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by Lord Crewe, when he was Secretary of Committee of Entomological Research. Lord Crewe to appoint this Committee. render some valuable public services.

State for the Colonies, to preside over the It was, I think, a happy inspiration of I hope and believe that it will be able to

I think it may possibly be of some general interest if I state briefly what the Committee has done since its creation.

The objects of the Committee are to stimulate an interest in the study and observation of insects in general, and of noxious insects in particular, throughout. our tropical Colonies, and thus gradually to organise a regular army of collectors and observers who will accumulate the information needed to enable us to cope with the numerous insect pests which cause disease and death amongst human Our two Travelling Ento- beings and animals, and which also devastate the crops. mologists have received instructions to traverse the whole of our Colonies and Pro- tectorates in tropical Africa, and wherever they can find any official or other resident who desires to interest himself in these matters they supply him with the necessary apparatus for the work, and give such practical instructions as may be required. A preliminary survey of this kind has already been made throughout. Northern and Southern Nigeria, Nyasaland, and a part of British East Africa. Our Entomologists report that they are more than satisfied with the results so far achieved. Considering the paucity of the white population, the number of men who have volunteered to assist in our work is highly creditable to the Colonies concerned. Considerable collections of insects likely to prove of great importance are now being regularly received at the office in the Natural History Museum which has kindly been placed at our disposal. Arrangements have been made with various Named specimens are then returned to the specialists to identify all this material. collectors for their future guidance, the remainder being distributed among the Tropical Schools of Medicine, Universities, Museums, &c.; in fact, wherever they are The full development of an likely to be of value for purposes of instruction. organisation of this kind must, of necessity, be slow, all the more so because the men who are doing the field work have, for the most part, had no previous training in entomology. Until recently this subject has not been taught seriously in any of our In view of the great importance of the subject. principal educational institutions.

it is satisfactory to know that this defect is now being rapidly remedied. But even so, there is a tendency to treat the subject merely as a side issue in a general course There do not appear even yet to be any adequate of agriculture or medicine. facilities of study for the men who would desire to obtain a sound general training in entomology as a whole. The Imperial College of Science and Technology have therefore inaugurated courses of lectures for the express purpose of meeting require- There can be no question that the innovation is sound and ments of this kind. valuable. It is to be hoped that the enterprise of those responsible for introducing it will receive the encouragement and support which it certainly deserves. fact that the work has been placed in the very capable hands of Mr. Maxwell Lefroy, Imperial Entomologist to the Government of India, who is about to address you, should ensure its success, for he has had great experience in the practical study of insect life, not only in India, but also in the West Indies.

The

It

There is another aspect of entomological instruction which is sadly in need of more attention in this country, though it is one which would perhaps hardly come within the scope of the College of Science. I allude to practical field training in the Our deficiency in this kind of methods of combating insect pests of all kinds. teaching is continually being brought home to the members of the Research Com- mittee when applications are received from Colonial Governments and other Institu- tions, asking us to recommend the names of experienced economic entomologists. is perhaps not generally realised how extremely few in number are the young men trained in this country to whom that description could be properly applied. these circumstances we have gladly accepted a very generous offer from Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who has kindly agreed for three years to defray the expenses incident on sending three or four young men, selected by the Committee, to the United States, in order that they may receive a thorough training in those practical methods of dealing with noxious insects which have been so successfully applied in that country.

In

It is to be hoped that the experiment may eventually lead to a more businesslike The first step appreciation of the value of economic entomology in this country. would be the establishment of experimental stations, where the value of such work could be practically demonstrated, and where men could get the requisite field

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training. Nor should there be any insuperable difficulty in gradually building up a system under which it would be possible for an agriculturist whose crops were suffering from some unknown or imperfectly known pest to send to the experimental station for the assistance of an expert. This expert might then undertake the work of exterminating or mitigating the pest, thus giving the farmer a practical training in the methods of coping with it. A reasonable fee would have to be charged for the service rendered. I fear, however, that such an institution could scarcely be expected, in the first instance at all events, to be entirely self-supporting.

With these preliminary observations, which I trust you will not consider out of place on the present occasion, I will now ask you to listen to Mr. Lefroy, with the confident assurance that what he has to say cannot fail to be of great interest.

9399

No. 77.

INAUGURAL LECTURE. (2nd March, 1911.) APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY.

By H. MAXWELL-LEFROY, M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., Special Lecturer on Entomology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, Imperial Entomologist for India (on leave).

This lecture is the first of a series dealing with general entomology, with special reference to the application of the science to agriculture, commerce, medicine, and sanitation. There is at present no one general course of lectures or training in entomology as a special subject given in England, and it is fitting that such a course should be initiated at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, whose Tunction is to provide the highest instruction in branches of science which have practical application.

Entomology used to be concerned with the study of insects solely from the biological and systematic sides; that is, entomologists were more concerned with studying the habits of insects and with classifying them than they were with checking and controlling them or with exploiting them as part of the world's commerce. Even now the value of the economic entomologist and the part he plays in daily life is very little appreciated in this country; there is in England no Government Entomologist, no entomological experiment station, and no organisation which does for the country. as a whole what economic entomologists do in India, in our Colonies, and in the United States. In order to make clear to you what function an entomologist serves,

I must refer mainly to the work they do in our Colonies and in India, and as I have for eleven years worked in the West Indies and India as Government Entomologist, I can more easily select my illustrations from the work which I have seen myself in those countries.

Applied entomology, which is a development of pure entomology, deals with insects which affect man; the greater number of insects affect man directly in no way at all; they have an indirect bearing on man, as they have their part to play in the economy of the earth; they scavenge and cleanse the earth; they pollinate flowers and make possible the fruiting of many plants; they populate all parts of the earth's surface, except the sea, and in numbers of kinds, as in actual abundance, they exceed all other forms of animal life visible to the naked eye. In these respects they are of interest but not of direct importance, and while the study of insects is a fascinating branch of natural history, there would not be any necessity to have economic entomo- logists if they did no more.

The study of the larger animals, of birds, of fishes, and of snakes, is intrinsically more interesting to the average zoologist and nature-student; their importance and influence on man are more obvious; and it is perhaps due largely to this that entomo- logy has come to be a specialised branch of science, till now confined more to the differentiation and classification of the immense number of forms than to other branches of study; it is thus less developed from the economic and technical aspect than are other branches of zoology or the sister sciences of botany, chemistry, and electricity. It is only lately that the significance of the insect world has become apparent; and it is mainly owing to the immense importance of tropical entomology that the study of insects from the economic aspect has received its greatest impetus. The opening up to agriculture of new tropical countries, the increasing competition