140 Progress in Science. [January, 
earth as an ingredient of fertilisers for cereal crops. In the O&ober No. of 
this journal was an article, by Mr. W. H. Wahl, entitled “ Infusorial Earth 
and its Industrial Uses,” in the course of which incidental allusion was made 
to Prof. Wilson’s alleged discovery : this was in substance that, having 
examined the straw from wheat grown upon land fertilised with a manure of 
which infusorial earth was an ingredient, he found, upon placing under the 
microscope what remained of the straw after it had been treated with nitric 
acid, that it consisted wholly of the siliceous shields of Diatomaceas. Prof. 
Wilson alleged, in other words, that these diatoms, when incorporated with 
the soil, are taken up by the plant as such , without undergoing previous solu- 
tion, and to prove his assertion he published an engraving illustrating quite a 
number of organic forms that he had detected. Upon the strength of these 
alleged observations Prof. Wilson advanced certain conclusions greatly at 
variance with current scientific opinion, which were stated in the article in 
question. While not sharing the opinions as to the significance of the presence 
of these organic forms in (Kunkel) straw, and expressing doubts upon the 
accuracy of his inferences, the writer did not presume to entertain a doubt as 
to the genuineness of Prof. Wilson’s asserted observations. “ The American 
Journal of Science and Arts” also admitted into its pages an elaborate article 
by Prof. Wilson, bearing the title “ Silica of Grasses and other Plants carried 
up as Diatoms or other Siliceous Grains, and not in Solution or as Soluble 
Silicates.” Prof. Phin emphatically denies the genuineness of Prof. Wilson’s 
alleged observations. The following extracts from Prof. Phin’s article are 
sufficiently explicit upon this point: — A single glance at the engraving to 
which he so confidently refers is sufficient to convince any microscopist that 
Prof. P. B. Wilson never saw ‘ upon the field of his microscope,’ under the 
circumstances which he has described, the objedts which he has delineated. 
This is a bold assertion and a severe accusation, but the proof is simple and 
unimpeachable.” Prof. Phin then proceeds to establish his accusation 
by showing that one of the forms ( Bacillaria ) figured on the plate is 
figured as it exists only in the living condition (the organic matter, it will be 
remembered, has been destroyed by treatment of the straw with nitric acid), 
the frustules being joined together in the peculiar way which has given to this 
form the specific name paradoxa. “ For this diatom,” says Prof. Phin, “to 
have passed through a bath of nitric acid, and come out in the condition 
figured, would have been almost as great a miracle as passing Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abednego unscathed through the fiery furnace of Nebuchad- 
nezzar.” He (Prof. Phin) affirms also that a calcareous Foraminifer is figured 
among the forms on Prof. Wilson’s plate. If this be the case, we should 
require another miracle to have saved from destruction in the nitric acid this 
particular objeCl ; for it is a fad of common knowledge that carbonate of lime 
is energetically dissolved by nitric acid, even in the cold. Finally, Prof. Phin 
appends to his own criticism the statement of “ one of our ablest diatomists,” 
who declares that the thirty-six forms which Prof. Wilson has “ carefully 
sketched ” are composed of a mixture of marine and fresh-water diatoms, 
sponge spicules, a little of the siliceous cuticle of straw, and a Foraminifer. 
“ Only one form ,” he remarks, “ belongs to the Virginia deposit with which 
Kunkel' s field was fertilised — and which is exclusively marine." We hope that 
Professor Wilson will put us in a position to give his explanation in our next 
issue. 
ENGINEERING. 
In a pamphlet entitled “ The River Clyde, an Historical Description of the 
Rise and Progress of the Harbour of Glasgow, and of the Improvement of the 
River from Glasgow to Port Glasgow,” Mr. James Deas, M. Inst. C.E., gives 
an account of the successive improvements of the River Clyde, which in its 
present state may be deemed “ as much an artificial navigation as the Suez 
Canal.” Few, indeed, of the multitudes of strangers who annually visit 
Glasgow, and see the forest of masts in its harbour, would imagine that “ so 
recently as one hundred years ago the river was almost in a state of Nature (!) 
and was fordable on foot at Dumbuck Ford, more than 12 miles below Glas- 
gow.” Unfortunately, whilst the Clyde has been widened and deepened, it 
