1890.] Editorial. 921 
fication and distribution of insects seem also of late to have 
become. unfashionable at the association meetings, without suffi- 
cient reason. In the present craze for purely practical entomology 
it should be remembered that there is very little entomology that 
is not in some sense economic, and that if entomologists wish 
to attract to their ranks a desirable class of amateur students, 
they must show that in the world of insects there are other prob- 
lems than those of spraying with the arsenites or fighting the 
codling moth.—W. 
—THE electric execution law of New York State should be 
repealed pending the development of our knowledge on the sub- 
ject. The course of an electric current in or on such a bad con- 
ductor as the human body is difficult to foresee, and in the case 
of Kemmler it seems to have disappointed the expectations of the 
designers of the apparatus. The current did not traverse the spinal 
cord as was intended, but followed the dorsal muscles, which were, 
according to the reports, completely roasted. What is then to 
prevent its taking a superficial direction on the head as well? 
The frequent statements which are made of men receiving shocks 
of higher power than that used in the execution of Kemmler 
confirms the belief that the direction of the current is an uncer- 
tain quantity in the problem. So long as this uncertainty remains, 
so long will electrical execution be a trifling with the subject, 
which is inexcusable. In the present state of our knowledge of 
the subject the law is a disgrace to the statute-book of the State 
of New York. Execution by hanging is not thought to be a 
painful manner of death, although the guillotine is probably 
less so. | 
We expect to have some comment on the subject, in a future 
number of the NATURALIST, by a well-known expert, who was 
present at the execution of Kemmler. 
