[61] 



Cutting Scctione of Soft ^ieeuea. 



By C. p. Coombs, M.D., Lond. 



THE people who cut Sections of granite, coal, bones, teeth, 

 and the like, are to my mind worthy of much honour ; 

 but I do not feel disposed to follow their lead. The soft 

 tissues are troublesome enough at times, and impracticable 

 always, unless properly hardened ; — but the intermediate tissues, 

 such as most vegetable structures, are fairly manageable when a 

 section-cutter is employed; — they are in the province of the 

 double- and treble-staining people, and to these I would rather 

 leave them, hoping that we shall have a paper on the preparation 

 of these most attractive objects. This paper refers merely to the 

 best modes of cutting soft animal tissues ; the first and readiest of 

 these being by preparatory freezing. Ice and salt have been largely 

 used for this purpose, but the ether-spray apparatus has latterly 

 taken the place of this mixture, and is employed in the arrange- 

 ments now to be described. The simplest apparatus with which 

 I am acquainted, is a soHd cylinder of copper, an inch long, and 

 about 3/^ -inch in diameter, fitted on a cylinder of wood with a 

 foot. " A tube of wood is made to fit outside the copper 

 cylinder, and to slide back over the handle. This tube acts as a 

 guard in preventing the contact of the warm fingers with the 

 copper, while the section is being made. To use the instrument 

 the ether spray is directed against the metal until a white floss 

 covers it, — the guard is then slid up, and a piece of the tissue to 

 be examined is laid on the rough surface of the copper. A drop 

 of water or serum is now let fall on the tissue, and in a few seconds 

 both fluid and tissue are frozen sufficiently for cutting purposes." 

 This description of his instrument is given by the inventor, Mr. 

 Coppinger, of Dublin. 



Dr. Rutherford's Microtome is similar in principle, but is more 

 elaborate. It has a large cutting plate on which the knife or 

 razor is made to slide ; the copper table on which the frozen 

 tissue rests is propelled by a screw which has a very fine thread, 

 and the ether spray is thrown up from beneath into a hollow in the 

 copper, which is so made that the surplus ether can be collected. 

 This clever instrument has many advantages, besides the one 

 (common to all freezing microtomes) of enabling the pathologist 



