Preface 



This little book is intended as a useful first aid to the student or technical 

 worker faced with the problem of preparing animal or plant material for micro- 

 scopical examination. In cytology, histology, and pathology— microtechnical 

 work generally— there are certain basic procedures to be followed and the pro- 

 fessor or research worker may not be available for consultation on the more 

 elemental steps. At the same time a reference work may require much reading 

 of theory, before such an essential working step is made clear. This handbook 

 tries to obviate the difficulty and refresh the memory on a particular point, 

 thereby saving time and effort. 



The book, therefore, is intended to supplement Gray's Microtechnique, a 

 larger reference work now in preparation. It seems to both the author and his 

 publishers that the field of microscopical technique presents an unusual 

 dilemma. One horn is the necessity of providing an authoritative and exhaustive 

 account of the main techniques in use over the last half century. The other 

 horn is the necessity of providing the college student and technician with an 

 inexpensive book for quick consultation and answers, a useful tool shorn of 

 reference qualities. To this end the author and publishers will present two 

 books: the one, in preparation, a comprehensive reference and this one, a small, 

 quickly usable handbook. Such a procedure avoids the customary compromise 

 which is neither exhaustively complete nor inexpensive enough for a text. 



This present work makes no pretension to scholarship in that it contains 

 no reference to the literature of the subject— this is left to the larger work. 

 The Handbook of Basic Microtechnique does aspire, however, to wide usefulness. 

 It is hoped that it may be completely useful in itself, answering many questions 

 for the thousands of workers in the various fields of microtechnical procedures. 



Acknowledgment is made with thanks to the Fisher Scientific Company for 

 figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 21, 32, 33, 56, 57 and to the Arthur H. Thomas 

 Company for figure 55. 



The Author 



