SCOPE AND STATUS OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 15 



differ, as we have seen in the references to the authorship of the 

 Iliad and the Odyssey and to the location of ancient Troy. Show 

 me a man who by training or otherwise has acquired the habit of 

 thinking for himself, basing conclusions upon his own observation 

 as largely as possible, and I will show you an effective man in any 

 of the relations in which men are placed. Show me a man whose 

 observational and reflective faculties have been blunted by a pro- 

 longed course of study of authorities as they appear in books, and 

 the chances are that you will show me at the same time a man of 

 vacillating judgment, unable to deal effectively with everyday 

 a ff airs. 



The study of entomology teaches the inductive method of thinking 

 which has made this century notable. The material for use in its 

 study is readily and cheaply obtained in large quantity. No other 

 branch of biology is so completely available for purposes of instruc- 

 tion except botany, and I hold that it should have a place beside 

 botany in every science school. As a corrective to the undue leaning 

 upon authority inculcated by purely literary studies, it should have 

 a good effect on students taking language courses. 



THE TEACHING OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



But entomology must be well and thoroughly taught. And herein 

 lies the greatest difficulty in getting for it the recognition which is its 

 due as an agent for education. Our boards of trustees often select 

 teachers upon the assumption that anyone can teach any subject, with 

 a little preliminary coaching, or else go to the opposite extreme and 

 demand a man of exceptional special learning, forgetting that teach- 

 ers, like poets, are most often born, and if not born, must be made by 

 careful training. No man is fit to teach entomology or any other 

 subject who has no knowledge of modern educational methods and no 

 good conception of the principles and purposes which underlie them 

 as a means of training the mind to its greatest effectiveness. One 

 may be a learned entomologist and be utterly unfit to teach. But the 

 teacher must at least know his subject so well that he can take his 

 pupils straight to nature. This is vital. The man or woman who is 

 dependent on a text-book has no business occupying a position as a 

 teacher of entomology. 



We have not enough well-equipped teachers of entomology in our 

 agricultural colleges at present. Nothing is so much needed to pave 

 the way for the experiment-station worker. Until a larger propor- 

 tion of our farmers have had a taste of the scientific method in the 

 course of their education a great deal of value being done for them 

 will not be grasped and made of use. And let me say again, in 

 leaving this subject, that the training in entomology must be 



