SOME NEW FORMS OF MOUNTING.* 



I have the pleasure of offering, as my contribution to the 

 Microscopical Congress, a brief description of some recent 

 methods which I have used in the preparation of slides. The 

 cement which is essential to these processes, and which I regard 

 as the most important working material of the microscopist, is 

 shellac varnish, prepared in the following simple manner : The 

 white clarified stick-shellac is dissolved in alcohol, and filtered 

 through cotton once or more times until it is quite clear and 

 transparent. As the filtering is a somewhat difficult operation, 

 it will probably be best for most persons wanting it, to let the 

 druggist make this preparation for them. With this cement I 

 build up a cell as deep, and perhaps as quickly, as one can be 

 made with a curtain ring, painted up as it usually is. As much 

 as one or two drops of the cement can be put on a slide with a 

 brush, using the turn-table, and then slowly worked up into a 

 narrow ring with the point of a small knife-blade held on the 

 turning slide. When this has dried a day or two, another layer 

 can be put on and worked up in the same way. Three or four 

 such layers will be sufficient for almost any cell, and it can then 

 be dried in the heating oven and laid aside for future use. By 

 carrying along a dozen or two slides at a time, one will find great 

 economy both of time and labor. These rings, being transparent, 

 are admirably adapted for opaque mountings that may be used 

 with the Lieberkuhn. 



If common curtain rings are cemented to slides with the 

 shellac cement colored with aniline blue, the joined edges of the 

 brass film of which they are made being on the glass, and then 



* A Paper read before the National Microscopical Congress, held at Indian- 

 apolis, August, 1879, and published in its Proceedings. 



