16 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
you are giving, however pleasing it will be to him as a recognition of 
his work, is in reality insignificant. 
What a fine life he has led! And how fine will be the coming 
years! And what an enviable career when at last it shall have 
finished. 
The chairman then said: 
In giving our friend and teacher the evidence of our esteem and loyalty, we 
have selected as our spokesman a man of the wide vision which enables him to 
speak for all of us, whatever may have become our special life work. 
PRESENTATION OF THE MEMORIAL TO PROFESSOR 
COMSTOCK 
By James G. Needham 
I have the honor to represent one of the largest bodies of pupils 
that ever made a common cause of its desire to honor a great teacher. 
Those who have come under the personal instruction of Professor 
Comstock number more than five thousand. These have been for 
the greater part students in the general courses of university instruc¬ 
tion, but a considerable proportion of them have studied entomology 
with him; and of those who have done advanced work in entomology, 
more than fifty have become government entomologists or professors 
of entomology and zoology. They have carried the results of his 
labors to the ends of the earth. There is hardly a land where entomol¬ 
ogy is known that does not number some of his pupils among its men 
of science. 
So it was inevitable that a movement should spring up to take 
special cognizance of the conclusion of so notable a teaching career. 
I must begin by confessing that this undertaking was clandestinely 
begun. We kept our plans carefully until they were well beyond 
recall. It was the only way. We knew better than to ask Professor 
Comstock to sanction any proceedings in his own honor. We went 
ahead with them because we couldn’t help it. The impulse sprang 
up independently in several different quarters, and we came to feel 
that if in the end Professor Comstock didn’t like it, he had himself to 
blame for it. If he didn’t want something of the sort to happen at 
his retirement, he should have done differently during those 41 years. 
We did endeavor to mollify the offence. We selected as a memorial 
the thing which it seemed to us would be the most serviceable to 
