QL 31270™"""™""**'""'"'^ "e^ijement of Professor John Henry Comst 3 1924 001 562 804 Cornell University Library The original of this bool< is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924001562804 RETIREMENT OF PROFESSOR JOHN HENRY COMSTOCK By S. H. Gage Professor of Histology and Embryology, Emeritus; Cornell University A T THE close of the present college ^^ year Professor John Henry Corn- stock, head of the department of Entomology, will retire at the age of 65. It seems difficult for his colleagues and students to conceive of the depart- ment without Professor Comstock at its head, for he is its creator and has been its inspiration for over forty years. In 1869 he came to the university with keen interest in the study of insects, and with the expectation, from the university announcement, that he wotild find inspiring teachers, and those specializing in entomology. He fotmd the inspiring teachers, and the sympathy and encouragement he de- sired, but he himself became the specialist in entomology. It came about in this way : In 1 8 7 2 , thirteen students in natural history and agriculture petitioned the Univer- sity Faculty for a course of lectures in entomology to be given by J. H. Comstock. Among the thirteen are found the names of David Stan- Jordan, William R. Dudley and several others who have since won renown. Professor Wilder, the head of the department of zoology, in which department the course was to be given, strongly favored the petition, and the Faculty authorized the course. It was given — one lecture a week with field work dtiring the spring term of 1872. The plan of this course has never been departed from in all the splendid development of his department. There have been lectures for the general survey of the subject and the discus- sion of principles, but going with the lectures have been field and laboratory- work in which the student is brought in direct personal contact with nature herself, and can see the evidence with his own eyes, and leam to be an inde- pendent observer and thinker. Mr. Comstock did not stop with the opportunities and facilities available at Ithaca, but sought those found in the older institutions of our own and other lands. Very early in his career (1872) he spent the summer in study with the distinguished entomologist. Dr. Hermann Hagen, of the Agassiz Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Needless to say he won the respect and friendship of Dr. Hagen, and was given the freest use of the priceless collections in the museum. Later (1875) he studied at Yale University, and still later (1888- 1889) at the University of Leipzig. He has used every means in his power to prepare himself to make his depart- ment what it should be. In the words of one who knows him well, "He has never ceased to grow, and to make his department grow with him" ; and this seems to be as true to-day as it did two decades ago. 227 The Cornell Countryman 228 In 1876 he was made assistant pro- fessor and his duties were enlarged to include general invertebrate zoology. In 1882 he was elected to a fvill pro- fessorship, and in 1909 there came tinder his supervision as an out- growth of his department the subject of general biology and in 191 2 that of nature study. If we follow his eventful career since those first lectures in 1872 we find that he has given personal instruction to more than five thousand students. More than fifty of his advanced stu- dents have become state or national entomologists or professors of entomol- ogy or zoology in various colleges and experiment stations. Besides these, a very large number of teachers in nattiral history and investigators in all departments of science look back to his instruction with gratitude for the true and inspiring view of nature which he gave them. As stated above, David Starr Jordan was one of the petitioners for that first course which Mr. Comstock gave. Twenty years later when it fell to the lot of Dr. Jordan to establish and preside over a great university on the Pacific slope, he turned again to Professor Comstock to lay the founda- tion of a department of entomology for the Stanford University of the same character and ideals with which he had so richly endowed the one at Cornell. Professor Comstock entered upon this work with his accustomed enthusiasm and was non-resident pro- fessor in Stanford from its beginning in 1891 to 1900, spending his vacation term at Stanford. Judging by the strength and vigor of Stanford's en- tomological department his work par- took of the same productive spirit there as here. In his work in the larger world out- side the University, he never ttuned a deaf ear to the farmer and the horti- culturist when they appealed to him for help in their struggles with insect pests. When the opportunity came to him to serve the whole country as United States Entomologist (1879- 188 1), the broad views he had gained as a teacher and an investigator, and his extensive knowledge of the condi- tions and difficulties of the agricultural districts of the country, enabled him to inaugurate a far-sighted and com- prehensive policy for the development of the work of the United States through its department of entomology in furnishing information about in- jurious insects and giving aid in help- ing to suppress them. This program has been carried out and extended in a most efficient manner by one of his students, L. O. Howard, '77. Truning from the work he has done for the University and for the country to the still larger field where one's work is for the whole world, Professor Com- stock's bulletins and monographs upon various phases of insect structure and life, and his beautifully written and illus- trated books upon entomology, make an exhibit which is most honorable. Naturally, he became identified with our own national societies of science, and entered into the work done by them in zoology and especially in entomology and has been honored by the presidency of several of them. That he is also appreciated by his colleagues abroad is evidenced by the fact that he has been made a member of the Entomological Society of France, honorary member of the Entomological Society of Belgium, and honorary fellow of the Entomological Society of London. In 1912 he was made the representa- tive of Cornell University at the cele- bration of the 2Soth anniversary of the Royal Society of London. During this same year he was appointed by the Entomological Society of London to represent that society at the looth anniversary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. As a man and a citizen Professor Comstock has always enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his colleagues and of the commimity. No one is ever in doubt where he stands on all questions of plain honesty or high principle. No home has given a warmer hospi- tality and few if any have been so 229 The Cornell Countryman generous in that Jiospitality as his. Students from every comer of our own broad land, and from every conti- nent, when, they think of the Univer- sity always couple with those thoughts this home where the spirit of the home was exemplified and where human sympathy- and .friendliness were in the very atmosphere. When in 1872 he gave the first covurse of lectures, he was a student assistant, but the following year was made instructor by the imiversity trustees. For years afterward as in- structor and assistant professor he was alone in the department, giving all the lectures and personally directing all of the laboratory and field work. Room and facilities were meagre; but now after more than forty years when he retires from active work in the instruction, the department which he has created has a magnificent material equipment, and a staff of five profes- sors, five assistant professors, two instructors, sixteen assistants, one fellow, one librarian and one curator, (31 in all). Fortunately, while he is to lay aside the burdens of teaching and adminis- tration in the department, he will remain in our midst, bringing to completion the researches upon which he is engaged and the books which are already planned; and we feel sure that there mil ever remain his friendly, helpful and S3mipathetic attitude to- ward both colleagues and students.