1986 



Journal of Applied Microscopy 



Fig. 1. 



A Platinum Strainer for Use with Sections Which Are to be 

 Prepared in Accordance with the Pal-Weigert Method. 



It is an extremely difficult matter to prepare very small sections according to 

 the above mentioned method. The difficulty arises from the fact that eleven 



changes of reagents must 

 be made from the time 

 the sections are cut until 

 they are ready to mount. 

 The sections require, at 

 two stages in their pre- 

 I. paration, to be washed in 

 several changes of tap 

 water. If one tries to 

 make the required changes 

 of reagents by careening the dish in which the sections are immersed and 

 allowing the liquid to pass out over them, many of the small sections go 

 over. If one tries to make the various changes by transferring the sections 

 individually, the task becomes almost endless. 



The following piece of apparatus, shown in cross-section in Fig. 1, has been 

 used with success in the Neurological laboratory of the University of Chicago. 

 The apparatus consists of an ordinary stender dish (S, Fig. 1), 60 mm. in 

 diameter and 30 mm. in depth. A glass cylinder (C), 50 mm, in diameter 

 and 25 mm, in depth, tits into the stender dish. This cylinder has a wide flange 

 (F) extending around its top edge. The 

 flange makes it easy to transfer the cylinder 

 from one stender dish to another. The bot- 

 tom of the cylinder is drawn in horizontally 

 for 1.5 mm. forming a rest (R) for the 

 platinum strainer (P). This strainer (shown 

 in bottom view in Fig. '!) consists of a piece 

 of medium weight, perforated platinum foil 

 (platinum was used because it resists the 

 action of the stain and the differentiating 

 fluids). The perforations are made Y^ mm. 

 in diameter and 2.5 mm. apart. 



The method of using the strainer is as 

 follows : The various reagents are put into stender dishes arranged side by 

 side. The cylinder containing the sections is then transferred from one dish 

 to another. It is not necessary to touch the sections from the time of section- 

 ing until they are cleared and ready to mount. 

 (Cf. Schaffer, Zeitschrift fur wiss. Mikroskopie, 1899, p. 422.) 

 University of Chicago. JOHN B. WatsON. 



Fig. 2. 



