G. HOGGAN ON A NEW FORM OF SECTION-CUTTING MACHINE. 207 



necessity (of what may be called the heretical doctrine) of cutting 

 by means of a series of short cuts, in contradistinction to the 

 method of cutting a section by one sweep of the knife so con- 

 tinually insisted upon ; apparently because none of the section- 

 cutters now in use are capable of effecting the method of short 

 cuts ; for that method requires that the mass to be cut be firmly 

 grasped or compressed in the machine, so that it (the mass) may 

 be prevented from rising out of the machine against the knife, or 

 yielding in any way whatever at each separate cut or change of 

 direction, thus preventing lines or marks of each separate cut on 

 the j&nished section ; and it is for cutting sections of large masses 

 of unequal consistence that my machine is particularly adapted. 



Those among you who pursue Medicine on scientific principles 

 will at once perceive the value of such a machine in pathological 

 histology, more especially when I quote the opinion of one known 

 by most of you as one of the first and best workers in histology, 

 my friend Dr. Eanvier of the College de France, who says that 

 the histology of tumours can now only be advanced by the 

 examination of sections of the whole tumour, a thing hitherto 

 practically impossible, but now put within reach of everyone by 

 the introduction of this machine. 



The desirability of directing attention to section-cutting must 

 be apparent to everyone who gives his consideration to works on 

 original research, where the formation or ventilation of theories is 

 carried on ; for it will have been observed that, when any author 

 seeks to uphold a theory of his own, or destroy that of another, 

 he never questions the powers of the microscope, but rather the 

 respective value of the preparations themselves ; and so much 

 skill is required to make good preparations, that very few ever 

 arrive at it ; yet strangely enough, although men are willing lo 

 expend large sums in purchasing and perfecting expensive micros- 

 copes, few are extravagant enough to go beyond buying an old 

 razor, or at best a double-bladed Valentine's knife, for the purpose 

 of preparing the sections they wish to examine, thus giving more 

 importance to the means of observation than to the preparation 

 of the thing to be observed. Yet were they to take into con- 

 sideration the great saving of time, the obviating of any necessity 

 for skill, with the beauty and correctness of sections, that can be 

 effected by the use of a good section cutter, they would, I have no 

 doubt, be inclined to direct more attention to the latter. 



