EDITORIAL AND GENERAL. 



131 



is. I found that in popular language a 

 "bullfrog'' means any kind of a frog or 

 even a toad. The offerings of toads were 

 especially numerous. One paper bag 

 contained twenty-five. Though many of 

 the collectors necessarily made no sales, 

 I hope they learned some lessons in na- 

 ture study. I at least faithfully tried to 

 teach them. 



I had impressed upon me two impor- 

 tant facts : 



First, the general lack of definite 

 knowledge as to commonplace things. 

 Second, the important part that discrim- 

 ination holds in nature study and the gen- 

 eral lack of it in the mind of the general 

 public, at least in the mind of my col- 

 lecting public. 



Imagine, if you can, calling up a gro- 

 cery store by telephone and ordering a 

 bar of soap or a pound of butter, and 

 that later you have delivered at your 

 front gate a wagon-load of everything in 

 that store (except soap and butter), and 

 you will appreciate my astonishment. 



There is probably not a person in 

 Stamford who does not know a Mad- 

 agascar monkey or an elephant from 

 India, but no one seems to have any ac- 

 quaintance with a snail or a bullfrog. 



As the result of iterated personal in- 

 structions I later obtained a few bull- 

 frogs, but I have not yet a single snail. 



THE OLD AND THE NEW IN MICROS- 

 COPY. 



One of the most heartfelt articles that 

 The Guide to Nature has published is 

 L 'The Amateur Microscopist," by Pro- 

 fessor Earl Douglass, in this number. 



The mingling of plaintive sorrow for 

 the disappearance of the old time inter- 

 est, with the plea for its restoration, and 

 the gleams of hope for the future — all 

 are touchingly and delightfully inter- 

 mingled, and are such as proclaim the 

 writer unmistakably a true student and 

 lover of nature. 



1 especially can sympathize with the 

 author. With many of the subscribers 

 to The Guide to Nature w r e were 

 workers together in "the old times" 

 when I edited "The Observer" magazine 

 which more than any other publication 

 in the United States represented for 

 almost a decade the interests of amateur 

 microscopy. 



Frequently do I take from a library 

 shelf near my easy chair the much treas- 

 ured volumes of "The Observer" and 

 linger lovingly over the department of 

 "Practical Microscopy" so ably edited by 

 Miss Booth, in those good old days of 

 amateur investigation. I, too, have 



longed for a restoration ; have felt the 

 pathos of existing conditions ; have in- 

 dulged in gleams of hope for the restor- 

 ation of "Practical Microscopy" even in 

 The Guide to Nature. 



But it has been only a gleam, only 

 another realization that "life is a series 

 of pictures and they come our way but 

 once." We may go back to the scenes 

 of our youth or to some much loved 

 spot of later acquaintance, but it isn't the 

 same picture. 



And after all, isn't it a good thing 

 that this is so, and that the world 

 changes and progresses? 



Our older readers will readily under- 

 stand all that Professor Douglass says. 

 But let none of our younger ones misun- 

 derstand him. "The microscopist seems 

 now nearly extinct, and the word by 

 which we used to have to designate him 

 is nearly obsolete." 



The microscope is now more in use 

 than ever. Formerly it was in the 



hands of an enthusiastic amateur here 

 and there, or of the esoteric few wdio 

 gathered weekly to discuss the merits 

 of sub-stage, swinging mirror-bar, achro- 

 matic condenser, structure of diatoms, 

 the continuity of protoplasms, numerical 

 aperture, black-dot resolution, the con- 

 tinuity of others of the kind that were 

 so dear to the amateur's heart. 



Now the microscope is in use in every 

 high school and college laboratory and 

 by hundreds of specialists in every de- 

 partment of nature investigation. The 

 principal value of the old time days of 

 amateur microscopy was to develop the 

 instrument. Before Abbe's elucidation 

 of Numerical Aperture settled the ques- 

 tion amateurs raced objectives as a 

 sporting man races horses. The man- 

 ufacturers met the increasing demands 

 of devoted amateurs and the develop- 

 ment of the instrument was hastened. 

 It is now practically perfect. The in- 

 terest in the instrument lasted during 

 its growth. Now the interest is in its 

 use. We have lost the amateur mi- 



