A source of difficulty and danger lies in the fact that the pitch squares are rarely of the same hardness, so that some abrade the glass more rapidly than others. This is particularly likely to occur if the pitch has been overheated. [Footnote: When pitch is heated till it evolves bubbles of gas its hardness increases with the duration of the process.] The reader must be good enough to regard these remarks as of the barest possible kind, and not intended to convey more than a general idea of the nature of the process of figuring. Sec. 68. A few remarks on cleaning lenses will fittingly close this part of the subject. There is no need to go beyond the following instructions given by Mr. Brashear in Popular Astronomy, 1894, which are reproduced here verbatim. "The writer does not advise the use of either fine chamois skin, tissue paper, or an old soft silk handkerchief, nor any other such material to wipe the lenses, as is usually advised. It is not, however, these wiping materials that do the mischief, but the dust particles on the lenses, many of them perhaps of a silicious nature, which are always harder than optical glass, and as these particles attach themselves to the wiping material they cut microscopic or greater scratches on the surfaces of the objective in the process of wiping. "I write this article with the hope of helping to solve this apparently difficult problem, but which in reality is a very simple one. "Let us commence by taking the object glass out of its cell. Take out the screws that hold the ring in place, and lift out the ring. Placing the fingers of both hands so as to grasp the objective on opposite sides, reverse the cell, and with the thumbs gently press the objective squarely out of the cell on to a book, block of wood, or anything a little less in diameter than the objective, which has had a cushion of muslin or any soft substance laid upon it. One person can thus handle any objective up to 12 inches in diameter. "Before separating the lenses it should be carefully noted how they were put together with relation to the cell, and to one another, and if they art not marked they should be marked on the edges conspicuously with a hard lead pencil, so that when separated they may be put together in the same way, and placed in the same relation to the cell. With only ordinary precaution this should be an easy matter. "Setting the objective on edge the two lenses may be readily separated.