SCOPE AND STATUS OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. ' 13 



The languages of such men as Oken, H. and Fritz Midler, Sprengel, 

 Heer, Leydig, Weismann, Koch, Schioedte, Ratzeburg, MetschnikofF, 

 Schiner, and Latzel, and of Reaumur, Morren, Lyonet, Lamarck, 

 Cuvier, Viallanes, Signoret, and Pasteur contain more than half of 

 what is new in the science of the times. And what information can 

 the biologist extract from Greek or Latin? Excepting the writings 

 of Aristotle, there is nothing in either language worth a month's 

 study to acquire. They are most excellent training for the memoriz- 

 ing faculty. This must not be denied. But so is German, French, 

 and entomology. " But," some of our friends have argued, " the 

 study of ancient languages furnishes a culture that is not supplied 

 by nature studies." I have known some excellent Hellenists whose 

 culture was obscured by a disposition to tell vulgar stories, and I am 

 told by others that they have observed this trait in Greek scholars. 

 Perhaps we should expect nothing else from the study of the great 

 epics whose scenes revolve about a Trojan dandy w T ho ran away with 

 another man's wife, and the incredibly bloody exploits of the mythical 

 Greek hero Achilles. 



I must beg leave to differ, also, as to the accuracy of the thinking 

 developed by this sort of study. In a Greek history used as a text- 

 book in a high school known to me, and in which no provision is 

 made for the study of modern languages, the " Homeric question " is 

 stated, and after remarking that there are differences between the 

 Iliad and the Odyssey which suggest a different author for each, and 

 that some authorities believe both to be collections of lays written by 

 a number of bards, the author concludes: "It certainly seems more 

 reasonable to believe in one Homer than in many," which to an en- 

 tomologist seems a very lame and indefinite conclusion. The very 

 location of ancient Troy is unknown. Even Schliemann's admirable 

 investigations leave the matter unsettled. Of the remains of the nine 

 cities unearthed by him on the Hissarlik Hill in Asia Minor, he be- 

 lieved the second to be the Troy of the Iliad, but Dorpfeld, his col- 

 league, asserts that the sixth city is Troy. Perhaps neither is right. 

 Looking over the evidence, a naturalist is satisfied of only one thing, 

 namely, that this series of cities, one above another, provides a very 

 good confirmation of the views held b}^ archreologists, from facts 

 learned in other Avays, as to the stages in the progress of mankind 

 toward civilization. 



It may seem that I am going too far outside my theme in thus call- 

 ing attention to the uncertainty in the facts and vagueness in con- 

 clusions drawn from Greek history, but the difficulty urged by those 

 who have public schools in charge when they are asked to make room 

 for biological or other related instruction is lack of time in the 

 course. At the same time, it may be, instruction in Latin and in 

 Greek history is given. I know one such case. Undoubtedly too 



