REVIEW. 



The Lens : A Quarterly Journal of Microscojnj and the 

 Allied Natural Sciences ; with the Transactions of the 

 State Microscopical Society of Illinois. Chicago, 1873. 



This, though the first numher of a new journal, has a 

 retrospective as well as a prospective interest, for it is a 

 relic of the great fire of Chicago — that terrible calamity, 

 besides doing more serious damage, having been the occasion 

 of the publication of this journal being deferred from October, 

 1871, to January in this year. The history of the journal 

 must, however, first be told ; it is partly that of the State 

 Microscopical Society of Illinois. This society was founded 

 in December, 1868, under the title of the Chicago Micro- 

 scopical Club, and incorporated by state charter in 1869, 

 under the name which it now bears. The society then held 

 regular meetings till last year. 



" The first autumn meeting of the society should have 

 been held on October 13th, 1871, and preparations had been 

 made by which the opening meeting of the season would 

 have been most interesting and valuable. The great con- 

 flagration of October 8th and 9th, however, temporarily 

 interfered with the society's plans. Of the fine building of 

 the Academy of Sciences, with its highly interesting and 

 valuable contents, nothing remained, when the appointed 

 time of meeting arrived, but a pile of smoking ruins. 



" The secretary and treasurer, at their great personal peril, 

 succeeded in preserving the records and securities of the 

 society ; but the cabinet of objects, and the small but valu- 

 able library, except such portions of each as were loaned to 

 members residing outside the burned district, were destroyed. 

 The entire edition of the first number of ' The Lens,' also, 

 was just completed, and was burned, save half-a-dozen copies, 

 which the editor, by good fortune, happened to have at his 

 home. 



" As soon as it was possible to ascertain the exact status 

 of the society, and the opinions of its members, a meeting 



