Strong, Revieiv of the Golgi Method. 123 



'•The following is Dr. Mondino's Summary :^ 



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

 which we can obtain the black stain of the nerve cells and their 

 functional 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 re- 

 quirements of scientific accuracy better and puts us in a better 

 position to obtain precise knowledge of the so much debated 

 course of the fibers 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 bun- 

 dles, proceed in certain directions but with our technique one 

 can examine them fiber by fiber and follow their anastomoses. 



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

 consecutive 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, sev- 

 ral sections must be brought into one vessel and can therefore 

 only be enumerated by groups and not singly. By the method 

 here described this result can be attained with great ease, ■ 



" ' C. In the other methods the sections must be very 

 thin and are liable to be torn in the various manipulations (from 

 the microtome into the staining fluid, then to the slide, etc). 

 As the sections are very thin they must also be much more nu- 

 merous when a whole brain is sectioned ; hence greater expense, 

 loss of time and more labor in making the preparations. In our 

 method the sections need not be thin, they are therefore less 

 numerous and exposed to fewer risks; whence little danger of 

 losing sections, slight expense in the preparation and greater 

 rapidity in the preparation of a whole brain. 



" ' D. Finally one must use in all other methods dyes, 

 commercial and absolute alcohol and clove oil or turpentine, 

 while we employ a little sublimate and creosote, which are 



'MoNDiNO. Sull'uso del bichloruro di mercurio nello studio degli organi 

 centrali del sistema nervoso. Communic. fatta alia R. Accad. di Med. di 

 Torino nella Seduta del 2 Genn., 1885. 



