362 A new Process of Preparing Specimens \^i7uSLl\^M^im} 
much force, to 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 labours of the 
student are very materially lightened by the perusal of the works 
of the German, English, and French manipulators. But in micro- 
scopic botany our information is woefully deficient and old. The 
microscopist is, therefore, driven to the necessity of experimenting, 
and, as a consequence, discovering for himself. As the students 
of the lower families of plants are at the present time somewhat 
numerous, the result has, of course, been the development of many 
extremely valuable processes tending to simplify their study ; but 
it is to be regretted that, whether from extreme modesty, or 
perhaps from some other cause, such as the fear that their processes 
are not new, or would not be appreciated, these gentlemen have, 
unfortunately, failed to publish. It cannot be denied that this 
mode of action is wrong, and that no one has a right to withhold 
the knowledge he may possess on such points. For my part I 
have taken every opportunity of publishing, or otherwise making 
known, any little point in manipulative microscopy which I have 
found of value, and which I have thought would in any way be of 
use to others. 
For years I have been engaged in the study of the lower 
families of Algse, more especially the Diatomacese, and for the 
purpose of ehminating their characters, I have at different times 
experimented upon the preparation and preservation of these 
beautiful forms, so as to be enabled at any future time to exhibit 
them in the best manner for showing their peculiarities. I have 
already published processes for obtaining the siliceous loricae of 
Diatomacese from guano, and also several modes of collecting, pre- 
paring, and mounting, for the microscope these organisms. It is 
now my intention to make known a process I have contrived by 
means of which the filamentous forms of Diatomacese, Desmidise, 
and Confervse, can be preserved and mounted so as to show many 
of their characters, although, as is always the case, something has 
to be sacrificed. However, it is 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 the effect of drawing from others records of their 
modes of manipulation, so that searchers after truth, like myself, 
may learn something of value to them in their investigations. 
It is well known that the Desmidise and the filamentous Algae, 
generally found growing in fresh water, have never been preserved 
in a satisfactory manner, and this has arisen from the fact that 
their cell-walls are composed of a substance of a perishable matter, 
and will not, like that of the Diatomaceae, which is siliceous, bear 
boiling in corrosive liquids so as to remove the always readily 
