1899] ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 33 



that id being accumulated in regard to the science at the present time, but all that hag 

 come down to us through the pa&t. The results of a piece of entomological work, 

 carried oat at the present time, represent not only what the present author has himself 

 accomplished, but the best that has gone before, precisely as the four monster battleships, 

 two Russian and two American, now in course of construction in the Cramp shipyards at 

 Philadelphia, represent not only the triumphs of modern ship building, but the lessong 

 taught by the failures and successes of hundreds of years of ship building. As entomolo- 

 gists we are now working, not alone with our own light, but with our own plus that of 

 all that has been done before us, or so much thereof as has not been eliminated by the 

 sif tings of time as the dross is eliminated from the pure metal by the crucible. But for 

 the labors of those who have gone before us, crude though such may now appear, the 

 present status of the science could not now be possible. He that does his best in his 

 day and generation will have little to regret thereafter. 



Going back to the beginning of the present century, we find the science ef entomo- 

 logy but little more than in embryo ; even in England and Europe, it was still in a very 

 primitive state as compared to the present. Up to about 1775, all information relative 

 to American insects was only obtainable by collections being made in this country, and 

 sent over to England, France or Germany, for determination and description. Thus it 

 came about that original descriptions of many of our species of insects, especially the 

 more common ones, are to be found in foreign publications, and the types of these species 

 are scattered through the collections and museums of England and Europe. In fact, 

 during the latter half of the last century and the beginning of the present, this was the only 

 course possible to pursue, as there were no collections or libraries, in this country, and the 

 educational institutions were exclusively classical in their nature. Even so late as 1815, 

 Harvard offered no direct instruction in natural history, except in the lectures of Prof, 

 Peck, and for these an extra fee was charged, while, when Thomas Say went to the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Science, in 1812, he found a company of men had founded it with 

 a view to anything but the advancement of science, and the collections consisted of some 

 half dozen specimens of common insects, a few madrepores and shells, a dried toad and a 

 stuffed monkey. But the facilities for securing entomological material from this country, 

 by foreign entomologists, must have been exceedingly slow and unsatisfactory. A few 

 specimens brought home by a returning traveller, or secured through the hands of cap- 

 tains of ships or from army officers, were probably the channels through which the major 

 portion of the material was obtained. Even the American post was slow and expensive, 

 and it was often necessary for entomologists to wait for months until some friend happened 

 to be going in the right direction, and could be prevailed upon to carry letter and speci- 

 mens to a fellow worker, The correspondence of all of the early workers in entomology 

 indicates very clearly, how much they were hampered by these deficient methods of com- 

 munication. Even so late as 1831, Dr. T. W. Harris wrote as follows, in some remarks 

 appended to his catalogue of the insects of Massachusetts : " Should any young sons of 

 New England have the inclination to turn their attention to this interesting branch of 

 natural history they must for want of neceessary books on the subject remain in ignorance of 

 the labors of their European contemporaries ; and although they may have discovered 

 many carious and valuable facts respecting our insects, they must resign to foreigners 

 the honor of making known the objects of their investigations." 



In view of the foregoing, then, it is not surprising that the close of the last century 

 should have found so little accomplished in entomological research in America, and that 

 except for an occasional fragmentary paper published in some local journal, or at best in 

 the transactions of some semi- scientific body, there had been but two contributions to the 

 knowledge of American insects and one of these was published in England, being entitled 

 to consideration here because of its relating wholly to American insects. The first of 

 these was entitled " Natural History of the Slug-worm," a pamphlet printed in Boston in 

 1790 and written by Professor Peck, and for which the author was awarded a premium 

 of $50.00 and a gold medal by the Massachusetts Agricultural Society. The second was 

 published in England in 1797 and was entitled " The Natural History of the Rarer 

 Lepidopterous insects of Georgia," by r . Abbot and Sir J. E. Smith and comprised two 

 folio volumes with 105 colored plates. 

 3 EN. 



