1884.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



59 



to his idea, it was not at all necessary for 

 me to "work it out." He should have 

 furnished the full drawing with descrip- 

 tion. He says: "After some months 1 

 made one and sent it to him, with letter, 

 for his approval and further suggestions." 

 The letter above referred to is dated Oc- 

 tober 30th. The meeting was from the 

 7th to the loth of August, which he calls 

 "some months." In my letter to Prof. 

 McCalla 1 said : " I have just sent you by 

 mail one of the new Congress nose-pieces, 

 which 1 have perfected from the idea sug- 

 gested by you. I think you will admit 

 that it is the best one that has been brought 

 out. I made two or three different styles 

 before I was satisfied." Prof. McCalla's 

 answer to the above, by postal-card, is as 

 follows : "Yours rec'd, and the nose-piece 

 also. Many thanks. It is quite perfect. 

 Will write more fully next time." It is 

 hardly reasonable to suppose that I would 

 be wanting suggestions, when the appli- 

 cation for patent was filed September 22d, 

 six weeks previous to the date of the above 

 letter, and the patent granted three days 

 before he wrote the postal-card. 



The microscopists of this country are 

 under great obligations to Prof. McCalla 

 for his generous contribution for the im- 

 provement of the microscope. He says 

 that he had "perfected his idea three 

 years ago," but he did not take the op- 

 portunity to write a description, which 

 would not have taken ten minutes of his 

 valuable time. He waited until I put his 

 crude ideas into practical shape, which 

 cost me time and money, and now claims 

 all the credit. By his statement he says 

 that he showed the drawings and de- 

 scribed his invention three years ago, and 

 some of the persons he claims to have 

 shown them to are practical opticians ; 

 but if he did, no one thought it of any 

 consequence, for they never saw any de- 

 tails, and very little of what was said can 

 now be remembered. Two of the per- 

 sons that he names in his letter to the 

 Journal say they never saw any draw- 

 ings. His very liberal offer to the manu- 

 facturers of the country was thrown on 

 barren ground. He must understand that 

 the suggestions of improvements are not 

 patentable, but that they must be put into 

 practical shape either by intelligible draw- 

 ings, model, or otherwise. 



If I have "pirated" Prof. McCalla's 

 "form," I certainly have not hidden my 

 light under a bushel. I have given to the 

 microscopic world the pirate spoils, which 

 it might never have possessed and enjoyed 

 had it not been for my zeal in the prose- 



cution of the enterprise which had been 

 so many years in developing, and which 

 only "practical inventive genius" could 

 prepare for the public good. 



Walter H. Bulloch. 

 [Prof. McCalla has furnished drawings 

 of his nose-piece which were to have been 

 engraved for this number, but the cuts 

 were not ready in time. They will be 

 published next month. — Ed.] 



o 



Cleaning Slides and Covers. 



To THE Editor: — Your advice no 

 doubt is very good, but inquiries for 

 chemicals at our country drug store, are 

 generally met with the reply "we have 

 not got it," besides your process requires 

 time. Finding myself out of slides lately, 

 and having a chance to procure some 

 good material, I condemned a dozen of 

 my first attempts at mounting. I put 

 them on the warm stove, and by the time 

 the last one was put down the first one was 

 hot. I then slid the covers off of the slides, 

 into some alcohol. By that time the first 

 slide had got cold and the balsam hard 

 again. I then scraped all the slides, and 

 with a cloth moistened with alcohol re- 

 moved every trace of balsam, fished the 

 covers out, cleaned them without break- 

 ing one, and finished the whole operation 

 while waiting for breakfast. I also found 

 that by merely dipping a mounting needle 

 in alcohol, I could capture small insects 

 on windows very easily without injuring 

 them ; they flew on to the needle in every 

 instance, as soon as they came under the 

 influence of the alcohol ; this may possibly 

 be new to some readers. Moreover, both 

 processes furnish a good anti-prohibi- 

 tion argument. Alcohol we are told to 

 taste not, touch not, handle not. I am 

 willing to subscribe to the first part of the 

 propostition, but would advise insects to 

 heed the second, especially when the 

 " bug hunter " is on the war-path. 



Melvin, 111. F. Dienelt. 



To the Editor : — If " G. T." will keep, 

 on his work-table, or conveniently at hand, 

 a covered vessel (such as a jelly tumbler 

 with a glass top) containing a rather strong 

 solution of sal-soda in water, he will find 

 that by dropping therein his balsam- 

 smeared slides or covers, in a day or two 

 the balsam will turn into a whitish, pasty 

 substance that can readily be rubbed off 

 by the fingers, leaving the glass clean and 

 ready to be rinsed in soft water. He 

 must not forget them, however, and let 

 the solution dr>' down, as in that event 

 his covers will be very likely be ruined 



