THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
3& 
THE 
YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 
Tebms— Fifty Cents per year. 4®=" Postage free to 
all parts of the United States and Canada, except New 
York City . Our absurd postal laws make the charge for 
delivering our journal to subscribers in New York city 
five times as great as that required for transporting it 
across the continent, and delivering it to subscribers 
in San Francisco or New Orleans. We are therefore 
compelled to charge our New York subscribers 12 cents 
extra. 
Advebtisements— 30 cents per line. 
All Communications should be addressed to 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST, 
P. O. Box 4875. 176 Broadway, New York. 
J8®* For Club Rates, etc., see Pkospectus. 
Unavoidably Deferred. 
WANT of space compels us to defer 
till our next issue several valuable 
and interesting articles, amongst others the 
following: " Description of the new Speech- 
Recorder;" ''Measuring the Magnifying 
Power of Microscopes;" "How to Make a 
Cheap Condensing Lens;" "Practical Les- 
sons in Photography;" "Turning Metals 
and Hard Substances," etc., etc. The April 
number promises to be specially rich in in- 
teresting and practical articles. 
Our Journal and its influence. 
EVERY day proves to us that oiar journal 
is needed, and that it is calculated to 
do much good. The bane of this country 
is the prevalence of demoralizing juvenile 
literature. A few months ago a case was 
brought before the courts in New Jersey, 
where it appeared that a dozen boys, having 
given themselves up to the reading of 
"pirate" stories and story papers, actually 
leagued together and formed a robber band, 
having headquarters, watchword, signs, 
grips, etc. Although the children of re- 
spectable parents, wanting for nothing, they 
stole provisions, etc., upon which they 
feasted in secret, holding orgies modeled 
after those of robber chiefs! 
The way to counteract this tendency is to 
give the boys (and girls too) something to 
do. The children of those who are above 
want may dislike to commence a bona jide 
trade; to them the Young Scientist will 
point a way to intelligent recreation and 
active employment. Those whose means 
are limited will find in our pages sugges- 
tions which will enable them to save or 
earn many times its cost. 
Does not this subject deserve the atten- 
tion of those parents who have the good of 
their children at heart? 
A New Postal Law for the Discourage- 
ment of Science. 
THERE is an old proverb, which says,. 
" Ne suior ultra crepidam,'' — " Let not 
the shoemaker go beyond his last. " Why- 
the poor shoemaker should have been 
selected as the proper recipient for this 
advice, it has always exceeded our conun- 
drum-solving powers to find out. Our ex- 
perience has been that others are more apt 
to transgress this sound command than are 
shoemakers and kindred craftsmen. 
For example: Here come seven wise men 
from Boston — publishers all — and they have' 
taken it into their heads that they are the- 
only class of citizens in the United States 
whose welfare should be consulted in the 
preparation of a postal law! In this they 
remind us of the goose in the well-knowni 
lines of Pope: 
" While man exclaims, ' See all things for my use!' 
'See man for mine,' exclaims the pampered! 
goose." 
To the proposed law relating to the trans- 
mission of periodicals through the mails, 
no objections can be made. We ourselves 
have, in the columns of the Technologist, 
urged the adoption of every one of them, 
and they are good, even if they are not 
original with their present advocates. In 
this respect the proposed law is eminently 
jufet, simple and uniform in its provisions. 
But why should seeds, specimens for 
scientific study, or samples of goods, be 
charged more than Missionary Heralds, At- 
lantic Monthlies, or Golden Rules ? Do not 
flowers exert as elevating an influence as 
Boston transcendentalism? Do not scien- 
