8 
carry our illustration a little further. Suppose that an army is encamped 
on the bank of a river which it is necessary to bridge in order that the 
army may cross. The pioneer corps puts in its appearance and con- 
structs the bridge; but itis faulty, for the builders lack experience, and 
the result is a delay and possibly a failure. Again, the members of 
this corps disagree among themselves, one faction no sooner having 
constructed a portion than another faction tears it down and builds 
after its own ideas. In both of these cases has there not been almost 
as much harm as good done by those who should have given the neces- 
sary aid? Iam afraid that some of our pioneer corps of systematists 
are doing work that twenty-five years hence will afford them but little 
satisfaction. Some people are by nature peculiarly adapted to the 
work of the systematist. To them it is the most pleasing and fascina- 
ting labor in which they can engage; but they have no literature and 
have no access to the types of species already described, and for lack 
of these are unable to determine what has been done by those who 
have gone before them. Work done under such disadvantages must of 
necessity be crude and of questionable value to the morphologist or the 
biologist, and it would be far better, both for themselves and others, if 
those placed in such positions would turn their attention to other 
phases of the science. 
Science is facts classified, and the science of entomology is simply a 
collection of facts relating to insects; whether they are biological, mor- 
phological, or anatomical does not matter. The man or woman who 
goes into the field and accurately observes the habits of insects, and 
records such observations clearly and truthfully, has done just as much 
for science as the one who named and described the species. The sys- 
tematist draws up descriptions more or less intelligible, and adds names 
to our check lists of species, and probably flatters himself that he has 
added that many species to our described fauna; but the fact is, these 
names are only placed there on probation; they become a part of the 
science of entomology only when the species has been proven to be a 
valid one, and in nine times out of ten this is the work of the ento- 
mologist who studies life in animated objects and not the one who studies 
dried corpses. I will not say, with Dr. Tutt, that all species must be 
reared before their validity can be fully established, but I will go this 
far and say that their validity should be tried, either by this tribunal 
or by another—a thorough study of the sexual organs. I believe that 
in the latter we shall, some day, find the one great barrier that prohibits 
the interbreeding of species, and hence, in reality, makes distinct species 
possible. I think we are all convinced that there is such a thing as a 
species, and that it is the product of evolution. What a grand field 
this offers for the study of the evolution of a species up to the point 
where interbreeding is physiologically impossible! I have known ento- 
mologists, and, unfortunately, not all of them young or inexperienced, 
to construct a species from three or four legs, a wing, and perhaps a head, 
