Few can realize the extent of the field covered by moving pictures. In the dual capacity of entertainment and instruction there is not a rival in sight. As an instructor, science is daily widening the sphere of the motion picture for the purpose of illustration. Films are rapidly superseding text books in many branches. Every department capable of photographic demonstration is being covered by moving pictures. Negatives are now being made of the most intricate surgical operations and these are teaching the students better than the witnessing of the real operations, for at the critical moment of the operation the picture machine can be stopped to let the student view over again the way it is accomplished, whereas at the operating table the surgeon must go on with his work to try to save life and cannot explain every step in the process of the operation. There is no doubt that the moving picture machine will perform a very important part in the future teaching of surgery. In the naturalist's domain of science it is already playing a very important part. A device for micro-photography has now been perfected in connection with motion machines whereby things are magnified to a great degree. By this means the analysis of a substance can be better illustrated than any way else. For instance a drop of water looks like a veritable Zoo with terrible looking creatures wiggling and wriggling through it, and makes one feel as if he never wanted to drink water again. The moving picture in its general phase is entertainment and instruction rolled into one and as such it has superseded the theatre. It is estimated that at the present time in America there are upwards of 20,000 moving picture shows patronized daily by almost ten million people. It is doubtful if the theatre attendance at the best day of the winter season reaches five millions. The moving picture in importance is far beyond the puny functions of comedy and tragedy. The grotesque farce of vaudeville and the tawdry show which only appeals to sentiment at highest and often to the base passions at lowest. Despite prurient opposition it is making rapid headway. It is entering very largely into the instructive and the entertaining departments of the world's curriculum. Millions of dollars are annually expended in the production of films. Companies of trained and practiced actors are brought together to enact pantomimes which will concentrate within the space of a few minutes the most entertaining and instructive incidents of history and the leading happenings of the world. At all great events, no matter where transpiring, the different moving picture companies have trained men at the front ready with their cameras to "catch" every incident, every movement even to the wink of an eyelash, so that the "stay-at-homes" can see the _show_ as well, and with a great deal more comfort than if they had traveled hundreds, or even thousands, of miles to be present in _propria persona_.