^2 The Microscope. 



CTRESP^riDCIICE 



— ^^ 



Editor The Microscope : — 



The January issue of your welcome journal has just been re- 

 ceived. In reading your article on the use of oil of cajeput I 

 find that you have evidently fallen into error, or misquote your- 

 self in regard to the use of absolute alcohol. 



I have never met with any difficulty in transferring specimens 

 soaked in oil of cloves direct into balsam as a mounting medium. 

 I have always used absolute alcohol to dehydrate specimens, be- 

 fore passing them into oil of cloves. My order of procedure 

 has been as follows : From water to ordinary alcohol, from this 

 to absolute alcohol, then in oil of cloves and from the oil into 

 balsam. I hope to find time for writing to you in regard to the 

 use of oil of cajeput, as I have had some experience in that 

 •direction. Yours truly. 



H. M. Whelpley. 



[In the article on cajeput oil in the January number, the state- 

 ment is made that " an object cleared or soaked in the oil of 

 cloves can not well be transferred from it to balsam without the 

 intervention of absolute alcohol." This is a mistake. It should 

 read: An object soaked in ordinary alcohol cannot be well trans- 

 ferred to the oil of cloves without the invention of absolute alco- 

 hol.— Ed.] 



Editor The Microscope : — 



• 



"Amateur " has been writing freely on the microscope as an 

 instrument, and has shown himself to be more than a mere 

 amateur on that subject. But now that he touches upon the 

 practical application of the instrument he shows himself to be 

 a true amateur, and I fear a very narrow one. I refer to the 

 paragraph in the January, 1891, number, page 16, where he 

 begins by passing his opinion on the assertion made by those 



