In 1932 Charles Elton founded the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford. This was the very early days of the science of ecology and in sorting out my office I came across an interesting document I obtained long ago from Mr. Elton about the history of the Bureau from 1932 to 1962. If you are a history buff, these remarks may interest you as a window of science nearly 100 years ago. Further details about the Bureau can be found here: (Crowcroft, P. 1991. Elton’s Ecologists: A History of the Bureau of Animal Population. University of Chicago Press).:

Here is what Elton wrote in 1962: