I am posting a summary of responses to my request to the Microscopy Listserver on 3 December 2001, for Information about any roles microscopic artifacts may have played in the history of biology. I posted my own experience regarding Sidney Hickson's description of reproductive events in Miliepora spp. (A copy of my somewhat lengthy post is enclosed at the end of this summary.)

To be fair to Sidney Hickson, who drew and described the incredible, imagined sequence of reproductive events in Miliepora spp. as mentioned in my original, I believe that he did print a retraction of the findings in that paper.