2U 



THE AMERlCAK MONTHLY 



[December, 



has been made a permanent one, thus 

 making the future responsibility of 

 conducting the yournal entirely our 

 own. Work at Purdue University, 

 Lafayette, Ind., requires a residence 

 there from September until June, but 

 this will not interfere with the regu- 

 larity of publication or impair our use- 

 fulness in any way. 



We watched with interest the pro- 

 gress of this yournal when entirely 

 unconnected with it, and have found 

 from the first that it maintained a high 

 stand. Its aim has been to inform of 

 the thiiigs useful or necessary to those 

 who use the microscope, results of 

 microscopical studies, detailed infor- 

 mation, matters of technique, scien- 

 tific notes and news. It has been 

 made a valuable and authentic me- 

 dium of information on microscopi- 

 cal matters. Of its admirable success 

 its readers are already aware. 



Our intention is to continue in the 

 future to manage the your?ial on the 

 same principle. We understand the 

 microscope to be an instrument for 

 investigation, and shall in editing it 

 bring together from all sources at our 

 command all matters which are likely 

 to be most helpful to those who, like 

 ourself, are its users. Our readers 

 must decide how well w^e are succeed- 

 ing in this. We recognize the fact 

 that a mass of valuable information 

 exists out of reach of most readers 

 which ought to be collected and set 

 forth in the most available shape. 

 We are happy also to realize that in 

 our attempt we are to be seconded 

 by the sympathy and aid of the old 

 contributors, with most of whom we 

 have personally corresponded, and 

 we are gratified to feel that they ex- 

 tend to us the confidence they exhib- 

 ited in the former editor both by per- 

 sonal assurance and by their con- 

 tributed articles. 



Ovu" readers want to know what to 

 expect for another year, and we may 

 say in general that we shall not de- 

 part widely from the course we have 

 pursued in the past four numbers. 

 We shall be able to present from time 



to time articles from Prof. Hitchcock, 

 who has promised to send us much 

 that will be interesting from Japan. 

 Almost all our old contributors have 

 been personally corresponded with 

 and willingly assured us to expect 

 their articles as heretofore, and many 

 new ones have promised their help. 

 We shall present in the form of brief 

 abstracts some of the most important 

 results of investigation in biological 

 and other science so far as they are 

 not too special for our columns, giv- 

 ing due prominence to those which 

 include new and helpful methods in 

 the use of the microscope. We in- 

 tend also to especially emphasize in 

 the yournal the collation of new 

 items upon technique, in which new 

 histological methods, both vegetable 

 and animal, shall be described in the 

 plainest possible language. Thus 

 volume viii, when complete and in- 

 dexed, will be a valuable record of 

 the year's work in microscopical 

 science and as well a practical guide 

 in the details of histological work. 



Our want at present is a wider cir- 

 culation and morecontributoi's. With 

 these two wants satisfied we are con- 

 fident that we can enlarge and extend 

 very much the usefulness of the 

 Journal. It is firmly established 

 upon its present basis, but we want 

 to enlarge it and especially to be able 

 to attract to it a larger number of well 

 illustrated original articles. This we 

 feel certain of being able to do if we 

 can find the means for publication. 

 We urge each one of our subscribers 

 to give us their substantial support by 

 the prompt renewal of their subscrip- 

 tions, and request them to recom- 

 mend us, as they can, any who may 

 become subscribers. We need a 

 hearty backing, and with that we can 

 pi'omise a good number every month. 

 o 



Rhizopods of Fresh Water. — 

 Two contributions to the literature 

 of the rhizopods from the pen of 

 Surgeon-Major Wallich, M. D., of 

 England, were published in the An- 

 nals of Natural History last year, 



