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the Geometrides, and I should like to say here what I said some years 
ago to the members of the “North London Natural History Society,” 
that I think specialists are a necessity of the age and we cannot have 
too many of them. Professors of “ Things in General ” like the 
immortal Teufelsdrockh at Weissnichtwo, are all very well in their way, 
but they do not, in my humble opinion, reach the highest ideal. If 
we allow ourselves to flounder about among mere generalities, in the 
present advanced state of the science of Natural History, we shall 
indeed find ourselves in a condition of “ know-not-where,” and shall 
achieve little or nothing worthy of achievement. I forget the original 
source of the oft-repeated quotation which describes the ideal which we 
should set before us, but it states my views so perfectly and in such a 
neat epigrammatic form, that I feel constrained to re-quote it ; shall 
we not aim, then, to “ know something of everything, and everything 
of something ? ” 
As soon as anyone becomes known as a specialist, whether in a 
particular family or a particular line of research, he should not find it 
necessary to make many appeals for help, rather should the help 
gravitate towards him as he requires it. It may not always be easy 
for a keen collector to part with some interesting “catch” for the 
benefit of someone to whom it would be of more real use; but to judge 
from my own personal experience, already in part alluded to, it can be 
done, and I can honestly say that in my own endeavours to act upon 
this principle I have found more delight than I should have found in 
gloating over a rare aberration, of the meaning of which (through lack 
of parallel material) I am unable to form any adequate conception. I 
treasure to this day a kindly letter of appreciation which I received 
from a well known entomologist to whom I had the privilege of handing 
over a new aberration of a Scoyaria, which he informed me was 
correlated with known aberrations of some other species of the genus. 
Surely material ought, as far as possible, to be placed where it will be 
of the most use, whether in the private collection of a specialist, or in 
a public collection which needs such material, and I am very glad to 
know that the at fust svjht unreasonable request of our Museum 
authorities for types of new species which we may work out there is 
gradually coming to commend itself to our judgment, and to meet with 
our approbation. 
One word more in relation to the desirability of supporting current 
lines of research will be appropriate in an address wherein I have 
attempted a few allusions to the present year’s work. Last May, Mr. 
W. Bateson, F.R.S., on behalf of the Evolution Committee of the 
Royal Society, published an appeal for particulars as to the past and 
present condition in different districts of certain specified lepidoptera 
which are well known to possess a melanic tendency, in order that 
material might be brought together for an exhaustive enquiry into the 
question of progressive melanism. I have several schedule forms which 
I shall be only too pleased to distribute, and I shall be glad if our 
Society is found co-operating in this interesting inquiry ; London 
collectors have a good chance of doing so, for the list of species which 
are first to be placed under observation includes several which are 
known to exhibit the melanic tendency at times round London, e.y., 
Pachys betularia, Synopsia abruptana, Triaena psi, Erannis maryinaria 
(llybernia proycmmana ), &c. 
