1896.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 27 



EDITORIAL. 



Microscopical Journalism. — We have been favored with 

 an announcement from one of the leading microscope makers 

 of the United States, that its house will proceed very soon to 

 establish a monthly periodical and that it will spare neither 

 pains nor expense to procure the highest quality of contri- 

 butions. 



The object in view is not entirely to supply a public want but 

 to enable the house to advertise its own goods. The primary 

 object is advertising, but the advertisements of rival concerns 

 will be excluded of course. The house has approached us 

 with a proposition that we exchange advertisements. 



Under this plan we are to advertise not simply their 

 periodical but necessarily their business without pay. They 

 are to advertise our periodicals without pay. To us it can only 

 mean the securing of a few new^ subscribers, since we already 

 have a large part of the microscopical subscribers on our list. To 

 them it means securing access to all of our subscribers, and ad- 

 vertising their goods free of cost — the saving of the money 

 which they have heretofore paid us. If our subscribers would 

 generally go over to the new periodical of course we should 

 find ourselves in^a bad predicament. There are some people 

 who go rushing from periodical to periodical and our record of 

 their exploits is amusing. After an absence of one or two years 

 during which they have taken a 25-cent or 50-cent microscop- 

 ical "magazine," they come back inquiring whether they can 

 get our back numbers with which to complete their files. 



The history of such periodicals has been of much interest. 

 The 50-cent magazine started almost two years ago has col- 

 lapsed and been merged with botany, ornithology, herpetology 

 conchology, etc,, etc. 



The 25-cent magazine has lived many years and in spite of a 

 tremendous amount of advertising which a Philadelphia optical 

 house has done by means of it, the house has been compelled 

 to suspend payments and make a piteous appeal to all its cred- 

 itors — throughout the world — to grant an extension and to 

 accept instalment payments at six-month intervals. That 

 house had the assurance years ago to ask us to grant them an 



