194 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [July, 



the receipt of a communication from the esteemed Dia- 

 tomist, Prof. Hamilton L. Smith, of Geneva, N. Y., in 

 which he advised me that he had read my paper, and 

 called my attention to the fact, that I appeared to be 

 unaware of what he had already written upon the sub- 

 jects of staining, motion and gelatinous envelopes, etc., 

 of the Diatoms; which papers were published in the pro- 

 ceedings of the American Society of Microscopists (lat- 

 terly known as the American Microscopical Society) for 

 its two meetings in the years 1886 and 1887 and which 

 papers in the " reprint" are entitled, " A contribution to 

 the life history of the Diatomacese, parts 1 and 2," illus- 

 trated with elegant, colored plates. Prof. Smith kindly 

 sent me these reprints, and after careful and repeated 

 perusals of the two papers, I became fully acquainted 

 with their contents ; but I found nothing therein, that 

 could change or alter the views advanced by myself, as a 

 result of my own previous personal observations ; but on 

 the contrary, the leading phenomena, recorded and fig- 

 ured by Prof. Smith, merely re-inforced and confirmed 

 the views suggested by my own studies, and strengthened 

 the arguments in favor of the Protozoan characteristics 

 of the Diatomacea?, as opposed to their vegetable or 

 plant-like characters. So, that in order to verify the 

 phases and observed characters recorded by Prof. Smith, 

 and being also aware of the special specific forms stud- 

 ied, as well as figured by himself; I proceeded to a fur- 

 ther and continued study of the living diatoms within 

 reach, and circumstances duly favored my latter efforts 

 as I derived living material from four new localities not 

 previously studied, or commented upon in my previously 

 published paper. 



It is from this material that I am enabled to extend 

 the range of biological i))ienomena covered in Prof. 

 Smith's two papers, to wit — In material derived from a 

 moss-like water growth, found lining the edges of a run- 



