E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Robin Shaw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 37589-h.htm or 37589-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/37589/pg37589-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37589/37589-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/throughmagicglas00buck [Illustration: For Description see Page 152 Frontispiece THE GREAT NEBULA OF ORION From a photograph taken on February 4th, 1889 by Mr Isaac Roberts.] THROUGH MAGIC GLASSES AND OTHER LECTURES A Sequel to The Fairyland of Science by ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY (Mrs. Fisher) Author of Life and Her Children, Winners in Life's Race, A Short History of Natural Science, Etc. With Numerous Illustrations New York D. Appleton and Company 1890 Authorized Edition. PREFACE. The present volume is chiefly intended for those of my young friends who have read, and been interested in, the _Fairyland of Science_. It travels over a wide field, pointing out a few of the marvellous facts which can be studied and enjoyed by the help of optical instruments. It will be seen at a glance that any one of the subjects dealt with might be made the study of a lifetime, and that the little information given in each lecture is only enough to make the reader long for more. In these days, when moderate-priced instruments and good books and lectures are so easily accessible, I hope some eager minds may be thus led to take up one of the branches of science opened out to us by magic glasses; while those who go no further will at least understand something of the hitherto unseen world which is now being studied by their help. The two last lectures wander away from this path, and yet form a natural conclusion to the Magician's lectures to his young Devonshire lads. They have been published before, one in the _Youth's Companion_ of Boston, U.S., and the other in _Atalanta_, in which the essay on Fungi also appeared in a shorter form. All three lectures have, however, been revised and fully illustrated, and I trust that the volume, as a whole, may prove a pleasant Christmas companion.