EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
Doubtful Economy. — That much of the work done by the United 
States through the Department of Agriculture and by the various 
State Commissions and Experiment Stations is of high practical 
importance has long been recognized both here and abroad. 
Scientific men may, however, well hesitate before endorsing many 
of the recommendations advocated. The application of kerosene 
as a preventive against mosquitoes should be used only when other 
methods are not applicable. The destruction of herons, kingfishers, 
loons, grebes, and other birds, advised by the Superintendent of 
Hatcheries in the ZZird Annual Report of the Commissioners of Fish- 
eries, Game, and Forests of the State of New York, shows the extreme 
to which practical science tends. These birds have a scientific value 
and interest equal at least to the gastronomic value of the trout 
they destroy, and the State of New York can better afford to estab- 
lish a hatchery for the benefit of the bearers of fur and feathers than 
to countenance or allow their slaughter. 
Frazer’s Life of Cope.— The August issue of the American Geol- 
ogist is devoted chiefly to a memoir by Dr. Persifor Frazer, entitled 
“The Life and Letters of Edward Drinker Cope.” The life is told 
mainly by the letters; Dr. Frazer's threads connecting them are 
slight, and though appreciative are sadly lacking in the happy 
touches needed for the subject. The illustrations include an inter- 
esting portrait of Cope at ten years of age and several reproductions 
from pen-and-ink drawings made when their author was still a lad. 
The care and faithfulness shown in these drawings are remarkable, 
qualities not fully recognized by Dr. Frazer's comparative praise. 
Gill's admirable address delivered at the Detroit (1897) meeting of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science is not 
mentioned in the list of biographies. 
The Biological Bulletin. — From the programme of the Biologi- 
cal Departments of the University of Chicago, 1900-1901 (p. 4), it 
would appear that the publications of the University included both 
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