58 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Mar 
will sell to Germans, Russians, and Turks. He refers you 
to his N. Y. friend whose American price is $1.25. But 
the latter edition was printed in England at the same 
time the English edition was printed and it doubtless 
was sent over in unbound sheets. On these there was a 
small duty, not a tenth part of the saving made thereby, 
for the publisher pays American labor nothing for type- 
setting or press-work on it. He pays a few cents per 
volume for binding and that is all American labor gets. 
Nevertheless, he asks $1.25 for a small book,—all he 
would ask if he had to set the type himself. He will de- 
fend this by citing the small sale of a technical book and 
his high rents and salaries. 
Thus a book retailing freely in London for 60 cents can- 
not be bought by Americans for less thau $1.25. There 
is a conspiracy between the London dealer and the Am- 
erican dealer, and yet were I in London, I could buy from 
the London dealer by the dozen at one third off of his re- 
tail price and sell to Americans at 60 cents each and still 
make a profit, providing I got my supply without letting 
it be kuown what I was to do withit. Such things must 
always follow from attempts to legislate people into pay- 
ing high prices for everything they buy. Such is all tariff 
legislation. 
Notes on Microscopy. 
F, SHILLINGTON SCALES, F. R. M. S. 
IMMERSION OIL IN COLLAPSIBLE TUBES.—A German 
writer alludes to the disadvantages attendant upon the 
use of the ordinary bottle for immersion oil, which it is 
impossible to keep clean, and which allows the oil to thick- 
en, turn yellow, and become turbid through exposure to 
light and air, thus altering its refractive index. In con- 
sequence, he uses collapsible tubes which are used for 
holding moist water-color and oil paints. It is stated 
