THE MICROSCOPE. 191 



On the receipt of this letter 1 was, of course, dismayed at my 

 great presumption in attempting to make out the structure of a 

 blood corpuscle with a ^^th of an inch object-glass ; a task so- 

 much more difficult than resolving the amphipleura that no ordinary 

 mortal may ever hope to accomplish it. But I could not resist the 

 temptation to return to the subject. Accordingly, I re-studied the 

 white corpuscle. I found that when I had, by careful manipulation,, 

 succeeded in focusing the bottom of the valleys, I could go no fur- 

 ther, the slightest touch of the fine adjustment, the slightest pres- 

 sure upon the limb of the instrument, even, would cause a blurring 

 of the image. I tried again and again, and am obliged to confess 

 that I cannot focus different planes of a white blood corpuscle. 



While I was doing this my mind would keep reverting to the 

 war once waged over the structure of diatoms ; how the nodular 

 surface of pleurosinia angidatum was supposed to be covered with 

 hexagons so strikingly similar, in some respects, to this net-work ; 

 and I remembered how the whole thing was cleared up when object- 

 glasses and modes of examination became more perfect. The idea 

 would keep coming to me that this net-work, also, was an optical 

 illusion, explained in the same way. 



I began a series of persecutions of my friends. 1 importuned 

 almost every one that I knew, who had a micro.scope, to look over 

 the subject and tell me what he saw. Some of these were persons 

 of recognized skill in microscopic manipulation. Some, even, have 

 a national reputation. Many were kind enough to do as I requested^ 

 but no one was able to see the net-work. Indeed, I have never seen 

 any one who claims to have seen it. A few have allowed me to use 

 their names. Dr. H. A. Johnson, of this city, carefully went over 

 the ground with me, using a superb new Tolles' -^-^^ and a new Zeiss 

 ^ homogeneous immersion. He considers what I have described 

 to be true appearances. Dr. Sternberg, of the United States army, 

 has studied the white blood-corpuscle especially, with the best 

 appliances at the command of the government. He tells me that 

 he has never seen such a net-work. 



A professor in one of the medical colleges in this city, in one 

 of his lectures, described the net-work, as given by Klein, as a new 

 discovery. Later in his course he corrected this statement, and said 

 that subsequent investigation had convinced him that the net-work 

 was an optical illusion. This was done independently of my work. 



