In the following account of requisites, those only will be described which it is useful to have always at hand. They will be found sufficient for ordinary work, but for special investigations a more elaborate equipment will be required.
All staining and other reagents should be made as far as possible by the worker himself, according to the directions given in later chapters. This should at any rate be done at first, as the knowledge thus gained will prove invaluable. It will also effect a great saving if articles that are used in any quantity, such as methylated spirit, distilled water, &c., are bought by the gallon, and not in small quantities.
Almost all the processes described here can be carried out without the use of a fully equipped laboratory, in fact, in an ordinary room. The only furniture required is a firm table, and a cupboard and shelves for storing reagents.
The following should also be procured:—
Jars or bottles, with well fitting stoppers or corks, to contain the tissues while being hardened. They should not hold less than two ounces. Empty drug bottles which can usually be obtained from druggists for a few pence, serve very well.
Smaller bottles should also be procured for keeping specimens in spirit after they have been hardened until one is ready to cut sections. After sections have been cut from a portion of the specimen, the rest should be preserved, in case it is wanted for further investigation. Each specimen must be labelled, with a name or a number corresponding to a reference in the note-book, and a large number of specimens may then be kept in the same jar. The best way to label them is to write the name or number on a piece of vegetable parchment in ordinary “marking ink,” and warm it until the writing is black. The little label should then be fixed to a corner of the piece of tissue with a stitch or by a fine pin, and it may be identified years afterwards. The importance of keeping tissues, sections, slides, &c., distinctly labelled cannot be too strongly impressed on the beginner. The name, date, and other particulars should be invariably written on the label at the time. At first the student will be inclined to neglect this, as he will recognize his pieces of tissue and sections so readily merely by their shape and general appearance. But as time elapses and similar specimens accumulate, he will find it most difficult or even impossible to identify one from the other.
A number of 1 oz. and 2 oz. stoppered bottles for staining reagents.
The stopper of these should be fitted with a rod. This is done by simply heating the lower end of the stopper and the upper end of a piece of glass rod of suitable length in a blow-pipe, until they are plastic, and then pressing them together.
Watch glasses.—At least a dozen watch-glasses, in which to perform the operations of staining, clarifying, &c. Those with a flat bottom should be employed as they are less easily upset than the others.
Plenty of filter papers.