210 SERIAL SECTION MOUNTING. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



SERIAL SECTION MOUNTING. 



323. Choice of a Method. All the following methods are 

 excellent if properly carried out. I recommend for general 

 work the following : For paraffin sections that have been 

 already stained, Schallibaum's collodion. For paraffin sections 

 that are to be stained on the slide, Mayer's albumen, unless 

 the stain to be employed be one that will stain the albumen 

 or if the sections be badly folded, in which case take one of 

 the water or alcohol methods given in the next section. For 

 collodion objects, one of the forms of Summers' ether-vapour 

 process. For very large collodion sections, Weigert's process. 



Methods for Paraffin Sections. 



324. The Water or Alcohol Method. The principle of this 

 method is due to G-AULE (Arch.f. Anat. u. Phys. [Phys. Abth.~\, 

 1881, p. 156), who practised it as follows : A slide is moistened 

 with alcohol, the sections are arranged on it by means of a 

 camel-hair brush, also moistened with alcohol; the slide is 

 slightly warmed so as to cause the sections to stick to the 

 slide ; a cover is put on, and a solution of Canada balsam in 

 xylol (equal parts of each) run underneath it. If the sections 

 are not thicker than ^ mm. they will be clear at once, and 

 nothing remains but to refill the cell day by day as the xylol 

 evaporates, in order to have a perfect mount. If, however, 

 the sections are thicker than y 1 -^ mm. they will contain 

 more paraffin than the xylol balsam can dissolve. In that 

 case the excess of paraffin must be removed by means of a 

 drop of pure xylol (the sections being first melted on to the 

 slide as before), and the mount is completed by means of 

 xylol balsam. 



Both the moistening with alcohol and the heating are 

 necessary for the attachment of the sections to the slide ; the 





