Cutting, Grinding, and Mounting Hard Structures.
Take the femur of cat, or rabbit, remove as much of the muscle as possible and macerate it in water until quite clean; on removal hang it up to dry. With a fine saw make transverse and longitudinal sections. File the section down until flat, and smooth. Take some Canada balsam, place a piece on a square of glass and warm gently over a lamp until the balsam is plastic enough to allow of the section being pressed into it, and set it aside to consolidate. Take a hone (“Water-of-Ayr” stone), moisten it with water, and rub one side of the section upon it until quite smooth, then place the glass slip, with the section still attached, into methylated spirit, and in a very short time the section will be separated; wash it and remount it on the reverse side, and proceed to rub it down on the hone until it appears to be thin enough for mounting. Polish both sides on a polishing strop with Tripoli powder, and mount in Canada balsam.
Fig. 244.—Small Lathe for cutting and polishing Sections of Teeth.
Teeth.—The enamel of the teeth is a much harder structure than that of bone, consequently it is found necessary to have recourse to a cutting machine. Hand machines have been introduced for this purpose, but the small lathe described in the earlier editions of my book has in no way been superseded by later cutting machines. [Fig. 244] represents the small lathe used for cutting and polishing every kind of hard substance. With regard to the teeth, two sections should be made perpendicular to one another through the middle of the crown and fang of the tooth from before backwards, and from right to left, which will show the peculiar structure of the enamel. The section must be cemented to the carrier of the stock of the lathe, or to the metal plate a, and kept in position by the steel holder b; the wheel being set in motion by the first treadle. The embedding materials in use are either gum-shellac or Canada balsam. The former is more generally employed by the lapidary and grinder of lenses than the latter. As the enamel is liable to fracture under the saw, it will be necessary to lessen the friction by dripping water on the saw as it is made to revolve. Thick sections can be quickly ground down against the corrondum wheel. The final polishing of the section may be done on the lathe, or by rubbing the flattened surface with water upon a “Water-of-Ayr” stone, and ultimately set up in Canada balsam, which must not be too fluid, or it will penetrate the lacunæ and canaliculi, fill up the interspaces, and cause them to become quite invisible. As the flatness of the polishing surfaces is a matter of importance, the stones themselves should be tested from time to time, and when found to present an uneven surface must be rubbed down on a granite stone with fine sand, or on a lead plate with emery powder. If it is decided to use Canada balsam as the embedding material, this must be prepared in the following manner:—The section of tooth or bone must be attached to a slip of well-annealed glass by hardened Canada balsam, and its adhesion effectually secured by placing the slide on the cover of a water bath, or in the hot-chamber ([Fig. 256]), when the balsam, a thick drop of which should be used, will spread out by liquefaction. The slide should then be removed and allowed to cool in order that the hardness of the balsam may be tested. If too soft, as indicated by its readily yielding to the pressure of the thumb-nail, the heating process must be repeated, care being taken not to cause it to boil and form bubbles; if too hard, which will be shown by its chipping, it must be remelted and diluted with fluid balsam, and then set aside as before. When it is found to be of the right consistence, the section must be laid upon its surface with the polished side downwards; the slip of glass is next to be gradually warmed until the balsam is softened, care being taken to avoid the formation of bubbles, then press the section gently down with a needle upon the liquefied balsam, the pressure being just applied on one side rather than over the whole surface, so as to drive the superfluous balsam towards the opposite side; finally, an equable pressure over the whole will secure a perfect attachment of the section without air bubbles. If, however, these should present themselves in drying, and they cannot otherwise be expelled by pressure, it will be found better to take the section off and relay it as before. The thickness of the layer of balsam may be reduced by rubbing it down before applying the glass-cover.
Rock Sections.—Small pieces of rock may be ground down by the aid of the lathe, or on a zinc plate, with emery powder and water, until one side is rendered smooth and flat. Then fasten the polished side of the section to a square of glass on the metal holder of the lathe, with dried Canada balsam, as directed for bone, and allow it time to become consolidated. When moderately thin take a piece of plate-glass and some fine emery or putty-powder and rub the section down as thin as possible. When found to be thin enough wash it well in water, and put it aside to dry, or warm it over a spirit-lamp, and with a needle push the section off the glass into a watch-glass of benzole or turpentine, and allow it to soak until all the balsam is dissolved out. Wash again in turpentine, and mount in Canada balsam, with or without a cover-glass. Sections of echinus spines, shells, stones of fruits, &c., are prepared in the same way as those of bones and teeth; but when the grinding is finished, the sections must be passed through alcohol into oil of cloves, after which they should be mounted in Canada balsam. If tolerably thin, sections of these substances can be cut in the lathe; in the first instance, there will be no actual occasion to attach them to glass at all, except for the purpose of obtaining a hold upon the specimen for polishing, but the surface thus attached must afterwards be completely removed in order to bring into view a stratum which the Canada balsam may not have penetrated.
With regard to smaller bodies, these can scarcely be treated in any other way than by attaching a number of them to slips of glass at once, and in such a way as to make them mutually support each other. Thus in making horizontal and vertical sections of foraminifera, it would be impossible to slice them through unless they were laid close together in a bed of hardened Canada balsam, and first grinding away one side and then turning and rubbing down the other. My friend, Dr. Wallich, many years ago communicated to me the ingenious plan adopted by himself when mounting and turning a number of these minute objects together. The specimens being cemented with Canada balsam, in the first instance, to a thin film of mica, and then attached to a glass slide by the same means, when ground down to the thinness desired, the slide must be gradually heated just sufficiently to allow of the detachment of the mica-film and the specimen it carries; a clean slide with a thin layer of hardened balsam having been prepared, the mica-film is transferred to it with the ground surface downward. Its adhesion by drying having been complete, the grinding and polishing should be proceeded with; and as the mica-film will yield to the stone without any difficulty, the specimen now reversed in position may be further reduced to the requisite thickness for mounting as a permanent object.
Staining and Mounting Vegetable Tissues.—Bacteria I propose to treat of in a separate section. Vegetable tissues generally will first receive attention, and their differentiation is based on the employment of delicate gradations of colour stains. The more striking results are obtained by Multiple Staining, while the cell contents are rendered more palpable. On this account colouring media have been divided into nuclear, plasmic, and specific. The first are chiefly valued in proportion as they prove to have a selective affinity for the nuclei of cells, and leaving the protoplasm comparatively unstained. Such stains are needful for fresh and young tissues. On the other hand, plasmic stains colour tissue uniformly, and are used to give a ground colour by way of contrast; and specific stains are chiefly employed to distinguish certain elementary structures from the mass of cellulose which forms the basis of vegetable tissue, and which is also met with to a slight extent in animal membranes.
Cellulose, as it occurs in plant life, presents a variety of physical properties: sometimes it is soft, as in young plants, and again quite dense in older structures. This fact accounts for the varying results obtained when cellulose is subjected to the action of staining fluids, and whether the cellulose occurs in a nearly pure form, as in cotton fibre, or in the modified form of lignine or woody-fibre. Stains which readily attack young tissue have little or no effect upon it in its maturer form. It is of much importance, then, in the staining of fibres, as well as sections for the microscope, that the cellulose should take the stain uniformly.
The staining of tissues may be effected in four ways. First, when the stain has sufficient affinity for the tissue to be retained by it without the intervention of any outside agent. Second, when the stain and mordant are mixed and applied to the tissue in one solution. These two are the simplest and easiest methods of staining. Third, when the tissue is first immersed in the staining liquid and then transferred to some other liquid which shall fix the colour upon the tissue. Fourth, when the tissue is first impregnated with the mordant, or fixing agent, and then immersed in the stain. The last method is the one usually followed in commercial works, and it is to be recommended in the staining of microscopical preparations which do not readily take the stain.
Nuclear Stains.—As in both vegetable and animal sections it is generally the nuclei which form the landmarks of the structure, so the most important class of reagents which are used in any of the branches of microscopical work are the “nuclear stains.” There are several of these stains, the most important of which is the hæmatoxylin, and when proper solutions are used the results are very satisfactory. Many formulæ have been given, but there are three only reliable, Delafield’s, Kleinenberg’s, and Ehrlich’s, in all of which alum is present as an ingredient; the idea being that the alumina forms with the colouring matter an insoluble lake, and so acts as a mordant.
In Delafield’s solutions a large proportion of alum to hæmatoxylin is used, and methylic alcohol (wood-spirit in the place of rectified spirit).
For Kleinenberg’s solution many different formulæ exist. Squire’s improved formulæ for both stains is given in the Appendix, “Formulæ and Methods.”
Hæmatoxylin solutions stain the nuclei violet, and in order to change this into blue, the sections should be transferred to water taken from the house supply, not distilled water; but as the alkalinity of the water varies in different localities, a better and more uniform result is obtained by using a weak solution of bicarbonate of sodium (half a grain to the ounce).
Carmine is also much in vogue as a nuclear stain, and the two solutions more generally employed are Greenacher’s alcoholic borax carmine, and Orth’s lithium carmine. Under ordinary circumstances they act as general stains, affecting the ground tissue as well as the nuclei. By subsequent treatment with acidulated alcohol or acidulated glycerine the colour is discharged from the ground tissue without seriously affecting the nuclei. Used in this way, carmine becomes a good nuclear stain. It should be remembered that the sections must not be washed in pure water, as the colour will to a great extent be discharged; nor in acidulated water, as the carmine will be precipitated.
Alum carmine and alum cochineal are useful nuclear stains, not requiring after-treatment.
Picro-carmines are also largely used. The following formulæ will be found the most useful:—
Ammonia Picro-carmine.—Carmine, one gramme; strong solution of ammonia, three cc.; distilled water, five cc. Dissolve the carmine in the ammonia and water with a gentle heat, then add saturated aqueous solution of picric acid, 200 cc.; heat to boiling, and filter.
Picro-Lithium Carmine.—The following is generally preferred for use—Lithium carmine solution, 100 cc.; saturated solution of picric acid, 270 cc.
There are several aniline dyes which are used for nuclear staining: methylene blue, methyl green, safranine, gentian violet, vesuvine, fuchsine, and Hoffmann’s blue.
The usual process is to stain in ¼ or ½ per cent. aqueous solutions and wash in methylated spirit. Methylene blue and methyl green have the reputation of being so readily washed out in the methylated spirit as to be worthless. This is obviated by washing the sections (when removed from the stain) in distilled water, previous to the differentiation in methylated spirit. Treated in this manner, the nuclear staining is very beautiful. This also applies to Hoffmann’s blue and partly to vesuvine; with the latter, however, it is not a necessity. Safranine and gentian violet worked better by transferring the sections directly from the stain into 90 per cent. alcohol.
Contrast Stains.—Very frequently other stains are used to dye the ground a colour which is in contrast to that employed for the nuclei. Brown, orange, or pink are used after nuclear blue or green. Carmine is generally counterstained yellow or indigo-blue; and fuchsine red, as in tubercle bacilli, is counterstained with nuclear blue. It is important that the ground stain should be made weaker than the principal stain, so that the whole tissue may be shown without detracting from the nuclei. The following colours are used as counterstains for animal sections, but they prove less useful for vegetable sections: benzo-purpurine, eosin, erythrosine, orange, acid rubin, and picric acid.
Examples of specific stains are fuchsine, methylene blue, and gentian violet for bacteria; osmic acid for fatty elements; victoria blue and rose bengale, for demonstrating elastic tissue; methyl violet, iodine, and safranine, for amyloid degeneration. Methylene blue is one of the most useful of aniline dyes, and one of the most variable in composition.
Iodine green, or methyl green, has long been in use as a reagent for amyloid, starchy matters, in ignorance of the fact that the reaction is due to the methyl violet, contained as an impurity in the iodine green. It is exceedingly difficult to obtain a green quite free from violet. As nuclear stains they are identical, and the amyloid reaction, being dependent wholly upon the contained violet, varies, not with the formula of the green, but with the extent to which it has been purified.
Cellulose reactions.—After the nuclear stains, the most important reagents to the botanist are those which affect cellulose and its several modifications. Pure cellulose is coloured yellow by iodine, the colour being changed to a blue on the addition of slightly dilute sulphuric acid, or a strong solution of zinc. Solutions containing iodine, iodide of potassium, and chloride of zinc, give a violet reaction with unaltered cellulose, and yellow with lignine.
Schulze’s zinc re-agent must be used with a certain amount of caution, as the chloride of zinc and potassium undergo decomposition. The formula now in use is as follows: Take of zinc chloride solution (sp. gr. 1·85) 70 cc., potassium iodide 10 grammes, iodine 0·1 gramme; but this solution can only be employed as a re-agent and not as a dye, and structures stained with it cannot be mounted in any of the ordinary media, and the only fluid for ringing them down is caoutchouc cement.
Cellulose can be stained permanently by carmine, hæmatoxylin, nigrosine, methylene blue, safranine, and fuchsine. The aniline dyes are used in dilute aqueous solutions containing one-eighth or one-fourth per cent. of dye. When the cellulose undergoes the change known as lignification its reactions are altered. It is coloured yellow by chloro-zinc iodine, red by phloroglucin, yellow by aniline chloride. The two latter are much assisted by hydrochloric acid. The results of these reactions also cannot be preserved in the usual mounting media.
Sections containing mixed tissue, partly unaltered cellulose and partly lignified, give striking results with aniline dyes, and with this additional advantage can be preserved for years.
Double Staining.—When a section is passed through methyl green solution and afterwards one of carmine, the lignified portion is coloured green and the unlignified red. Acid green may be used in the place of methyl green, with a similar result. When picric acid is used with carmine, ingrosine, or Hoffmann’s blue, the picric acid dyes the ligneous portion and the others colour the unlignified structure, red, black, and blue respectively.
Eosin stain is the most useful for sieve-tubes and plates. Make a strong solution of eosin in equal parts of water and alcohol, and stain the section for five or ten minutes. Wash well in methylated spirit, dehydrate, clean in oil of cloves, and mount in Canada balsam.
Bleaching Process.—The bleaching and clearing of vegetable structures before staining is a very necessary process, especially so if starch be present in any quantity. Clearing agents are of two kinds—those which act by virtue of their property of strongly refracting light, and those which disintegrate and dissolve the amyloid cell contents. To the first class belong the essential oils, as oil of cloves, Canada balsam, glycerine, and other similar bodies; to the second class, solutions of potash, phenol, and chloral hydrate. The actual value of some of these agents is questionable. The process usually preferred is as follows: Place the sections in a fresh clear solution of chlorinated lime, allowing them to remain until quite bleached, say from two to four or five minutes; then gently warm in a test-tube for a few seconds, and quickly replace the solution with distilled water and boil for two or three minutes; repeat the treatment with boiling water three times; wash with a one per cent. solution of acetic acid, and finally with distilled water. The sections are then quite ready for staining operations.
When the stem is hard and brown, a solution of chloride of lime should be used—a quarter of an ounce of chloride dissolved in a pint of water, well shaken and stood by to settle down, then pour off the clear fluid for use. For hard tissues this solution answers well, but it is not suitable for leaves, as they require not only bleaching, but the cell contents should be dissolved out to render them transparent. A solution of chlorinated soda answers well for both stems and leaves. It is prepared as follows:—
To one pint of water add two ounces of fresh chloride of lime, shake or stir it well two or three times, then allow it to stand till the lime has settled. Prepare meanwhile a saturated solution of carbonate of soda—common washing soda. Now pour off the clear supernatant fluid from the chloride of lime, and add to it, by degrees, the soda solution, when a precipitate of carbonate of lime will be thrown down; continue to add the soda solution till no further precipitate is formed. Filter the solution, and keep it in a well-stoppered bottle in the dark, otherwise it speedily spoils.
Sections bleached in chlorinated soda must, when white enough, be washed in distilled water, and allowed to remain in it for twenty-four hours, changing the water four or five times, and adding a few drops of nitric acid, or at the rate of eight or ten drops to the half-pint, to the water employed before the final washing takes place. From water transfer them to alcohol, in which they must remain for an hour or more.
Although alkaline glycerine has been recommended for several purposes in micro-technique, it is not so well known as it should be how serviceable it is as an extempore mounting solution in vegetable histology. The best mixture for general use is composed of glycerine 2 ozs., distilled water 1½ oz., solution of potash, B.P., ½ oz. This combines the refringent property of the glycerine with the clearing action of the caustic potash, while the swelling action of the potash is considerably diminished.
Cutting Sections of Hard Woods.—The lathe and circular saw will be found as useful for cutting sections of the harder kinds of woods, as for bone structure. It may be necessary to subject the older and consequently harder pieces of wood to the action of steam for a few hours to soften them, and afterwards transfer them to methylated spirit, before making an attempt to cut sections. But the more open woods, of one, two, or three years’ growth, will show all that may be required, and these can be cut by hand, or with the microtome, as already described.
With a little practice the finest and thinnest possible slices may be cut by hand. It is usual to take off the first slice to give a smooth and even surface to the specimen. Then turn the screw to raise it a little, sprinkle the surface with spirit and water, and cut with a light hand. Remove the cut sections with a fine camel’s-hair brush or a section lifter ([Fig. 250]) to a small vessel containing water, when the thinnest will float on the surface, and remove to methylated spirit and water, where they should remain until they can be mounted. Sections of hard woods, and those containing gum-resins, or other insoluble material, must first be kept in methylated spirit or alcohol, and finally transferred to oil of cloves, to render them sufficiently transparent for mounting in Canada balsam.
If the structure of an exogenous wood is required to be examined, the sections should be made in at least three different ways: the transverse, the longitudinal, and the oblique, or, as they are sometimes called, the horizontal, vertical, and tangential, each of which will exhibit different appearances, as seen in [Fig. 245]: b is a vertical section through the pith of a coniferous plant, and exhibits the medullary rays known to the cabinet-maker as the silver grain; e is a magnified view of a part of the same; the woody fibres are seen with their dots l, and the horizontal lines k indicating the medullary rays cut lengthwise; c is a tangential section, and f a portion of the same; the medullary rays m m, and the woody fibres with vertical slices of the dots, are shown. Instructive preparations will be secured by cutting oblique sections of the stem. The sections seen are made from the pine. All exogenous stems, however, exhibit three different appearances, according to the direction in which the section is made.
Fig. 245.—Sections of Wood.