6 
or economic, is becoming more and more cosmopolitan, and will continue 
to do so in the future. 
I do not believe it is possible to study thoroughly the insect fauna 
of any country independently of the others, whether these others be 
closely adjoining or separated by the broadest of oceans. In other 
words, nothing but comparative entomology can be scientific. It is 
as if the world were to be enveloped in a close-fitting covering of the 
most finely wrought lace, and each one of us were to take up and attempt 
to untangle a single thread, each commencing his work at the exact 
point, geographically speaking, where he resides and following it out 
independent of his fellows. I venture to say that in time we should 
find that others, possibly several, were tugging away at the same thread, 
the one perfectly ignorant of what the other was accomplishing. I 
remember preparing, when a boy, a couple of tempting baits, connect- 
ing them by a fine thread and throwing them to young ducks. Each 
bait was sure to be seized and swallowed by a different individual, and 
then the tug of war began. In later years I have sometimes thought 
that I witnessed a similar phenomenon, except that the baits were dis- 
placed by species names more or less invalid, and the ducks by ento- 
mologists. The pages of our scientific publications are far too often 
marred by that which is unworthy the name of science; and our chil- 
dren will find recorded in many of them, controversies that will live on 
in our literature long after we have passed away, and that contain 
little to which they can turn with feeling of respect or veneration; for, 
in the light of another century, these controversies will have much the 
Same aspect as the struggle of the young ducks, or the much more 
lamentable appearance of two blind men, each engaged in attempting 
to pummel the other’s face. 
The bringing together of all of the economic entomologists of the 
world, though distantly separated and expressing their thoughts by the 
aid of many different languages, is one of the greatest strides toward 
placing ourselves on a working basis that has ever been attempted, and 
can but result in the most satisfactory and encouraging results. We 
shall come to know one another better, and in this way be better able 
to judge of our own importance and usefulness. We shall get broader 
instead of narrower, and learn to criticise each other kindly, even though 
severely—and this is really the highest compliment that we can possi- 
bly pay to the works of our fellows. But we have not yet quite reached 
this point to which we aspire, and this leads me to the question of our 
present standing both at home and abroad. 
We have for several years been saying many nice things of ourselves, 
and our English, French, and German friends have been saying some 
very encouraging and complimentary things about us, for which last we 
are correspondingly thankful. I believe we to-day stand at the head in 
the matter of applied entomology. I believe this, because other nations 
want our men and women to come to their countries and work out their 
entomological problems for them. They want our books and reports to 
