50 SOLLITT, ON STRIDE OF DIATOMS. 



first seen double by Dr. Herschel, and on which a writer 

 makes the following remark : " Many a star-gazer has bravely 

 turned out on a bitter cold night and stared at t? Corona 

 until every particle of his patience and caloric have been 

 fairly frozen out, and his eyes cried for mercy, without ever 

 being able to 'glimpse' this delicate object; and then he 

 comes to the conclusion that those who said they had seen it 

 double had never done so." 



Under the circumstances in which I am placed by the 

 uncalled-for remarks of our American friends, it will be ne- 

 cessary for me to show that the striae on A. pellucida have 

 not only been seen by myself and many others, but by 

 showing this to prove that their conclusion respecting the 

 impossibility of seeing striae closer than 85 in the T ^ is 

 incorrect. 



Many parties in this country have been under the same 

 false impression with respect to the visibility of those very 

 close striae, but all that I have met with, and to whom I have 

 shown the striae on the A. pellucida, have, after seeing them, 

 altered their opinion. 



The clever microscopist, Mr. E. J. Lobb, of 148, Cheapside, 

 thus writes to me : " Mr. Ross, Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Roper, Mr. 

 Powell, Mr. Lealand, and many others, have all seen the striae 

 on the Amphi. pellucida clearly defined by me at my house. 

 Mr. Ross told me he came a sceptic, but went away con- 

 vinced." My friend, Dr. Munroe, of Hull, can also bring 

 out the striae on this diatom very clearly, and he has shown 

 them to a great many very first-rate microscopists, and whom 

 he has also instructed in the proper method of manipulation 

 for showing them. Mr. Harrison has likewise done the same 

 thing with many others. 



If what I have here stated be not sufficient to convince 

 our American friends that the striae on the A. jjellucida can 

 be seen, then the only thing I can suggest is for them 

 just to take a trip across the Atlantic, when we shall have 

 much pleasure, not only in showing them the striae on this 

 diatom, but also in giving them such instructions in manipu- 

 lation as to enable them for the future to see the same things 

 in America that we can see in England, and I think, also, 

 to convince them that if the striae, the distance of which is 

 85 in the T oW> can De seen '■> with proper means, those which 

 are only at half that distance can be seen also. In conclusion, 

 I send you some of my most recent measures of the distance 

 of the striae on a few of the better known Diatomaceae in 

 roVflth parts of an inch. 



