HINTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. G11 
leagues to rejoice with you over the gems of truth which Nature 
bountifully bestows on you and on all who visit with pure heart 
and humble mind her exhaustless treasury. 
Believing, as I do, that the few days thus spent in closer com- 
munion, by those who are in sympathy in their main intellectual 
pursuits, should be devoted rather to mutual instruction and 
comparison of general views derived from our studies, than to 
the reading of essays on special or descriptive subjects, which 
sooner or later will appear in suitable places in scientific journals, 
‘I have thought it not inappropriate to give briefly some ideas 
suggested by a long course of investigation both in the field and 
in the museum, regarding the requisites for a more rapid advance 
of American entomology, and a more speedy development of the 
practical benefits which the science promises. 
Before endeavoring, so to speak, to forecast the future, or to in- 
dicate those paths of research from which the most useful results 
may be expected, it would be well to glance at the past history 
of our science; so that by rapidly reviewing the steps by which 
progress has been made, we may be better prepared to estimate 
the comparative value of the agencies by which our present po- 
sition has been attained. 
The beginning of the American school of entomology may be 
considered as made in 1817 by Thomas Say, in those days the 
most generally instructed zoologist in the United States. Though 
his contributions to the literature of other departments of natu- 
ral history were quite copious, yet entomology seems to have 
been his favorite science, and on his studies of the various orders 
of insects his scientific reputation must mainly rest. 
At that time the text-books in entomology were mainly Fa- 
bricius, Herbst and Latreille, and the efforts of American nat- 
uralists in every branch were confined to adopting, without 
independent criticism, the classifications and generic determina- 
tions of their European correspondents. Biology did not exist 
either in name or in idea. Careful observations of a few noxious 
species by Prof. Peck and Dr. T. W. Harris were the slight foun- 
dation upon which the whole structure of economic entomology 
was to be erected. 
It will be readily seen then, that the entomologists of that 
early period were essentially species men, namers and describers 
of the unknown objects with which they were surrounded :— a 
