "one of the most remarkable pieces of 

 work, judged by results, which has yet been 

 done in economic entomology." 



At that time the San Jose scale had just 

 been discovered in eastern United States. 

 It was known only in a few localities, and 

 the discovery that it had been disseminated 

 far and wide through nurseries had not yet 

 been made. The tremendous effect of the 

 spread of this most injurious species upon 

 the popular estimation of the value of 

 entomological knowledge can hardly be 

 overestimated. This spread alone is re- 

 sponsible, probably, for more legislation in 

 this country and in other countries, than 

 all the other features of entomology com- 

 bined—state after state on this side of the 

 water has passed rigid laws, and country 

 after country has issued decrees and 

 passed laws concerning commerce in 

 plants, all of them, nearly, of broad bear- 

 ing and great importance, but all of them 

 also incited by the dangerous habits of this 

 pest. The San Jose scale literature pub- 

 lished in these last thirteen years covers 

 hundreds of thousands of pages, and hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars have been 

 lost through its work, but through the 

 operation of state laws many entomologists 

 have been employed, and through their 

 work millions of dollars have been saved. 



Although in 1894 the discovery had al- 

 ready been made by Smith, Kilbome and 

 Salmon, that the Texas fever in cattle is 

 carried by a tick, and although Laveran 

 had already made the discovery that the 

 causative organism of malaria is a pro- 

 tozoan of like habits, inhabiting the red 

 blood corpuscles, the life history of this 

 protozoan had not been made out, and the 

 all-important discovery of Ross, that its 

 primary host is a mosquito, had not been 

 made. 



When we consider the now generally 

 recognized importance of insects as car- 



