4222 Entomological Society. 



observations thereon may appear unimportant, or out of place ; but I 

 still trust to your indulgence, and, as every fresh actor is found to give 

 some new reading to a part, however variously it has been played be- 

 fore, so it is probable that each successive President may be struck 

 by some point or other which his predecessors had either designedly 

 or unintentionally overlooked. You will, I am sure, bear with me 

 while I briefly allude to one or two subjects w T hich have particularly 

 attracted my attention. 



The first of these is the peculiarly, although not exclusively, British 

 character of our proceedings. Our science is truly cosmopolitan : 

 but it is the honour and glory of a naturalist to make himself tho- 

 roughly acquainted with the productions of his own country. How 

 immutably true, and how profoundly patriotic, is the Linnean axiom, 

 " Turpe est in patria vivere et patriam ignorare." Let us begin at 

 home : let us make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the Natural 

 History of Great Britain : and, that end achieved, we may enlarge the 

 circle of inquiry by degrees. Let us not grasp too much at the outset. 

 The same observation applies generally as well as geographically ; 

 by restricting our research to a class, an order, or a family, we are 

 enabled to give it more intense attention. What an intimate know- 

 ledge have Zeller, Stainton, our worthy Secretary, and others thus 

 acquired of the Micro-Lepidoptera ; Mr. Dawson of the British 

 Geodephaga ; Mr. Doubleday and Mr. Edwin Shepherd of British 

 Lepidoptera ; Mr. Walton of British Curculionidae ; Schonherr of 

 Curculionidae generally ; Chevrolat of Cerambycidae ; Pictet of Phry- 

 ganidae ; Gravenhorst of Ichneumonidae ; Mr. Smith of Aculeate 

 Hymenoptera, and especially of our British bees ; Meigen and 

 Walker of Diptera ! I might cite fifty examples equally striking, and 

 all equally establishing the fact that the more restricted the range of 

 inquiry, the more certain, precise, and durable will be its results. The 

 debilitating effect of desultory study is obvious to every psychologist. 

 It is with mind as with matter, the more extensive the surface it 

 covers the more attenuated will be the covering. Study, in order to 

 be productive of useful results, must be concentrated and systema- 

 tised : it then shines brightly forth on the path of the future student. 



The communications which have struck me as possessing the most 

 absorbing interest are such as relate to insects which exert an 

 important influence over man, whether for his benefit or injury : such, 

 for instance, as that by Mr Hanbury, on the wax insects of China ; 

 that by Mr. Oswell, on the cattle fly of Africa ; and that by 

 Captain Cox, on Scolytus : in these instances man is brought into 



