The article gives a general treatment of the electron optical properties of cylindrical electron spectrographs. The resolution, the transmission, and the ratio of them (figure of merit) for electrostatic spectrographs are computed and compared for various choices of focusing arrangement and location of the source and the image. The second order focusing, which occurs in the evaluation as an asymptotic case of the first order focusing arrangement, is shown to yield a figure of merit which is in most cases superior to first order focusing. Locating the source and the image at the cylinder axis is also found to be the optimal setup using this figure of merit as a criterion.