PREFACE 



THE only apology I can offer for the being of this little 

 work is a dual one, smacking somewhat of egoism. It 

 had appeared for a long time to me that it was 

 needed, and further that I could fill the need. Acting 

 under this belief, or possibly delusion, it has been written; 

 whether successful as to the second proposition, its read- 

 ers must determine for themselves. There can be no two 

 opinions, however, regarding the first, for it is a matter of 

 fact, that in all the world of books so far as my researches 

 have extended there is not one through which a person 

 totally unacquainted with the practical requirements of 

 Photo-Micrography can learn them. There are some fairly 

 elaborate works on the subject, but one and all, assuming 

 their readers to be fully acquainted with the alphabet, as it 

 were, of the science or art, start them at the outset in read- 

 ing lessons ere they have learned to spell. The result is, 

 that by hard work, much perseverance and many failures 

 alone, can they hope to make acquaintances with the little 

 things of vital importance to be done, or left undone which 

 the books have signally failed to teach. 



With keen recollections of my own early struggles and 

 failures, I have in these pages sought to aid the novice, by 

 an earnest endeavor to teach him the A B C of the matter 

 and explain clearly as possible the simple but indispensa- 

 ble methods and manipulations, by which alone he can 

 hope to arrive at any measurable success. The book has 



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