The Microscope. 83 



for the following year, will be stricken from our lists. This rule, 

 -which will recognize no exceptions, will be a protection to pub- 

 lisher and to subscriber. While the publisher and the Editor 

 are willing to give the microscopists of the country the benefit 

 of their time, and of whatever skill and learning they may pos- 

 sess, the compositors, the paper-maker, the book-binder and the 

 United States jjostal authorities are not so philanthropical. But 

 the publisher and the Editor, after giving their time, labor and 

 knowledge, are not willing to give of their limited means for the 

 privilege of teaching and interesting microscopists who, hav- 

 ing received the magazine for a year or more, refuse to pay 

 its small subscription price. 



Again calling attention to the arrangement now and hereafter 

 in force, and to the fact that a receipt will always be sent if a 

 stamp or a postal card accompanies the remittance, 



We remain, 

 Lucas & Co., Publishers of The Microscope. 



VERY much has been said by many writers as to the selection 

 of objectives by the amateur or the novice. And there is 

 Toom for much repetition, as the beginner will find it rather 

 easier to go astray and to make mistakes in this department of life 

 than in almost any other. He will find that after he has irrev- 

 ocably committed himself to a purchase, the object of his wishes 

 may not be all that his fancy painted it, and he will be ready to 

 part with it on any terms, and to supply its place at an expense 

 that, if it had at first been judiciously invested, would have re- 

 turned him a satisfactory interest in the good work that it would 

 have enabled him to do, and in the pleasure that the work would 

 have given him. There is no economy in buying a cheai^ ob- 

 jective. It is too sure to become a nuisance and a hindrance ; 

 it is too sure to be more expensive in the end than a lens that 

 seemed to be costly at the beginning. A good objective will im- 

 prove upon acquaintance, because the investigator will himself 

 improve in skill and in that enviable ability to see minute ob- 

 jects that to the beginner is a wonder as possessed by the expert 

 microscopist. 



The use of good objectives will improve the eye sight ; it will 

 make the retina more sensitive, and the brain cells more readily 

 impressed. And there is a beauty and a brilliancy about the 



