[en] The primary themes of this work concern the applicability of the Cook (1975) filter mechanism to line selection in hydroxyl masers, and the question of whether interstellar hydroxyl, water, and silicon monoxide masers are saturated. Whether the Cook filter is operative in celestial masers has not thus far been decided, even though it has been shown that such an effect might be occurring. The theory in its present form does not account for line broadening, nor have its consequences with regard to microwave maser emission from excited states of hydroxyl been explored. Both these topics are discussed and the findings are compared with the observations of NGC 6334A, a source which is interesting because of the strong evidence for Zeeman splitting which can be seen in some of its observed spectra. The question of whether interstellar masers are saturated has been much discussed, but a simple method for determining the state of saturation of observed masers does not exist. In particular, the importance of background radiation and of different cloud geometries on the state of saturation of interstellar masers up to now has not been fully appreciated. Both these topics are discussed. (author)