The study of linear stability of a layer of stratified fluid in horizontal shearing motion leads, in the absence of diffusive effects, to a second order differential equation, often called the Taylor-Goldstein equation. This equation possesses a singularity at any critical point, i.e. at any point at which the flow speed, U, is equal to the wave speed, c. If c is complex, a similar singularity arises at any point at which the analytic extension of U into the complex plane is equal to c. Assuming the stratification is thermal in origin, the introduction of a small viscosity and heat conductivity removes this singularity, but leads to a governing equation of sixth order, four solutions being of rapidly varying WKBJ form. The circumstances in which the remaining two solutions can be uniformly represented in the limit of small viscosity and conductivity by the solutions of the Taylor-Goldstein equation are examined in this paper.