Beautiful casts of the alveoli, &c., may be obtained by placing a cat’s or human lung under the receiver of an air-pump, and when the air is completely exhausted, injecting fusible metal into the bronchus. The lung tissue is then removed by corrosion or by maceration. Portions of the casts should be removed, fixed in a glass cell with a spot of Canada balsam, and examined by reflected light.
Thyroid gland.—Best obtained from a young subject either human or an animal.
Harden in Müller’s fluid. Stain in picrocarmine or eosine and hæmatoxyline. Also stain sections in safranine, which stains the colloid material, and also picks out any colloid formation in the cells themselves.
Thymus.—Remove from a fœtus or a very young animal, and prepare in the usual way.
Tongue.—That of the cat or rabbit serves very well.
Ordinary transverse sections should be made, and also sections through the circumvallate papillæ in order to study the “taste buds.”
Salivary glands.—Those of a cat or dog do very well.
Sections should be made from each of the three glands.
Stomach.—That of the cat or dog should be studied. The organ must be removed immediately after death before any post-mortem digestion of the coats has occurred. The stomach should be opened, washed gently and pinned out flat, with as little stretching as possible on a piece of wood, and hardened in Müller’s fluid.