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one of tlie station collections wrongly and without permission. This 

 can not possibly be tolerated, and I urge that this association take steps 

 to inquire into the matter. If the charge is untrue, it is even more 

 important to investigate it than in the reverse case, so as to remove an 

 unjust suspicion from one of our number, reflecting to the discredit of 

 all of us. 



We may now turn to the discussion of certain phases of our relations 

 to one another. What should be the relation between the beginner and 

 the old hand! What that between the collector and the systematic? 

 I think those who have advanced somewhat in the science do not, as a 

 rule, do enough to help on those behind them. They are, perhaps, some- 

 times afraid of being themselves outstripped ! The number of students 

 of any branch of entomology in this country is lamentably few in view 

 of the enormous field to be cultivated, and therefore no one can do a 

 greater service than to encourage new students. 



What sort of encouragement should be given? To name specimens 

 by the dozen is not, I begin to be convinced, the best way. Latterly I 

 have begun to write in thiswise: "You say you are going to study 

 Coccida?. Well, study Coccidre, and when you have done so, send me your 

 manuscripts and drawings, and some of the specimens, and we will dis- 

 cuss the subject together." Sometimes one hears no more of the corre- 

 spondent, but often he gets to work and something really valuable 

 results to himself and the science. The great artificial difficulty of the 

 beginner — that of not having or not knowing where to find the litera- 

 ture, and the natural and inevitable errors of inexperience — can be 

 mostly overcome for him by one more matured in the study; but the 

 observation and recording of the facts of nature should surely be left 

 to the beginner himself. 



I think teachers do a very grievous wrong when they allow their 

 students to incorporate their work with their own, and make it appear 

 as if they — the students— had done everything. It is promoting a par- 

 ticularly base kind of dishonesty, and the evil is the more insidious, 

 because the student rarely realizes what he is doing. It has been my 

 experience that beginners will rarely think to give credit for any help 

 they receive, and I have known men to innocently, and without thought 

 of evil, appropriate even a whole description of a new form, communi- 

 cated to them in manuscript, publishing it as their own! 



Now, as to collectors and specialists. The collector, at the present 

 day, is not properly encouraged, and rarely (there are a few brilliant 

 exceptions) is he helped to make the most of himself. Only to-day I 

 received a journal containing a great number of descriptions of new 

 Coleoptera, and in no single instance was the collector's name mentioned ! 

 This is by no means a rare occurrence. Field data, as I have often 

 found, are not asked for, and when received are often ignored or wrongly 

 quoted ! This is all utterly bad, and should be remedied at once. I 

 think this association might do worse than appoint a committee of two 



