1886.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



123 



thin hiematoxylin or carmine sections 

 under low amplification has this green 

 glass proved most useful. By its use 

 it is always possible to obtain pictures, 

 ■where all the merits of vigorous neg- 

 atives with the beautifully sharp de- 

 tails alone obtainable from the thinnest 

 sections are combined, and where the 

 usual method yields but a weak image. 

 These suggestions apply especially 

 to sunlight. To those engaged in 

 such work, who have never employed 

 these means, the shades of green offer 

 themselves as valuable modifications 

 of illumination well worthy of a trial. 

 The exact tint required — a matter of 

 importance — must be determined for 

 existing conditions by each manipu- 

 lator. 



Wax as a Material for Microscopical 

 Mountings. 



BY C. M. VORCE. 



Much has been said and written 

 about the use of wax for various pur- 

 poses, chiefly as a material for cells, 

 in microscopical manipulations. 

 When first introduced, its merits 

 were extravagantly lauded, later its 

 defects were equally exaggerated. 

 My own experience leads me to con- 

 sider it a material of great value 

 when rightly applied to the right 

 purposes. 



For some years I have kept, in one 

 of the portable Piper cabinets, an as- 

 sortment of opaque mounts and deep- 

 cell objects selected from my general 

 cabinet for exhibition purposes, and 

 it has, in consequence, been con- 

 siderably carried about. This col- 

 lection embraces the work of a num- 

 ber of different persons, and exhibits 

 a great variety of styles of mounting, 

 including brass cells, Pierce's cover 

 cell, bone, glass, lead, gutta-percha 

 and rubber rings, wax cells, Atwood's 

 cells, wooden slips, and brass ring 

 cells of various kinds, and has, from 

 time to time, acquired attention in the 

 way of repair of loose cells, broken 

 covers, etc. After a late trip I found 

 an unusual amount of disaster anion"- 



these slides, such as displaced covers 

 and cells, and this time the mortality 

 was greatest among the slides bearing 

 hard rubber rings or cells, many of 

 the loose cells being Atwood's pat- 

 tern. Inspection disclosed that most 

 of the loose cells had been fixed to the 

 slip by means of either shellac, white 

 zinc, brunswick black, or balsam ; 

 not one of the wax cells or of the wax- 

 bottomed curtain ring cells, described 

 in this Journal, vol. i, p. 208, were 

 found loose. The great majority of 

 the loose cells and covers had been 

 cemented with asphaltum cement or 

 brunswick black, and several showed 

 that they had already been once re- 

 mounted. 



Acting on the hint gathered from 

 the durability of the wax cell mounts 

 in the same collection, these damaged 

 slides were repaired in the following 

 manner : — The Atwood cells, and 

 other loose cells having their covers 

 still attached, were cleaned of the old 

 cement and the slip cleaned anew, 

 and, placing the cell on a sheet of 

 colored wax, it was cut round with a 

 penknife, and. with the disc of wax 

 adhering, transferred to the slip and 

 centred on the turntable, and slightly 

 pressed to fix it in place. The slip 

 was then placed on the warming table 

 and gently heated till the wax slowly 

 melted, when the excess exuded as 

 a colored ring around the cell. The 

 slide was then returned to the turn- 

 table, and a ring of transparent cement 

 spun around it over the wax. Gold 

 size. Bell's cement, liquid marine 

 glue. Brown's rubber cement, or 

 Folsom's finishing cement, are all 

 good for this purpose, and when dry 

 the slide is complete. 



In the case of loose covers, the top 

 of the cell was cleaned of cement by 

 means of knife and turntable, a cover 

 was selected or cut of a size slightly 

 smaller than the outer diameter of the 

 cell, and placed on the cell ; warm (not 

 melted) wax was then filled into the 

 space between cover and outer edge 

 of cell by means of a knife-blade, and 

 finally smoothed l)y the same means 



