Two Good Books on Microtechnique 



Elements of Botanical Microtechnique. John E. Sass, McGraw-Hill Publi- 

 cations in Botanical Sciences. 222 pages. 1940. $2.50. 



One of the results of the present age of specialization which 

 has penetrated the scientific world is the maintenance of a tech- 

 nician for the preparation of slides by most research organizations. 

 Although this is a practical and efficient method in many types of 

 investigation, in other kinds of research work it is advisable that 

 some or all steps in the preparation be carried out by the inves- 

 tigator himself, since an intimate knowledge of the history, struc- 

 ture and orientation of the material is required. As Chamberlain, 

 dean of American microscopists put it : "the student who has not 

 had sufficient experience to make a first-class preparation for 

 microscopic study cannot safely interpret slides made by others." 

 With this situation in mind, the author compiled his book. 



The manual was designed to meet the needs of beginners in 

 research in the basic and applied plant sciences with an emphasis 

 on gaining an understanding of the aim of the undertaking of 

 every operation rather than on memorizing and mechanically fol- 

 lowing'a written outline of procedure. 



The book is divided into two parts — the first dealing with 

 general principles and methods and the second part with specific 

 methods. After a brief introduction in which the author notes the 

 relative merits of the methods he is to discuss, a chapter is devoted 

 to the collecting and subdividing of plant materials for processing. 

 In a chapter on killing and fixing of plant tissues the author gives 

 formulae for numerous fixatives and discusses the particular pur- 

 pose for which each is adapted. 



The two following chapters deal with dehydration, infiltra- 

 tion, and embedding in paraffin. The author is an exponent of the 

 paper "boat" method of embedding and gives a detailed description 

 of the infiltration process which should prove helpful to many. 

 "Microtome Sectioning of Material" is the title of the next chap- 

 ter which gives explicit instructions for cutting and mounting 

 paraffin blocks and for the operation of the microtome. Here the 

 author tries to account for the many pitfalls one encounters in 

 sectioning, but who could explain many of the difficulties that the 

 weary cytologist sometimes meets? The chapter on staining con- 



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