PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



The fact that an unusually large edition of thi work has been sold in a 

 comparatively short period, is, to the author, evidence that such a work 

 was needed, and that the present volume has, to a certain extent, supplied 

 the want. In the present edition, therefore, he has endeavored to 

 introduce several important improvements, while at the same time the 

 elementary character of the work remains unaltered. With a few very 

 slight and unimportant exceptions, the entire matter of the former edition 

 has been incorporated in the present, and in addition several important 

 subjects, particularly the chapter on objectives, have been greatly enlarged. 



Many important points still remain untouched, but it is believed that in 

 its present form most beginners will find in it all the information that they 

 may require upon general topics. 



As the want of all illustrations of the stands of different makers, and 

 of many accessories, has been urged as an objection to the first edition, 

 and as we have not deemed it advisable to fully supply this omission in 

 the present issue, a word of explanation may not be out of place. One 

 great object in view in the preparation of this book was the furnishing of a 

 cheap manual for those who cannot afford the more expensive books of 

 Carpenter, Beale, Frey, etc. To have given anything like a fair repre- 

 sentation of the products of the different makers of this country and of 

 Europe, would have nearly doubled the size and price of the volume. But 

 if the reader will examine the illustrations of this class in the books just 

 mentioned, he will find that, even in the best of them, the engravings are 

 mere reproductions of the figures found in the descriptive lists of the 

 various dealers. As new editions of these lists are being constantly 

 issued, and as they may in most cases be obtained without cost from those 



