•THEAICR^COPE 



:ated 

 ^sA(^^zINC. 



Vol. XII. 



WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBEE, 1892. 



No. 9. 



Seventeenth Annual Report of the American Postal Micro- 

 scopical Club, Troy, N. Y., 1892. 



By R. H. ward, M. D. 



Our Membership has changed but little during the past year. 

 The few withdrawals which have naturally occurred have been 

 amply balanced, perhaps, by new accessions of very capable 

 members. A few have been dropped for general negligence 

 which made it impossible for any circuit to exist with them in it. 



One of the greatest of the partly avoidable troubles of the Club 

 is a breaking up of the circuits and consequent entanglement of 

 the circulation, which adds greatly to the care and labor of man- 

 agement and often subjects the old members to the danger of re- 

 ceiving boxes a second time. This mostly results from members 

 joining thoughtlessly, and then dropping out, without any sense 

 of responsibility, after a short time. As we cannot, and would 

 not, question the right of any member to leave if he desires, 

 there seems to be no way of prevention except either to establish 

 a large entrance fee, which has not been thought best, or else to 

 constantly remind members that candidates should not be invited 

 or recommended to membership without being fully informed as 

 to what the Club is and what it is not. or without a deliberate 

 desire (as well as opportunity, ability, and experience) to be, and 

 work, in and for the Club as it is, and to attend to the boxes and 

 note-books personally — not leaving them to careless or inex- 

 perienced students or indifferent office boys who will kill the Club 

 by losing or destroying its only means of existence, and only be 

 sorry when too late to do any good. During the past month the 

 Club has suffered the loss by death of one of its oldest and most 



