1895.] ria Editor’s Table. 915 
publication be regarded as the date of distribution. The Section did 
not concur in this view. Consultation with leading publishing zoolo- 
gists present, as well as with botanists, disclosed an almost unanimous 
sentiment in favor of regarding the date of completed printing, as the 
only available date of publication. Resolutions expressing this opinion 
were framed and passed Section F unanimously, and copies were sent to 
Mr. Field for presentation before the British Association at Ipswich, 
and the Zoological Congress at Leyden, Holland. 
—OFFICIALISM is becoming more conspicuous among American 
office holders than was formerly the case. Years ago, our officials 
were conspicuous for their politeness to the public, and general disposi- 
tion to forward their interests. More recently many of the customs 
collectors have distinguished themselves for their extreme interpreta- 
tions of the provisions of the tariff laws, so as to render themselves ob- 
noxious, and the country absurd. Still more recently the Post-Office 
Department developed an exaggerated officialism in refusing to trans- 
mit various articles over its routes. Naturalists have had especial 
difficulties in the matter of mailing specimens. Both zoologists and 
botanists have been met with refusals to allow the sending of their 
specimens, which have only been withdrawn after tedious negotiations. 
No sooner is this point gained than some new and superserviceable 
postmaster raises fresh difficulties, and the same process has to be re- 
peated. The only permanent remedy is the enactment and enforce- 
ment of compulsory education laws, so that all our citizens may learn 
that the prosecution of the natural sciences is beneficial to the public, 
and that their cultivators are an important part of the community. 
—AmoncG the various acts hostile to science which have rendered 
the present administration notorious, few will excite deeper regret 
than the suspension of the journal formerly issued by the Agricultural 
Department under the name of Insect Life. Asa record of the discovery 
in the greatest of all zoological fields, it has no equal in the world, as its 
value was assured by the ability of its editors, first, Mr. C. V. Riley, and 
more recently Mr. L. O. Howard. The policy of the present adminis- 
tration, as announced by the present Secretary of Agriculture, to limit 
the functions of government to those which are most rudimental, war- 
rants the retort, actually made by one of his scientific experts to him, 
that the Department itself should then be abolished. The first Secretary, 
the Hon. Jeremiah Rusk, declared that he was placed at the tail of the 
administration on order to “ keep the flies off of it.” The present Sec- 
retary seems inclined to let the “ flies ” remain, not only on the admin- 
istration, but on the entire country. 
