12 Ai^riMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGEESS 



call to mind the important researches of my friend Mr. Durrant, 

 of the Natural History Museum, on the destruction of army 

 biscuits by the floui-moth, Ephestia huehniella, which have 

 proved of great service to the nation and which redound to 

 the credit of an institution the importance of which oiu: 

 present Government seems singularly incapable of appreciating, 

 but which I am sure will be estimated at its true value by my 

 colleague, Mr. Tate Regan, when he comes to speak to us on 

 museums and research. I would also remind you of the far- 

 reaching benefits conferred upon agriculttire by the study of 

 the life-histories and habits of innumerable destructive insects 

 which work havoc amongst our growing crops, such as the 

 much-dreaded potato-beetle, the turnip-fly and the codhn- 

 moth. The significance of these problems has long been 

 recognised in the appointment of Government entomologists 

 in all the civiUsed countries of the world. 



No less importance must be attached to the study of those 

 amongst the lower animals which earn their hvelihood as 

 parasites upon domesticated animals or upon man himself, 

 having carried the war into the enemy's country in a very 

 literal sense. These may be minor horrors, to use the apt 

 expression of Dr. Shipley, but the sum- total of the loss and 

 sufferiiig which they cause is incalculable. Fortunately, 

 although most of us regard such creatures as fleas, bugs, hoe 

 and tapeworms with a not unnatural loathing and contempt, 

 they have a deep intrinsic interest for the zoologist and offer 

 fascinating subjects for scientific investigation. The life- 

 history of even a tapeworm is a veritable romance in low life, 

 full of exciting adventures, cunning contrivances and hair- 

 breadth escapes, and although we may regard the tapeworm 

 as the villain of the piece we can hardly avoid extending a 

 certain amount of sympathy to him in his struggles with 

 adversity. But this is a part of our subject which I can 

 safely leave in the hands of Dr. Leiper and Professor Newstead, 

 who will speak with the authority of specialists on some of the 

 most interesting of human parasites. Suffice it to say here 

 that the science of medicine is every year more and more 



