A REVIEW OF THE GOLGI METHOD. 163 



and if it does not entirely spoil, yet seriously mars them. As to 

 the rest, the usual mode of preparation is employed : mounting in 

 glycerine, damar, or Canada balsam, after the necessary dehydra- 

 tion in absolute alcohol, and clearing in creosote or clove oil. No 

 further precaution is necessary. 



"When I described this method the first time*' I expressed the 

 conviction that it could be still further perfected so as to yield 

 finer results than those hitherto attained by me. Practice has 

 later led me to some modifications which have improved it. But 

 it has experienced another important development owing to the 

 persevering experiments of Dr. Mondino, who succeeded in apply- 

 ing the process with remarkable success to nothing less than a 

 whole human brain. I will here add the words themselves in 

 which this observer summarises the advantages which one can 

 gain from the use of the bichloride of mercury for the study of 

 the central nervous system. 



" The following is Dr. Mondino's Summary t : 



" ' A. The sublimate method is the first by means of which 

 we can obtain the black stain of the nerve cells and their func- 

 tional processes in the entire brain, and enables us to follow these 

 latter directly in their course through the brain. 



" ' There is no doubt but that this technique fulfils the require- 

 ments of scientific accuracy better, and puts us in a better position 

 to obtain precise knowledge of the so-much debated course of 

 the fibres in the brain than all the methods hitherto tried. At 

 the most one could only, with the aid of the latter, see whether 

 numerous functional processes, collected into bundles, proceed in 

 certain directions, but with our technique one can examine them 

 fibre by fibre and follow their anastomoses. 



" ' B. In all other methods we must, in order to obtain con- 

 secutive series of brain sections, bring the individual sections into 

 vessels with the staining fluid. As one cannot provide so many 

 vessels with fluid unless he possesses unusual means, several 



* Camillo Golgi, " Di una nuova reazione apparentemente nera delle 

 cellule nervose cerebral! ottenuta col bichluro di mercurio." — Archivio per 

 le Sc. Med., Vol. III. 



t Mondino, ' ' Sull'uso del bichloruro di mercurio nello studio degli 

 organi centrali del sistema nervoso." Communic. fatta alia R. Acad, di 

 Medi di Torino nella Seduta del 2 Genn., 1885. 



