Practical handbook of the pathology of the skin : an introduction to the histology, pathology, and bacteriology of the skin, with special reference to technique / by J.M.H. MacLeod.

Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Practical handbook of the pathology of the skin : an introduction to the histology, pathology, and bacteriology of the skin, with special reference to technique / by J.M.H. MacLeod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    preferable, as they are more easily taken hold of. For ordinary work cover-glasses of § in. sides are recommended ; but occasionally larger ones may be necessary. Where the oil- immersion lens is to be employed, No. I cover-glasses are essential ; they are about O'12 mm. in thickness. Where it is desired to use only the low powers of the microscope, No. 2 (o'18 mm.) cover-glasses will serve the purpose. Cleaning.— It is important that both slides and cover- glasses should be clean. New slides and cover-glasses require as a rule only to be rinsed in alcohol (90 per cent.), and rubbed dry before use with a clean linen rag or a piece of butter-muslin. When cover-glasses have been used for speci- mens mounted in Canada balsam, the following procedure for cleaning them is recommended : The slides are heated over a flame to melt the balsam and to enable the cover-glasses to be slipped off. These should then be dropped one by one into boiling chromic acid (10 per cent.),1 allowed to remain there for half an hour, afterwards washed under a tap of running water till no acid reaction remains, rinsed in methylated spirit, then in ether, and stored in a small capsule containing alcohol. The same process may be employed to clean the slides; but it is simpler and sufficiently effective to steep them for a few days in a strong solution of lysol in water, and then to wash and dry them thoroughly. Slides and cover-glasses are known to be clean when, after they have been breathed upon, condensation rapidly occurs. Other Apparatus.— Small porcelain dishes for staining sections, water-bottles, glass rods, handled needles, section- lifters, forceps, and the various appliances requisite in the technique of histology are doubtless so familiar to the student that no special reference to them is required. Drawing.—A camera lucida, such as that of Abbe, is a most useful accessory to the above equipment, and by means of it with comoaratively little practice the outline of objects under the microscope can be accurately drawn. When the student is an expert draughtsman this instrument may readily be dispensed with. However feeble the attempt may be, the art of drawing should be assiduously practised, for it increases the powers of observation and compels a careful study of the 1 Boiling nitric acid is sometimes employed for this purpose ; but it has no advantages, and has the distinct disadvantage of causing offensive fumes, which are avoided by the use of chromic acid.