COLLECTING, FIXING, &c. 



Chapter I. 



Collecting, Fixing, and Preservation of 



Specimens. 



The ultimate aim in microscopical research should be the acquisition of 

 knowledge. Among the chief factors leading to this attainment are the 

 methods adopted for collecting, fixing, and preservation of specimens to 

 be operated on and studied. In the commencement of work let it be 

 understood that every process a specimen is put through must be for 

 the purpose of preparing it for the next process, and that every process 

 must be carried out in its proper sequence from collecting the specimen 

 to the finished microscopical slide. In all cases the specimens must be 

 collected at the time and under the conditions best suited to the end for 

 which they are intended. The phenomena of life, the cycle of life' 

 from the single nascent cell from which it springs through all the 

 manifold changes that take place in building up the individual plant or 

 animal to its maturity, its reproduction, its decadence and disintegration, 

 the ultimate separation of its elements and return to the earth and air 

 from which it took its birth, should form the basis and goal of our 

 investigations ; and the importance of collecting the necessary materials 

 at the proper time and under suitable conditions that these phenomena 

 may be thoroughly examined, cannot be too strongly emphasised. It is 

 necessary, therefore, that the student in practical microscopy should 



