186 THE MICROSCOPE. Dec. 



of a preparation of a slide of selected diatoms derived from the 

 surroundings of Mobile and containing some 1500 diatoms, re- 

 presenting many species, was duly referred to in an article en- 

 titled '• Diatomology," in the A. M. M. J., for November, 1892, 

 under my name. This statement should free me from the 

 charge of indifference to the use of the highest powers and most 

 costly lenses. And on the principle that " enough is as good as 

 a feast," one usually adapts the character and quality of the 

 optical appliances to the nature of the work to be done, or the 

 • problem to be solved. This latt-^r choice or preference is es- 

 sentially what was done in and during the studies leadhig to the 

 results recorded in " The Diatom considered as a Protozoan," 

 and as the directness of the methods, as well as the relatively 

 simple optical requisites are available to all who have the use 

 of a compound microscope, there need not be any fear of failure 

 to verify all, or some, of the "fine points " as outlined in the 

 article previously named. That form of critical acumen which 

 attempts to wipe out, at a single stroke of " snap-judgment ; " 

 and the ipse dixit style of decision in disposing of facts and 

 phenomena, fairly obtained through patient, persistent, and 

 intelligent study, and seriously communicated to those inter- 

 ested in science, ought never to find " aiders and abettors." 



The unselfish pursuit of science is largely for the establish- 

 ment of '' truths " in all branches of human enquiry, and the 

 consequent eradicating of error, and this is the rule of conduct 

 that guides me. 



As a contrast, and to offset the baneful influence of my 

 *' American joke" on Dr. Stokes, I take the liberty to state that 

 the article entitled " Studies in the Biology of the Diatoms" in 

 the July Am. M. M. J. secured me a correspondent from Shef- 

 field, Eng., whose initial, and subsequent letters contained com- 

 plimentary expressions, sufficient to amply compensate for the 

 cold-water douche administered by Dr. Stokes and as a result, 

 this correspondent has consented, at the invitation of the Edi- 

 tor of the A. A. M. J. to contribute to the American Journal, 

 recent researches appertaining to the Biology of the Diatoms^ 

 which paper, would have eventually appeared in the Journal 

 of the Royal Microscopical Society, and when they appear, the 

 readers will have to thank Dr. Stokes for the success of his dou- 

 ble back-action and hammerless critical note, which made the 



