1897 THE MICROSCOPE. 101 
and widely acknowledge our error, We are quite 
ashamed to tell the world at large about this local matter 
but evils will often vanish when exposed to the sunshine 
which would lurk in darkness a long time. 
In a recent year, the president felt at liberty to pab- 
lish his address outside the society’s Chinese wall. He 
sent it, not to the Journal that had all the year been 
doing its utmost to help the society but to the Popular 
Science Monthly which never does anything to help the 
society. It does, however, pay some money for contribu- 
tions at times and probably the president sold his article, 
When we wrote to the P.S. M. for permission to reprint it, 
the latter refused it, and so our readers did not see it, 
but a College professor enjoying a good salary may have 
added a trifle to his revenue. 
The popular interest in microscopy is on, the decline 
and who can wonder at it when the only society we have 
that might stimulate it is in such control and is actuated 
by such a spirit. Four years ago the Society was nearly 
dead. Perhaps we did as much as anyone to save it from 
the fate its manipulators had brought to its door. 
The Proceedings have also usurped the domain of jour- 
nalism by soliciting advertisements, publishing obitua- 
ries of men not members, abstracts from foreign journals 
and papers not read at the meetings. All this is to the 
injury of monthly publications and may if continued lead 
to the discontinuance of the latter. Only about one-half 
of the members of the A. M.S. take the Journals now. 
Are the Society and the Journal to be 
made competitors through the selfish 
and ungenerous conduct of its officers ? 
Do the members wish to see both the Society and the 
Journals thrive and if so will they see to it that there is 
mutual co-operation? 
