

NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 165 
manner the characters which distinguish them in a generic or specific 
mann 
other branches of microscopic manipulation, as there are really many 
valuable hints to be found in the books descriptive of preparing woods, 
bones and other hard tissues, and the subject of injecting has received 
much attention, so that the labors of the student are very materially 
of experimenting, and, as consequence, discovering for himself. As the 
Students of the lower perit of plants are at the present time some- 
what numerous, the result has, of course, been the development of many 
extremely valuable processes tending to simplify their study; but it is to 
not be DAES these gentlemen have, reaa sut to publish. 
It cannot be denied that this mode of action is wrong, and that no one 
has a right to withhold the etie he may possess on such points. 
For my part I have taken every opportunity of publishing, or oe 
making known, any little point in manipulative microscopy which I have 
e of value, and which I have thought would in any way be of use to 
o 
For years I have been engaged in the study of the lower families ot 
Algæ, more especially the Diatomaces, and for the purpose of elimina- 
ting their characters, I have at different times experimented upon the 
o 
bled at an y future time to exhibit them in the best manner for showing 
eous loriez of Diatomacez from guano, al modes 
era preparing and mounting for the — these organisms 
It is now udis n to make known a pro have contrived by 
fervi, can be preserved and mounted so as to show many of their charac- 
sacrificed 
However, it is in my opinion the best process that has been as yet made 
Public, and even if it is of no other value, I trust it will have th 
2 awing from others records of their modes of manipulation, so imas 
chers after truth, like myself, may learn something of value to 
in their investigations. 
It is well known that the Desmidie and the filamentous Alge, generally 
ana growing in fresh water, have never been preserved in a satisfactory 
lanner, and this has arisen from the fact that their cell-walls are - 
Posed of a substance of a perishable matter, and will not, like tbat of the 
acer, which is siliceous, bear boiling in corrosive liquids so as to 
the always readily decomposable cell-contents, and leave the 
object clean and transparent, while the Diatomacee, after such treatment 
aS boiling in acid can be mounted in Canada balsam , by means of which 
