18 



THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY 



[January, 



with the position which the society 

 should occupy. We fear there will 

 be a tendency toward dillitantism in 

 such a publication. There is enough 

 of elementary microscopy in our own 

 paper, but even were it otherwise, the 

 reader would look for something more 

 strictly scientific in the ' Proceedings' 

 of a society. 



There is a want in this country 

 which the society is now in a position 

 to meet. If, instead of a monthly 

 paper, only partly filled with matters 

 brought before the society, a publica- 

 tion should be established with the 

 same money, to be issued either 

 quarterly or even at irregular inter- 

 vals, giving a stated number of pages 

 each year, devoted to the publication 

 and adequate illustration of strictly 

 scientific papers, the society would 

 be doing a meritorious and much- 

 needed work, which wovdd entitle it 

 to rank among the best associations 

 of the land. The expense of publish- 

 ing, and especially of illustrating, 

 scientific articles is a great hindrance 

 to the progress of good work in this 

 country, and if this society would 

 afford a medium for such work to be 

 published, the benefits would be far- 

 reaching indeed. 



While by no means wishing to dis- 

 courage in any way the promoters of 

 the present scheme from carrying it 

 out with all energy and ambition, we 

 still trust it may lead to something 

 such as we have suggested above. 

 If money is to be expended on behalf 

 of the society, let it be done wisely, 

 and in such a manner as will foster 

 and encourage scientific work of a 

 high character, as well as give the 

 society itself a high position. 

 o 



Science, true and false. — It is 

 with sincere regret that in the pages 

 of publications ostensibly scientific in 

 character, we occasionally find arti- 

 cles which are unworthy of the name 

 scientific, written with an evident 

 want of foresight, if not of knowledge. 

 Some publishers, taking advantage of 

 a certain tendency of the age, have 



been reaping rich harvests from news- 

 papers which purport to be devoted 

 to science, but which attract uncriti- 

 cal readers by high-sounding titles, 

 and articles of a sensational, but very 

 unscientific character. It is positively 

 astonishing that some of these papers 

 can exist for half a year, so obviously 

 are they mere organs to give notoriety 

 to some crank who edits them, or to 

 put money into the pocket of pub- 

 lishers, through the medium of adver- 

 tisements. Yet some of them run on 

 through five, six or ten years, and ap- 

 parently flourish far better than any 

 of the higher class of publications. 



If the general public is so readily 

 deceived, and so utterly incapable of 

 distinguishing pure humbug from 

 sound knowledge ; or if the great 

 public, as Mr. Barnum is credited 

 with having said, likes to be hum- 

 bugged, it is not strange that, even 

 among microscopists, there should be 

 a few who are deceived, as one may 

 say, by sounding brass or a tinkling 

 cymbal. 



Fortunately, microscopical litera- 

 ture is comparatively free from the 

 pure article of unadulterated humbug, 

 although occasionally it crops out, in 

 the newspapers, and now and then in 

 papers whose editors ought to know^ 

 better, to astonish the general reader 

 and amuse the scient. 



Microscopical literature, however, 

 in this country at least, has of late 

 abounded in another kind of reading 

 matter, which, if we correctly appre- 

 ciate the tastes of the average reader, 

 is even more offensive than pure non- 

 sense. We allude to uninteresting, 

 useless, offensive, and even occasion- 

 ally insulting personalities. They do 

 no good to either writer or reader, 

 they do no harm except to the one 

 who indites them. They are low, 

 and vulgar, and disgraceful. Not 

 only do they lower the tone of the 

 papers in which they are found, but 

 they give a false impression as to the 

 character of the American reading 

 public, when they go abroad and are 

 read by persons in foi'eign lands, who 



