Section-cutting; a practical guide to the preparation and mounting of sections for the microscope : special prominence being given to the subject of animal sections / [Sylvester Marsh].

  • Marsh, Sylvester
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Section-cutting; a practical guide to the preparation and mounting of sections for the microscope : special prominence being given to the subject of animal sections / [Sylvester Marsh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    determines the thickness of the section, being regulated by means of a fine screw passing through both blades. A milled head attached to this screw gives a ready means of opening or closing the blades, so as to bring them to the desired degree of approximation. The method of using the knife is very simple. After having “ set ” the blades at the desired distance apart by means of the milled head, the tissue to be cut is held in the left hand immersed in a basin of water. The knife is now steadily and with a rapid motion drawn through the tissue, care being taken that the cut is made in such a manner that the blades move from heel to point. By slightly separating the blades and gently shaking them in the water, the section at once becomes disengaged. After use, the blades must be thoroughly dried, when they may be smeared with some oil which does not readily oxidize. For this purpose, a very suitable oil is that known as Rangoon.’’ Though it has been deemed advisable briefly to describe the pre- ceding methods of cutting unhardened tissues, it will be found that for the purposes of the ordi- nary microscopical student sections so obtained are of very little value. They are always of very limited dimensions, seldom of uniform thick- ness, and often so extremely friable as to render it very difficult and frequently impossible to