re starting the new year out right by putting
on an extremely astounding cover. The story "The Gate to
Xoran" is simply amazing. Let's read many more of Mr. Wells
stories. It is far surpassed, however, by "The Fifth
Dimension Catapult," which is the best story (novelette)
that I have ever read in "our" magazine.

The Boys' Scientification Club is now a branch of the famous
Science Correspondence Club. Remember, boys between the ages
of 10 and 15, if you're interested in reading Science
Fiction, by all means join the B. S. C. We have many copies
of Astounding Stories in our library and members are welcome
to read them. For further details write to me.--Forrest J.
Ackerman, President-Librarian, B. S. C., 530 Staples Avenue,
San Francisco, Cal.

_Souls and Integrations_

Dear Editor:

You are starting your second year as Editor of Astounding
Stories. If your standard during 1931 is up to your standard
of 1930, we shall be satisfied. If possible, give us, the
Readers, the best in Science Fiction. I have no doubt but
that the Readers of Astounding Stories would not want
fantasy unless written by a master; and to my mind there is
only one whom I will forgive for not making his stories
Science Fiction, and that writer is A. Merritt. Every other
writer should and must put plausible science in his stories.
If he doesn't, he won't go far; not with Science Fiction
readers, anyway.

I do not agree to your answer, by letter, to my complaint
about the science in the story, "An Extra Man," by Jackson
Gee. You say that two men, each the size and half the weight
of the original man could have been formed from the
integrated particles of the original man. In the story, the
weight of the two men was exactly the same as that of the
original man. [?] Anyway, I do not believe that these two
men could have been formed. Most likely, when the
laboratories began the process of reintegration, the person
integrated would have been cut in half, provided of course,
that the laboratories began the process at the same time. If
not, one laboratory would produce a larger portion of an
integrated man than the other.

But to come back to the original question. Can a man be
disintegrated into his component atoms and then reintegrated
into two