A FEW NOTES ON SECTION CUTTING. 31 
time to section cutting will find in all probability that there are 
two forms which meet all his requirements. 
For very hard substances Hailes’ section cutter, sold by Mr. C. 
Baker, of Holborn, is no doubt the most useful, while for medical 
men and histologists generally, the form made according to Pro- 
fessor Rutherford’s model is nearly all that can be desired, as it 
can easily be put to a variety of purposes. 
By the kindness of Messrs Beck, of Cornhill, we are enabled to 
give our readers an illustration of this form of microtome which 
may be used in the freezing process or with a cereous bedding. 
And now we come at once to a difficulty which has beset many 
operators, the contraction of the bedding agent during cooling, 
which causes it to become loose, thereby revolving and rising under 
the influence of the knife and so spoiling the work. Revolution of 
the bedding may be prevented in two ways: first by making the 
well of the microtome square which has been done in some few 
eases, or by imbedding in a mixture which does not contract during 
solidification. ‘The most usual cereous bedding agent is a mix- 
ture of paraffin and hogs-lard, which always contracts very much 
on cooling, and so has set eager operators at work searching for 
some material, possessing all the advantages of the previous mixture 
with none of its disadvantages. 
Some few years ago, Mr. John Barrow described a method of 
