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Preface 



The preface of a book affords the author an opportunity of 

 speaking to his reader in a comparatively direct and personal 

 manner, and of acquaiiiting the prospective user of the book with 

 the considerations which impelled the author to write it. (From 

 The Bookman's Glossary. 3d ed. New York, Bowker [c. 1951]. 

 Reprinted by permission of the R. R. Bowker Co.) 



A few generations ago the English periodical Punch offered to its readers 

 a "letter of advice to those about to be married": the applicants received 

 the single word "Don't." The advice is pertinent for those about to write a 

 source reference work. 



You may well, in reading this book, become incensed at what you beheve 

 to be its inaccuracies, errors, and faulty arrangements. This is exactly how 

 I felt, twenty years ago, when I struggled with the reference books on micro- 

 technique which I was then using. You may decide, as I did, to try to write 

 a better book. 



You will find it a wearisome and disillusioning task. The research will, of 

 course, be wholly dehghtful, but it will be followed by a period of brutal hard 

 labor. Not only will you have to write, but then, if you are to produce a pub- 

 Hshable book, it will have to be condensed and rewritten. Add to this the fact 

 that the finished work has then to be reread four separate times as it goes 

 through press, and you will join me in hoping that your activities do not too 

 strongly resemble those of the dog mentioned in the Book of Proverbs. 



This book would never have been completed without the help of the librarians 

 of the University of Edinburgh, the Wood's Hole Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory, the University of Rochester, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the 

 University of Pittsburgh. I am especially indebted to Miss Lorena Garloch, 

 and her assistants in the Reference Department of the University of Pitts- 

 burgh Library, for their extraordinary skill in tracking down obscure journals 

 and securing them for me on inter-library loan. 



The illustrations for this work, as for my Handbook of Basic Microtechnique, 

 were prepared from my phot()grai)hs and sketches by Mrs. Gloria Green 

 Hirsch. 1 am glad thai r('\ icwcrs of the published book share my enthusiasm 

 for her work. 



The number of those, including the author and his wife, who have had a 

 hand in typing this book is legion. It should be recorded, however, that Mrs. 

 Mary Roman single-handed produced the first complete (1500 page) typescript 



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