viii PREFACE. 



a smaller one than I have had to deal with in the preparation 

 of any edition since the first. 



The classification of the various methods has received most 

 careful attention, and has been in many cases greatly simpli- 

 fied, whilst at the same time a large number of superfluous 

 processes have been rejected. A.dvice to the beginner con- 

 cerning the choice of methods has been given wherever 

 practicable, and I think that notwithstanding the abundance 

 and complexity of the matters treated of, there can hardly 

 be any risk that the student may be unable to see the wood 

 for the trees. 



The chapters treating of Staining and of the Carmine and 

 Hagmatein stains have had the great advantage of revision 

 by Dr. Paul Mayer, who, it is superfluous to remind the 

 reader, has made a speciality of this subject, with results 

 brilliant alike in theory and in practice. Not indeed that 

 the present English text has been directly revised by him, 

 but that it has been prepared from a recent text so revised. 

 Dr. Mayer was good enough to revise most carefully the 

 three corresponding chapters prepared by me for the recent 

 new edition of the Traib' de* Mi'tliodes Techniques de l'An<i- 

 hniiii Microscopique (Luw et HKNNEGUY), and in the prepara- 

 tion of the pn-sent English text I have closely followed the 

 chapters so revised. 



No less obligation have 1 to express to Professor van 

 Grehuchten, who with great kindness has thoroughly revised 

 !'") uie Hie t hree chapters entitled Neurological Methods. It 

 occurred to me that my treatment of this complicated subject 

 mild not but gain greatly b} T the advice of an observer who 

 is nut only one of the foremost of the new school of neuro- 

 logists but at the same time an instructed and capable 

 cytologist, and therefore likely to sympathise with my feeling 

 iliat it would lu- much to be deplored that the study of 

 nervous anatomy should degenerate into a mere study of 

 topographical relations, to the neglect of the inner mechanism 

 of ncrvun> elements. I'.y Professor van (lelim-liti-n's advice 



