338 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



describes ceasiug to be parallel to the course of the slide. We cannot 

 pretend, however, to have very clearly understood the author's views. 



Sectioning fresh Cartilage by partial Imbedding.* — Mr. B. L, Oviatt 

 first removes the end of the bone by cutting through it at 2 or 3 centi- 

 metres from the joint. The well of the microtome is then filled with 

 paraffin to witliin about one centimetre of the top, and as soon as it begins 

 to turn white from cooling the bone is inserted until the caitilage is in the 

 plane of the microtome or a little below it. While the paraffin is cooling 

 the cartilage is prevented from drying by placing on it a little cotton wool 

 wet with artificial serum or salt solution. By this method sections may be 

 obtained of uniform thickness, and more rapidly than by the old method. 

 It is also applicable for sectioning injected tissue if care be taken to cut 

 very slowly and with a drawing motion, and at the same time to keep the 

 tissue and knife wet with 25 per cent, sjiirit. 



Cutting Sections of delicate Vegetable Structures.! — ^^^' W- ^- Cas- 

 well considers there is a difficulty in obtaining by the meaus ordinarily 

 recommended, with considerable pains and loss of time, a number of fine 

 sections of such delicate vegetable structures as the prothallium of a fern, 

 fronds of delicate seaweeds, or thin and flexible leaves of land plants ; and 

 that the following method, which he has found of service, will recommend 

 itself by its simplicity. 



The specimens to be cut, if they have been in alcohol, are placed in 

 water for a few hours, and then for a day in a thick solution of gum arable ; 

 if fresh they may be placed at once in the gum. Small pieces of carrot are 

 placed in the gum for the same length of time. The specimens to be 

 cut and the carrot which is to form the imbedding material are now 

 thoroughly saturated with strong gum solution. Slits are made in the 

 pieces of carrot, and the thin structures to be cut are inserted in the slits, 

 any interstices being filled up with gum. The blocks of carrot, with the 

 imbedded specimens, are then frozen and cut in the usual manner with the 

 freezing microtome. When the sections are j)laced in water there is little 

 difficulty in picking out the sections of the imbedded objects from the 

 lio-ht-coloured and flocculent sections of the carrot — an operation which is 

 facilitated by agitation of the water, when most of the narrow needle-like 

 sections of the thin objects will find their way to the bottom of the vessel. 



K UHNE, H. — Dr. R. Long's neues Mikrotom. (Dr. R. Long's new microtome.) 



Breslauer drztl, Zeitschr., 1886, pp. 284-5. 

 rOsBORN, H. L.] — On treating Chicks for Section-cutting. 



Amer. Mon. Mia: Journ.,YlU. (1887) pp. 29-31. 

 Queen & Co.'s (J. W.) New Model Microtome. [Post.'] 



The Microscope, VII. (1887) p. 17 (1 fig.). 

 Eeeves, J. E. — Cutting Sections of Animal Tissues. 



Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., VIII. (1887) pp. 12, U-.5, 

 St. Louis Med. and Surg. Journ., li. (1886) pp. 310-4, lli. pp. 159-60. 

 Smith, J. L. — [Making Sections of Embryo Chicks.] 



Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., VIII. (1887) pp. 37-8. 



* St. Louis Med. and Surg. Journ., li. (1886) pp. 208-9. 

 t Proc. Linn. See. N. S. Wales, 1. (1886) p. 489. 



