HAEDENING BY THE FREEZING METHOD. 383 



CHAPTER XXX. 



CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



728. Introductory. For small objects, such as the spinal cord and 

 encephalon of very small Mammalia and of inferior Vertebrata, the ordinary 

 methods of microscopic anatomy are very often sufficient. The cord and 

 encephalon of Batrachia, for instance, may be treated as follows : Corrosive 

 sublimate, half an hour or so ; alcohol of from 50 to 70 per cent., about two 

 hours ; then borax-carmine, or Mayer's paracarmine ; paraffin ; and sections 

 mounted in balsam. The same organs of somewhat larger animals, such 

 as the cat or rabbit, can also be prepared without recourse to any very 

 special methods. They may be fixed and hardened in liquid of Erlicki, or 

 other bichromate solution, well washed out with water, stained and imbedded, 

 or first imbedded in collodion and stained after sectioning with alum-carmine, 

 ammonia-carmine, or Heidenhain's haematoxylin, or, if it be desired to study 

 the topography of nerve-fibres, with Weigert's hsematoxylin. Even the 

 cord of man may be treated by these methods ; or rather, could be so treated 

 if it did not almost always come into the hands of the anatomist in a state 

 of post-mortem softening that necessitates special precautions in the 

 hardening process. 



But the voluminous encephala of man and the larger Vertebrates cannot 

 be thus simply treated. They require specially modified methods for 

 hardening, for the manipulation of sections, and for staining. 



These methods have lately been described with great completeness in the 

 works of BEVAN LEWIS (The Human Brain : Histological and Coarse 

 Methods of Research, London, Churchill) and OBEBSTEINER (Anleitung 

 beim Studium des Baues d. nervosen Centralorgane im gesunden u. Jcranken 

 Zustande, Leipzig, Toeplitz). These very welcome additions to the litera- 

 ture of the subject relieve me from the obligation of treating the subject 

 with all the minuteness that might be desired by specialists ; the more 

 so as they show that so to treat the subject requires a volume, not a 

 chapter. 



Hardening. 



729. Hardening by the Freezing Method. This is in many cases a 

 very good method, and in particular may be of service for the histological 

 study of the cortex. 



If it be desired to freeze an organ that has been already hardened by 

 reagents, the freezing may be done by means of a freezing mixture of ice 

 and salt ; but in this case the preparation should first be penetrated by a 



