182 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
mean serious effort and a minute attention to detail. But they will 
help to make the entomologist a useful servant of the public and a worthy 
representative of his science. And after all, to be a worthy scientist 
and at the same time a helpful servant is one of the durable satisfactions 
of life. 
COURSES FOR THE POST-GRADUATE STUDENT OF 
ENTOMOLOGY 
By E. D. Ball 
Abstract 
The ideal training for the future entomologist would be a broad and comprehensive 
undergraduate course with special emphasis on the fundamental sciences, followed 
by a year of specialized training in research, two or three years of assistantship under 
an inspiring leader, preferably a different one from that under which the graduate 
work was taken, and then enrollment in some other standard graduate institution 
for contact with another group of inspiring men, and the completion of his doctorate. 
The most important single factor in this program is the contact with the inspirational 
leader. The value of contact with such leadership is not limited to the educational 
period but is of continuing value throughout life. 
The primary consideration of all training is to give the student the 
best possible equipment for his life work, and in this respect there is no 
measurable difference between undergraduate and graduate training. 
The difference lies rather in the objective sought. 
In a broad generalization the under-graduate course could be called 
educational; the graduate work technical, but the fundamental difference 
is deeper than that and becoming increasingly important with the growth 
of the science. 
The first fundamental of graduate training is breadth of knowledge 
and vision. The entomological field is becoming so broad and complex 
in its inter-relations with other sciences that it is impossible for a student 
to properly equip himself for satisfactory work in any phase within the 
confines of an undergraduate course. 
The relationship of insects to human disease requires a knowledge 
of the broader aspects of the fields of preventative medicine, and sani¬ 
tation. Their relationship to a large number of animal diseases broadens 
the field still further, while the rapidly developing relationship to plant 
diseases brings into greater prominence broader factors in plant phys¬ 
iology, pathology, and nutrition. 
A broad knowledge of bacteriology, infection, and immunity is essen¬ 
tial to any serious study of the control of insect-borne diseases on the 
