CHAPTER X. 117 



two, arrange on the slide, and then pour over the sections sulphuric 

 ether vapour, from a bottle partly full of liquid ether. The colloidin 

 will immediately soften and become perfectly transparent. Place 

 the slide in 80 per cent, alcohol, or even directly in 95 per cent, if 

 desired. I have not myself found this method safe. 



Instead of pouring the ether vapour over the slide, it may, of 

 course, be treated with ether vapour in a preparation glass or similar 

 arrangement, which I think preferable. 



GAGE (Proc. Amer. Soc. Mic., 1892, p. 82) advises that the slide 

 be one that has been previously coated with a 0-5 per cent, solution 

 of white of egg and dried ; the collodion adheres much more strongly 

 to an albuminised surface. 



AUBURTIN (Anat. Anz., xiii, 1897, p. 90) arranges on a clean slide, 

 dehydrates the sections with blotting-paper and treatment with absolute 

 alcohol, then drops on to them a mixture of alcohol and ether which 

 dissolves out the celloidin from the sections, then allows the thin 

 collodion thus formed to evaporate into a thin sheet on the slide. Then 

 70 per cent, alcohol and other desired reagents. 



Similarly, MAIEB (Munch, med. Wochensclir., Ivii, 1910, No. 12 ; Zeit. 

 wiss. Mik., xxvii, 1910, p. 385), but adding a treatment for ten to fifteen 

 minutes with sulphide of carbon. 



See also MYERS, Arch. Anat. Phys., Anat. Abth., 1902, p. 371 (com- 

 plicated). 



196. APATHY'S Oil of Bergamot Method (Mitth. Zool. Stat. Neapel, 

 1887, p. 742 ; Zeit. wiss. MiL, v, 1888, pp. 46 and 360, and vi, 1889, 

 p. 167). Cut with a knife smeared with yellow vaseline and wetted 

 with 95 per cent, alcohol. Float the sections, as cut, on bergamot 

 oil (must be green, must mix perfectly with 90 per cent, alcohol, and 

 must not smell of turpentine), or on carbolxyol (Mikrotechnik, p. 176). 

 The sections flatten, themselves out on the surface of the oil, and are 

 then transferred to a slide which (APATHY, MikrotecJmik, pp. 127 

 and 176) has been previously collodionised and dried. 



If the sections are to be stained, the slide after removal of the 

 bergamot oil, by a cigarette paper, is exposed for a few minutes to 

 the vapour of a mixture of ether and alcohol, then brought into 

 90 per cent, alcohol, and after a quarter of an hour therein may be 

 stained in any fluid that contains 70 per cent, alcohol or more. 



If it be desired to stain in a watery fluid, care must have been 

 taken when arranging the sections to let the celloidin of each section 

 overlap that of its neighbours at the edges, so that the ether vapour 

 may fuse them all into one continuous plate. This will become 

 detached from the slide in watery fluids, and may then be treated 

 as a single section. Terpinol may be taken instead of bergamot oil. 



