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repeated and purely empirical grouping of the data so obtained, 
he seeks to approach the desired goal The second 
way, on the other hand, leads from suggested conceptions 
regarding the nature of certain phenomena, through pure 
speculation to new information, the correctness of which 
must be determined by a subsequent research."* One other 
recent utterance by my colleague. Dr. W. M. Hicks, the 
President of Section A at the last Ipswich meeting of the 
British Association, will serve to give us a glimpse into the 
spirit of progress in pure physics : "By our imagination, 
experience, intuition, we form theories ; we deduce the 
consequences of these theories on phenomena which come 
within the range of our senses, and reject or modify and try 
again. It is a slow and laborious process. The wreckage 
of rejected theories is appalling ; but a knowledge of what 
actually goes on behind what we can see or feel is surely, if 
slowly, being attained. It is the rejected theories which have 
been the necessary steps towards formulating others nearer 
the truth."t 
And now let us consider how far these methods, recognized 
as valid in the physical sciences, are applicable to the biolo- 
gical sciences, of which entomology constitutes a branch. Of 
course, I am not claiming for our subject the position of an 
exact science, and to suppose that it could be advanced by 
purely deductive methods would be absurd. But I am 
endeavouring to hold the balance between a more liberal 
use of the speculative method, on the one hand, and the 
deadening influence of refusing to speculate at all, on the 
other hand. I am putting forward a plea for an increased 
use of the imagination, because I hold that the time has 
arrived when this may — nay, must be allowed, if our science, 
with its immense wealth of raw material, is to take that rank 
to which it is entitled among the departments of modern 
biology. If, as is undoubtedly the case, the speculative 
method has been found fruitful in other fields of natural 
* " Theoretical Cliemistry," by "Walter Nemst, translation by Professor 
Palmer, 1895, p. 2. 
t Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the British 
Association, Ipswich, 1895. 
