134 THE MICROSCOPE. 



SOME HINTS ON THE PREPARATION AND MOUNTING 

 OF MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS. 



BY W. H. WALMSLEY. 



SO MUCH has been written and published on this well worn sub- 

 ject, that it would seem almost superfluous, if not presumptuous, 

 in me to attempt to add thereto. But recollections of the many fail- 

 ures, in my early attempts in years long since gone by, of the wast- 

 age of time and materials incurred, and the unsatisf actor)' knowledge 

 gleaned from books, impel me to jot down for the benefit of others, 

 the results of actual experience in this work. 



Whilst by no means asserting that the processes to be 

 described are the best, I would say that I have found them 

 to be uniformly satisfactory, yielding always the desired 

 results, and that all have stood the tests of actual use and 

 experience. I shall give nothing that I do not use in my 

 daily work; and shall not state what "my friend Smith" 

 says " is his process," or that " I am told Mr. Jones 

 does this and that." Smith's and Jones' processes may 

 be vastly superior to those I shall give, but not having 

 tested, I shall not speak of them, my intention being 

 to give simply and succinctly as possible, my methods of 

 preparing and mounting ordinary objects of interest; 

 which may prove of use to many a beginner in this fascin- 

 ating pursuit. 



Nearly all microscopic preparations are mounted in 

 one of three ways: in balsam or other resinous media; 

 in air in the dry way, and in aqueous or other fluids. Of 

 these methods I shall proceed to speak first of balsam 

 mounts, the essential materials for which work are as fol- 

 lows: 



Di-ssecting A bottle or tube of pure filtered Canada balsam; a 



^ ^' bottle each of 95" alcohol, pure benzole, oil of cloves, and 

 liquor potassa: (the latter with glass stopper); a pair of 

 fine curved forceps, which should be nickel-plated; another 

 of fine dissecting sci.ssors, and a small dissecting knife; 

 two needles in handles; a few small red sable brushes; one large 

 camel's hair brush; a glass pomatum jar; nest of porce- 

 lain dishes, and a few watch glasses; a wide-mouth 8 oz. vial, with 



