Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



149 



America and contains many pieces of 

 apparatus of orig'inal design by Prof. 

 Gaylord P. Clark. The faculty of the 

 college has arranged to have all labora- 

 tories open for inspection during the 

 meeting. 



Microscopic and Microscopical. 



These two words represent two dis- 

 tinct ideas which no one word can ex- 

 press with precision; and, now that some 

 microscopical writers are falling into the 

 growing fashion of dropping the final 

 "al" after "ic," it seems wise for micros- 

 copists to deliberately decide whether 

 they will consent to drop in a word an 

 "al" which they want, because some oth- 

 er specialist drops one that he doesn't 

 want. Are microscopical authors so mi- 

 croscopic in their self-possession and 

 literary prudence as to be carried away 

 by a fad, however, commendable it may 

 be in some other cases? We wish to 

 mention a very minute object, so small 

 as to suggest, either literally or figura- 

 tively, the necessity of using a micro- 

 scope to see it, and we describe that ob- 

 ject as microscopic. We wish to speak 

 of an object as pertaining or related to 

 the science or art of microscopy, without 

 regard to its size, and we call it micro- 

 scopical, though it might be absurd to 

 call it small (microscopic). Thus, the 

 microscopic dictionary and the Royal 

 Microscopical Society both are micro- 

 scopical, though about as far as possible 

 from microscopic. While a desmid or a 

 bacillus is evidently microscopic as well 

 as microscopical, the former term in this 

 case includes the latter. A tiny book, 

 however, which the writer bought in 

 Paris last summer, a regularly printed 

 and well bound volume of several hun- 

 dred double-column pages, something 

 like an inch square and perhaps one- 

 fifth inch thick (speaking by guess, as 

 the book is not at hand at the time of 

 this writing), is microscopic enough to 

 suit almost anybody, but not microscopi- 

 cal, as it has nothing to do with micros- 

 copy, being interesting solely as a gen- 

 eral or a bibliographical curiosity and 

 not by reason of its reading matter, 

 which can be made out only with a lens. 

 The Journal of Applied Microscopy, 

 which has made such a brave start, 

 is a microscopical paper; let us hope 

 it may never dwindle to a microscopic 

 one. To the writer, who has been es- 

 pecially interested in this question, hav- 

 ing been, to say the least, one of the first, 

 many years ago, to use these two words, 

 and to urge their use, not indifferently 

 as synonyms, but with a strict applica- 

 tion in the two senses indicated here, it 

 seems like anything but intelligent re- 



form to drop one of the words, now that 

 they have come into very general and 

 successful discriminative use, and to 

 leave ourselves with only a single word 

 with which to express two distinct ideas, 

 I'etaining the delightful privilege of tak- 

 ing a chance of being misunderstood 

 (either honestly or in perversity) or of 

 adding an awkward explanation every, 

 time to indicate in which of its senses 

 the retained word is used. If the jour- 

 nals could feel justified in officially 

 adopting for their own pages the precise 

 use of the two words, just as important 

 periodicals adopt without hesitation 

 their own standards in cases of disputed 

 spelling or punctuation, it would go far 

 toward settling this matter right, and, 

 what is perhaps harder, keeping it set- 

 tled; for some blessed soul is sure to 

 turn up, after a few years, thinking that 

 he can make the world better than it 

 grew, by tinkering with something about 

 which he does not even know that it was 

 settled, on good grounds, long before. 

 R. H. Ward. 

 Troy, N. Y. 



Cleaning Old Slides. 



A description of a simple and effective 

 method of cleaning microscope slides 

 which have been used, may be welcomed 

 by those who have been bothered by the 

 complex methods described in various 

 technical works. 



Glass slides should be dropped into a 

 strong aqueous solution of "concentrated 

 lye" kept in a large battery jar, and 

 when a goodly number of slides have 

 been accumulated pour off the lye and 

 wash the slides in tap water. 



The balsam or other mounting medium, 

 object, and cover slip will be removed 

 by the slightest rubbing with the fingers, 

 and the slides perfectly cleansed by a 

 second rinsing in tap water. 



The slides may then be wiped and kept 

 in a box, or, better, kept in a small jar, 

 partly immersed in eighty per cent, alco- 

 hol and wiped dry just before using. Lye 

 solution of sufficient strength and yet 

 not strong enough to attack the glass, 

 may be prepared by dissolving, in a liter 

 of hot water, twenty-five grams of the 

 concentrated lye commonly sold in the 

 shops conveniently packed in tin cans. 

 E. R. Larned, M. D. 



Joliet, Illinois. 



Rotifers infusoria and other minute 

 rapidly moving forms can be kept quiet 

 by mounting under the cover glass, in 

 the water containing them, a few 

 strands of cotton wool or by adding a 

 very small quantity of ether to the 

 water. 



