By degrees the parts loosen from one another, and by gentle rubbing in a bason of water just warmed, they will be so far separated, that a pencil brush will perfect the business, and afford pieces of various sizes, pure, distinct, and clean. One part will in this way separate at one time, and another, at another; but by turning the sticks to the water, and repeating the operation, in the course of four or five weeks every part may be obtained distinct. They are best examined immediately; but if any one wish to preserve them for repeated inquiries, it may be done in this manner: dissolve half an ounce of alum in two quarts of water; drop the pieces thus separated, for a few moments, into this solution, then dry them upon paper, and put them up in vials of spirit of wine, no other fluid being so well adapted to preserve these tender bodies. TO PREPARE THE RIND FOR OBSERVATION. As the vessels of the rind are of different diameters in various trees, though their construction and that of the blebs is perfectly the same in all, it will be best to choose for this purpose the rind of a tree wherein they are largest. The rind of the ash-leaved maple is finely suited. A piece of this may be obtained of two inches long, and will very successfully answer the intention. Such a piece being prepared without alum or spirit, but dried from the water in which it had been macerated, it is to be impregnated with lead in the following manner, to shew the apertures by their colour. Dissolve one drachm of sugar of lead in an ounce and an half of water; filter this through paper, and pour it into a tea-cup. Clip off a thin slice of what was the lower end of the piece of rind as it grew on the tree, and plunge it near an inch deep into the liquor; keep it upright between two pieces of stick, so that one half or more may be above the water; whelm a wine-and-water glass over the tea-cup, and set the whole in a warm place. When it has stood two days, take it out, clip off all that part which was in the liquor, and throw it away. The circumstances here mentioned, trivial as they may seem, must be attended to: the operation will not succeed, even if the covering-glass be omitted; it keeps a moist atmosphere about the rind, and makes its vessels supple. While this is standing, put into a bason two ounces of quick lime, and an ounce of orpiment; pour upon them a pint and an half of boiling water; stir the whole together, and when it has stood a day and a night, it will be fit for use. This is the “liquor probatorius vini” of some of the German chymists; it discovers lead when wines are adulterated with it, and will shew it any where. Put a little of this liquor in a tea-cup, and plunge the piece of rind half way into it.