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®n tbc Iprcparation of Zootb Scctlona/' 



By W. B. Tolputt, L.D.S. 



MY subject this evening is the grinding and preparing sec- 

 tions from hard tissue. I shall speak principally, if not 

 wholly, of the tissue with which I have most to do, and 

 with which I am most familiar, namely, a tooth. The enamel of 

 the tooth is the hardest tissue known in animal life ; and that 

 treatment which is most applicable to a tooth will apply also to a 

 bone, and, in fact, to all hard tissues. 



There are two ways of obtaining tooth sections : one from 

 the tooth as it is, and the other by decalcification. It may be 

 necessary on occasions that one should know of a ready and 

 effective method of making sections of teeth or other hard tissues 

 when desirous of examining the internal structure. And by this 

 I mean, not a simple slice which may tell you anything or nothing, 

 but such a section as will show all and everything, regular and 

 irregular, which a good section should show. It is my desire to 

 give a few simple directions relative to what may be found in 

 most text books on histology, and, at the same time, to supple- 

 ment them with some practical suggestions which I have found 

 useful, and which may be of utility to any one wishing to make 

 sections of hard tissues, and of teeth in particular. If we take 

 any ordinary section of a tooth purchased at a dealer's, unless it 

 comes from a very expert and painstaking preparer, what do you 

 see ? Many times a specimen more or less transparent, with the 

 tubular structure of the dentine obliterated, or if not entirely 

 obliterated, covered by patches of translucency which mar the 

 general appearance as well as detract from the perfect utility of 

 the section. Fhe edges may be fractured and jagged, presenting 

 a very untidy appearance, and, taken altogether, giving but a very 

 meagre presentation of all the beautiful and instructive detail 

 which characterises a well-made specimen. Even in those sections 

 made with all care by ourselves, unless we adopt certain precau- 

 tions, we may have all this detail present in the earlier stage of a 

 section's existence, and yet be doomed to disappointment and 



* A Paper read at the wSheffield Microscopical Society. 



