Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



143 



the specimen is derived, as from a par- 

 ticular hospital, laboratory or institu- 

 tion. The heading "From" more particu- 

 larly indicates the fact that it is derived 

 from an individual. The succeeding 

 headings: "Hardened," "iCmbedded," 

 "Stained," and "Injected" serve simply 

 the purpose to note just how the speci- 

 men has been treated, or just what 

 methods of preparation have been ap- 

 plied. "Dupl. Series" serves to note the 

 fact that additional blocks of the same 

 material have been made, the number of 

 them in the "reserve" series, or the fact 

 of their disposition by exchange or other- 

 wise. "Remarks" serve for any addi- 

 tional matter which the collector may 

 care to note concerning the specimen. 

 The space in the upper left-hand corner 

 has been left for noting the number of 

 the specimen. 



For years the writer kept this index 

 catalogue in book form, beginning his 

 record with a normal histology index 

 and a general pathological index, and 

 then simply noting after each subject 

 the number corresponding to the num- 

 ber on specimen. After half a dozen 

 years' use he found this to be trouble- 

 some on account of the difficulty of 

 bringing all specimens in a class 

 together, and any index short of a 

 card index will fail to do this. With each 

 specimen indexed upon a single card, no 

 matter how many hundreds or thous- 

 ands one may accumulate, they can 

 readily be sorted or classified so that one 

 can see at a glance just what he has in 

 a particular subject, and with the cards 

 in a group readily turn irom the card 

 index to the specimens arranged numeri- 

 cally in the cabinet, and secure the 

 desired preparation. 



A cabinet of "Type slides" is in course 

 of preparation now. This will consist of 

 a section from each one of the accu- 

 mulated preparations, arranged in the 

 cabinet in corresponding order to the 

 index card catalogue, and will serve to 

 demonstrate at a moment's notice the 

 features of any desired subject. 



Another point I would wish to draw at- 

 tention to, as a matter of laboratory 

 economy, would be in the way the pre- 

 parations are cared for after they have 

 been properly embedded. It was always 

 a matter of difflculty, until a plan was 

 suggested of arranging the specimens in 

 uniform boxes, to find at a moment's no- 

 tice any desired specimen. The most 

 convenient means, in my opinion, of 

 keeping a large collection, is to place 

 them as soon as the blocks are embedded, 

 and after they have been examined and 

 found suitable for sectioning, in small 

 carton boxes 45x30mm., which are com- 

 monly used by druggists for containing 

 small vials. These are extremely cheap. 



neat, and remarkably convenient for this 

 purpose. A specimen that has been em- 

 bedded with the tag attached to it is 

 now carefully freed from the excess of 

 paraffin, allowing just sufficient to pro- 

 tect it when clamped in the jaws of the 

 microtome, and the metal tag warmed 

 slightly and pressed into the paraffin at 

 the bottom of the block. This is a point 

 worthy of attention, from the fact that 

 many times when blocks have been re- 

 moved from the carton boxes for the 

 purpose of making sections, and with a 

 number of these in use at a time, it al- 

 lows a possibility of displacing or mis- 

 taking one preparation for another, and 

 in that way getting into the wrong 

 boxes when they are placed away in the 

 cabinet. With the tag so impressed in 

 the paraffin they rarely become detached 

 and of course prevent the possibility of 

 error of this kind. When placed in these 

 uniform boxes they make a neat ar- 

 rangement in the shallow drawers of the 

 cabinet. The number is noted upon the 

 top of the box, and as they stand side 

 by side in the drawers one can see at a 

 glance the preparation he wants. 



When so much time has been devoted 

 to the acquiring of valuable histological 

 material, for the proper preservation of 

 it, and the many stages necessary to 

 make it suitable for study and future use, 

 it would seem to be of the utmost import- 

 ance to use every care in the proper 

 classification and identification of that 

 material. The method I have just de- 

 scribed has given great satisfaction, and 

 has been in use for some half a dozen 

 years without the loss of a single pre- 

 paration. 



The student has been instructed in all 

 the methods looking to the proper pre- 

 servation of sections which are generally 

 used in placing the section on the slide 

 and preserving its general relationship. 

 After many years' experiment in this 

 particular part of the work, using the 

 collodion, gum, and other methods of the 

 same nature, all of these have been 

 abandoned, and the water method or 

 water and alcohol used entirely in their 

 stead. It was found that too much time 

 was lost in smoothing out sections which 

 had been placed upon the collodion and 

 clove oil or albumen fluids, and that the 

 results were upon the whole anything 

 but satisfactory. The collodion method, 

 while it overcomes many of the disad- 

 vantages experienced by a new student, 

 such as properly smoothing out a sec- 

 tion, is found less satisfactory than 

 paraffin. It has been the writer's prac- 

 tice, therefore, to prepare in advance of 

 the class work an average of about sixty 

 preparations of any one subject and 

 have these all fixed upon the slides ready 

 for the students' use. It has been the 



