1892.] THE MICROSCOPE. 103 



editor:s ..^^^^^^ 



department 



^^i"^- 



The Mici'oscope. — The periodical bearing this name was 

 started eleven years ao^o (in April, iSSi), at Ann Arbor, Mich.. 

 by Dr. and jNIrs. C. H. vStowell, who entered into a vigorous 

 competition with The A??zerica7i Monthly Microscopical your- 

 7ial^ which had been previouslv established by Prof. Romvn 

 Hitchcock. The latter replied with scathing criticisms, some just 

 and some apparently unjust. The most intense rivalry was created, 

 and, although apparently losing money, for five vears the contest 

 went on, neither being willing to yield the field. But in August, 

 iS86, the ill-health of Mrs. Stowell was announced, and 77?^ Mi- 

 croscope was transferred to Detroit, where a board of four editors 

 assumed control. At about the same time. Prof. Hitchcock was 

 invited by Prof. T6dd to become a member of the eclipse party 

 which was going to Japan, and he accepted. Both periodicals 

 were now in new hands, and the era of hostility closed. 



Had the competition been free from ill-feeling, it is likely that 

 one of the two periodicals would have died out in a few months, 

 for there never has been standing room for both, and the net profits 

 of neither have ever been worth mentioning. At no time have 

 the two combined ever had 3,000 subscribers, and yet either one 

 could always have had a paying existence if it could have con- 

 trolled the field. 



It is an interesting incident that Dr. Stowell, since parting with 

 The Microscope^ has come to Washington to live, and the very 

 month in which the magazine he founded has found its way to 

 the same city (March, 1S93), he has started anew medical four- 

 nal called The National Medical Reviezv^ to which his old 

 microscopical friends will doubtless want to subscribe, the price 

 being only one dollar per arinum. Mrs. Stowell is one of the 

 microscopists in the Agricultural Department, and Prof. Hitch- 

 cock is also here, having just returned from a two-years' trip to 

 China. 



To run The Microscope as well as it has been run was found, 

 first by the Detroit people and next by the Trenton people, not 

 to be a paying investment. Had they been willing to yield the 

 highest place to the older journal, they might have occupied the 

 amateur field, butthis they would not do ; nor Vs'Ou\(\The Journal 

 surrender the field which it had by the right of preoccupation. 

 To Dr. Stokes and the writer is due the credit of bringing about, 



