42 The Microscope. 



COMMUNICATIONS RELATING TO THE WORKING 



SESSION. 



LETTER FROM DR. J. O. STILLSON, INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



" Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed 

 That he is grown so great? " 



I see by the Jan. No. that our late ex-President McCalla 

 feels himself called upon to inform the world that he " invented " 

 the working department of the American Society of Microsco- 

 pists. Why did he wait till somebody else brought out of chaos 

 and uncertainty the systematic and valuable work which made 

 the Rochester meeting alone worth going so far to see? My 

 dear Professor, I feel pained to see in print such a large perpen- 

 dicular pronoun and to realize that said third A^owel was once 

 the president of our society, which, above all things, should be 

 free from such petty jealousies and Lilliputian efforts at great- 

 ness. Let me assure you personally that I had frequent conver- 

 sations with the gentleman who conducted the working depart- 

 ment of the Rochester Meeting, on the subject and plans for 

 starting and keeping alive such a feature as long ago as 1879, 

 I am sure, and I think in 1878. It was his personal effort and 

 promise in this respect that was the principal reason for my go- 

 ing to the Chicago meeting. I remember already distinctly 

 such efforts to have been made by him at the Elmira Meeting, 

 and the perfection and success of the feature at Rochester was 

 simply the outgrowth of personal effort that had been made at 

 great expense, both of time and money, neither of which I dare 

 say Prof. McCalla contributed. 



The superintendent of the Rochester Working Department 

 asked me personally and by letter several times to assist in 

 work, and I for one am perfectly astonished at the tone of 

 the article in the January No. of the Microscope. Our 

 late honored president may perhaps in his conscience feel clear 

 when he makes the claim, but to me it seems like a fearful strug- 

 gle with the truth. 



LETTER FROM REV. F. W. TAYLOR, DANVILLE, ILL. 



I must confess to no small degree of surprise at 

 the claim of Prof. McCalla to be the fons et orlgo of the 



