Letters


 Communications.

Not just letters, of course, but also emails.

email your comments or observations (polite ones only) to be included on this page. Your name and email address can be included if you wish.

9th July 2014

Hello fellow enthusiasts.
There does not seem a lot of movement on this letters page, so I thought I might set the ball rolling.
As a beginner to diatoms I would be very grateful for any references to collection sites, particularly in the Cambridge (England) locale. Would it be possible to list the grid reference of where a sample of particular interest might be taken.
I'm sure others in different regions would appreciate the same for their own collecting patches.
An avid reader of Amateur Diatomist.

Maurice Vaughan.

Editor's Note: I happen to know that Maurice is in hospital right now having yet another operation on his knee. I'm sure we all wish him well and a speedy recovery.
Just to get the ball rolling with interesting sites here are a couple recorded in the Bernard Hartley Sample Index:

  • Collected by R.I. Firth on 20th July from the 18 inch wide road channel between pavement and roadway of Trumpington Street, Cambridge. Outside the Fitzwilliam Museum.
  • Liverwort washings, Histon, Cambridgeshire - Aulacosira circularis (Ehren.) Crawford


6th October 2014

Hi,
I'm a relative newcomer to microscopy and an absolute beginner when it comes to diatoms, so your website is a great find. I've already raided your downloads and now have lots of material to keep me busy over the next year (or ten!).
Over the last two years, as I approached retirement, I've spent some time setting up a home-laboratory with a couple of good microscopes and a mass of related equipment and I've read just about everything I could find on the internet so that I could get the best out of the equipment and myself. I've no intention of trying to be particulary 'scientific', but if a job's worth doing and all that ... !
If the day ever dawns when I feel I'm able to contribute to the site, be assured you'll be the first to know. For now though I'll sit back and enjoy watching you lot do your thing.
Cheers,

John G Keegan.


13th October 2014

Re: Diatom Cleaning by Incineration

Following the very interesting and successful demonstration, at Pool-in-Wharfedale on Saturday; I thought this paper might be of interest.
Experimental studies on diagnosis of death from drowning by means of detection of vegetative planktons (diatoms) II. Detection of diatoms from putrefied and cremated bones of drowned bodies.

Best Wishes

Michael Gilligan

From April 2022 hosted on the Microscopy-UK website with the permission of The Amateur Diatomist webmaster Steve Gill.