I wish I Had Spare Copies

My microscopy interest runs the gambit from soil samples to blood smears.  Unfortunately it seldom stays any place long enough to become truly proficient in that area.  I am reminded of Dr. Isaac Asimov who once wrote that he got his degree in chemistry, his doctor’s in biochemistry, and was working in a specific area of protein synthesis (I believe this summary is correct, I no longer have the source) and was becoming very interested in a specific, but obscure protein. He woke up one morning and said to himself, “Soon I will know nothing about anything, but everything about almost nothing at all.”  So he made a change and became a generalist.  I only wish I knew the amount about nothing that Dr. Asimov knew about anything.  Be that as it may, I have become generalist of my own microscopy likes and dislikes.

 

Recently my interests have returned to pollen, mostly due to the dust samples I have been receiving for analysis.  Of course I pulled out my “How to Know Pollen and Spores” by Ronald O. Kapp.  I bought this wire spiral bond book around 1977 and even though it was published in 1969 I had a lot of trouble finding a copy back then.  I seem to remember paying the outrageous sum of $30 at the Academe of Science on north Clark Street in Chicago.   The Academe is still there, but I remember the old displays and minerals as well as the store rooms of reference material, and not the slick sterile building of today. .  I use to help teach microscopy courses for children in the basement, but that a story for another day.

 

I always liked Kapp’s book the best as compared to the other pollen ID books in my collection because of the line drawings.  Line drawings, in my opinion, are always better than any photograph because they show what’s in and out of focus as well as generalized structures providing the pollen’s gestalt and not just a focal plane view. 

 

Unfortunately the book is less than useful because of the pollen preparation methods needed to produce samples matching the drawings.  Raw pollen mounted in a jelly media or thermoplastic media are distorted and fail to match the books descriptions.  Knapp’s method worked wonderfully for fresh material, (pollen rich stamens) or organic sediment which contained pollen, (washings from a bog layer).  Even city dust will surrender its pollen for analysis.  The method that seems the most useful was Erdtman acetolysis in which you first treat the specimens in glacial acetic acid to dehydrate the sample.  The material was then transferred to a solution of one part concentrated sulfuric acid and 9 parts acetic anhydride.  The sample was carefully brought to a boil for a full minute (Yipes!).  The sample is spun down and the liquid decanted.  The remaining material was first washed with more glacial acid followed two water washes.   Of course boiling concentrated sulfuric acid and acetic anhydride is corrosive to almost everything and purchasing acetic anhydride will bring you to the attention of DEA and now a days, possible Homeland Security.

 

I took a short course from Dr. Kapp a few years before his untimely death and managed to get his autograph in my copy of his book.  Unfortunately the effects of time and exposure to splashes of concentrated sulfuric acid and acetic anhydride have left my book discolored and more than a little moth eaten.  I decided to check some of the E-sites that handle out of print scientific books.  The good news is “How to Know Pollen and Spores” is available.  The bad news is $128.00!!!!  Good Lord, how can any independent worker own this classic reference book at that price!

 

Makes me wish I stocked-up on four or five copies back in 1979!