398 PREPARING THE SPINAL CORD FOR 



struction of the organs, and of the general form of the -body ; 

 (c) the last stages of the division. 



4. — The protoplasm and nucleus exist and work together in 

 harmony, by which the vitality of the organism is maintained, each 

 substance performing its own proper functions. 



a IRew flDetbob of Ipreparing tbe Spinal 

 CorJ) for flDicroacopical lEyamination** 



By Edwin Goodall, M.D.Lond., B.S., M.R.C.P. 



IN attempting to prepare sections from the fresh spinal cord for 

 microscopical examination, I have hitherto met with disap- 

 pointment. As far as my knowledge goes, attempts of the 

 kind have always failed. My own experience is that sections can 

 be made from the ether-frozen cord, and floated on water with 

 comparative ease, but that they become quickly spoiled by further 

 manipulation. If they are treated after the method employed for 

 the fresh cor/ex cerebri,\ the tissue composing the white matter is 

 thrown into a number of folds, and the sections are thereby ren- 

 dered useless. But a still graver defect, and one which effectually 

 condemns this procedure when applied to the spinal cord, is the 

 complete absence of fixation of the elements of the white sub- 

 stance. The ordinary appearance of nerve-tubes 'in transverse 

 section is wanting ; in place of it one sees a tangled skein of 

 connective tissue-fibres and axis cylinders, the latter especially 

 being twisted and corkscrew-shaped. There are literally no nerve- 

 tubes to be seen. As regards the grey matter, the nerve-cells are 

 well stained, and considerably larger than in a hardened specimen, 

 but other tissue elements appear but indifferently. 



The following are briefly the steps of the method now adopted : 

 I. — Remove spinal cord from a recently killed animal. 

 2. — Place a portion, 6 to 8 millimetres high, on the ether- 

 freezing microtome ; freeze and cut. The precautions used in 

 freezing the brain cortex to be observed here also. 



* From The British Medical Jownal. t Bevan Lewis. 



